PremiumNew Delhi: Ahead of a major speech at the UN general Assembly later this week where Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to slam India for its alleged human rights violations in Kashmir, Khan late Tuesday expressed disappointment at the lack of support to Islamabad from the international community on the issue.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Khan blamed India’s emergence as a large market for this, stating that countries were viewing India as consumer base of over a billion people, news reports quoted him as saying. He also added that attacking India was not an option.
“To be absolutely frank, I am a bit disappointed by the international community," Khan told reporters at a news briefing at the United Nations, according to news reports.
“There is no pressure on Narendra Modi to lift the siege," Khan was quoted as saying while referring to the restrictions in place in Kashmir since Article 370 was scrapped last month and Kashmir was reorganised into two union territories.
“People look upon India as a market of 1 billion people and sadly that’s what is happening -- material comes over the human", the news reports quoted Khan as saying.
“We can’t attack India. Clearly that’s not an option. Apart from that, we are doing everything possible," Khan added.
The Pakistan prime minister’s stated mission of traveling to the UN general assembly this year was to raise international focus on Kashmir to force India to remove restrictions imposed on Kashmir and reverse its decision to integrate the region more closely with the rest of India.
On 27 September, Khan is expected to speak on the matter when he gets his turn to address the UN general assembly. On at least two occasions since 5-6 August when India revoked Article 370, Khan in his speeches to the Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s assembly and in a rally in the region had said he was traveling to the UNGA as Kashmir’s ambassador and would ensure the world focused attention on the region.
But Khan’s mission to get India to backtrack on its decision on Kashmir has not yielded results so far as the issue was hardly raised by any world leader in their speeches at the UN. Pakistan has failed to muster the required support to chastise India at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commision despite a campaign spearheaded by its foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
