DESPARDES — Pakistan has said that with the support of China, it will take up India’s unilateral actions in Kashmir with the UN Security Council and may approach the UN Human Rights Commission over what it says is the “genocide” of the Kashmiri people.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with his Chinese counterpart and other top officials in Beijing on Saturday. He said that China fully supports Pakistan in taking the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council.
He also said Pakistan is considering going to the UN Human Rights Commission over the situation.“When a demographic change is made through force, it’s called genocide, and you are moving toward genocide,” he told reporters in Islamabad after returning from Beijing.
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With India moving to erase the constitutional provision that prohibited outsiders from buying property in occupied part of Kashmir, Indians from the rest of the country can now purchase property and apply for government jobs there. Observers say this may lead to a demographic and cultural change in the Muslim-majority region.
Qureshi said that India’s moves have increased the threat to regional peace and raised fears of bloodshed in occupied Kashmir.
He also said that while Pakistan is not planning to take any military action, it is ready to counter any potential aggression by India.
Also Saturday, a regional political party from Kashmir petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down the government’s move to scrap the region’s special status and divide the state into two federal territories. The National Conference in its plea claimed the move was illegal.
The United States on Friday said that there has been no change in its policy on Kashmir, as Washington continues to regard it as a territory disputed between India and Pakistan.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus described Kashmir as “certainly an incredibly important issue” that the United States continued to “follow closely”.
Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and is divided between the arch-rivals since 1948 when the UN Security Council passed a resolution for plebiscite. Rebels have been fighting New Delhi’s rule for decades in the Indian-controlled portion, and most Kashmiri residents want either merger with Pakistan or independence.
New Delhi rushed tens of thousands of additional soldiers to one of the world’s most militarized regions to prevent unrest and protests after Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government said Monday that it was revoking occupied Kashmir’s special constitutional status and downgrading its statehood.
