Solution of Kashmir dispute.

Byline: Malik Muhammad Ashraf

On the World Human Rights Day, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a tweet made an appeal to the world's conscience and the upholders of the international law and to the UN Security Council to act against the illegal annexation of Indian Occupied Jummu and Kashmir. In yet another tweet he condemned the siege of IOK for the last four months and demanded an end to the gross abuse of human rights and atrocities being inflicted on Kashmiri men, women and children by the Indian occupation forces in violation of all international humanitarian and human rights laws. He saluted the brave Kashmiris fighting for their right of self-determination and vowed to stand behind them resolutely.

In his address to the UN General Assembly--which was the best ever exposition of the cause of the people of Kashmir and the implications of the Indian action for peace and security in the region-he also tried to stir the conscience of the world community and sought their intervention in stopping the impending humanitarian crisis. Nobody in his right mind can take an exception to the narrative that the Prime Minister has been trying to expound and persists with. But the dilemma is that in the permeating global environment, conscience plays no role in addressing humanitarian issues and conflicts which continue to consume thousands of human lives. Those who really matter in regards to the settlement of the conflicts and observance of human rights look at these things through the prism of their strategic and commercial interests and consequently there is a selective application of the international law and the internationally recognized human rights. Had it not been so, Palestine and Kashmir issues would have already been resolved.

In the aftermath of the Prime Minister's address to the UN General Assembly, we have seen muffled concerns expressed by different countries and world bodies on the situation in Kashmir demanding ending of the lockdown but nobody has addressed the real issue of self-determination and taken concrete steps towards the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in consonance with the UN resolutions. The world community is not only showing criminal indifference to the humanitarian crisis in IOK and the illegal Indian action to annex the territory but is also looking the other way on the anti-Muslim actions of the Modi regime within India. First it deprived 1.9 million Bengali Muslims who were residing in Assam for decades before...