ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir has castigated India, saying due to its extremist “Hindutva ideology” minorities are not safe abroad especially in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
“India’s cruelty and brutality in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is also a continuation of Hindutva ideology and policy,” the army chief said on Friday while addressing a special ceremony of Margalla Dialogue 2024, organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).
Gen Munir was apparently referring to India’s global “extrajudicial” network of state-sponsored targeted killings. Besides Pakistan, Canada and the US have also accused Indian agents of being linked to one assassination and one attempt in their countries.
Indian government is allegedly involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and prominent campaigner for a sovereign Sikh state — known as Khalistan in northern India.
While slamming India’s “extremist ideology”, he said that the solution of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) according to the resolutions of the United Nations and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people is inevitable.
Addressing the ceremony today, COAS Munir said that resilience was an important component of the National Action Plan aimed at “ending terrorism and extremism”.
The army chief also touched on “Pakistan’s role in peace and stability”, highlighting the significant achievements in promoting regional harmony and international peace.
He noted that 235,000 Pakistanis have participated in the United Nations peacekeeping missions. “181 Pakistanis have sacrificed their lives for the sake of world peace in peacekeeping missions.”
Speaking about global challenges, Gen Munir said that the world, in recent years, has been facing many challenges, among which the rapid spread of false and misleading information is a major one.
“In view of many changes in the world, the increasing influence of violent non-state actors and state-sponsored terrorism are also a major global challenge.”
Terming “misleading and incorrect information” a major challenge, he said that without comprehensive laws and regulations it will continue to destabilise “political and social structures”.
He added that freedom of speech without restrictions was “leading to the degradation of moral values in all societies”.
