NEW YORK: Prime Minister Imran Khan ruled out talks with India, saying it’s no use entering talks with India until it decides to lift curfew in occupied Kashmir.
Addressing a news conference along with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to United Nations Maleeha Lodhi in New York, he warned the situation could get worse if urgent efforts were not made to resolve the crisis.
“We have no knowledge what will happen after curfew is lifted. But, we fear genocide to follow,” PM Imran said. “There are over eight million people living in the intense lock down in the held region. What else could be state terrorism?”
Expressing his disappointment over the international community’s silence over the grave human rights violations in the occupied valley, the prime minister said there are eleven Security Council resolutions that recognize Kashmir as a disputed region and it is not an internal matter of India.
He underscored the need for the world to play its role for the resolution of Kashmir issue before it’s too late.
He warned that if two nuclear-capable countries fought over Kashmir the entire region will be adversely impacted.
Brushing aside the possibility of any talks between Pakistan and India unless New Delhi lifted the curfew in the valley, the prime minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now boxed himself into a blind alley by his August 5 decision.
Putting eight million people in an open jail is unprecedented in this day and age, he said.
“Through cricket friendships, I know India of Nehru and Gandhi. And, I know what is going on now,” he said, adding, “I’m alarmed at the current situation. I believe the world leaders need to know about the situation in occupied Kashmir. I spoke to them, including US President Donald Trump, British PM Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.”
PM Imran further said, “This is the time for the world to act before it goes too far,” adding, after the Cuban missile crisis, two nuclear-armed nations have come face to face.
