{"id":16494,"date":"2020-09-06T11:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T06:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/?p=16494"},"modified":"2020-09-06T11:22:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T06:22:39","slug":"no-peace-until-kashmiris-rights-are-fulfilled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/16494","title":{"rendered":"‘No peace until Kashmiris’ rights are fulfilled’"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peace that is not based on the principle that governments derive all their just power from the governed can never \u2013 and should never \u2013 last, speakers said at a webinar on the Kashmir issue on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions, which relate to people fighting colonial domination, alien occupation, and racist regimes for their right to self-determination, Kashmir is an international armed conflict,\u201d said Mohammad Mushtaq Ahmad, director general of the Pakistan-based Shari\u2019ah Academy.<\/p>\n

The virtual conference, titled International Armed Conflict and Kashmir, was hosted by Legal Forum for Kashmir (LFOVK), a think tank in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.<\/p>\n

Former Pakistani diplomat Ashraf Qazi stressed that there was \u201cno zero-sum solution\u201d to the Kashmir conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a settlement that is acceptable to all,\u201d he said, referring to the people of Kashmir, and the governments of Pakistan and India, who both hold parts of the disputed Himalayan region but claim it in full.<\/p>\n

He urged Islamabad to raise the Kashmir issue and \u201cIndia\u2019s genocide of Kashmiris\u201d at every possible international forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIslamabad\u2019s policy should be to seek a peaceful solution but not if that approach is rebuffed by India.\u00a0 If India continues its genocidal actions in Kashmir, then Pakistan has every right to deem it a threat to its own existence and nothing less than a war,\u201d Qazi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that case, Pakistan should tell the world that it will do anything to stop the genocide in Kashmir.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Ghulam Nabi, a Kashmiri diaspora leader in Washington, emphasized that it was imperative to keep up dialogue and discussions on Kashmir \u201ceven though nothing has changed on ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we stop talking about Kashmir India will think its exertion of military might has settled the Kashmir issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He cautioned that any solution \u201cwithout Kashmiris on board\u201d will be a win for India.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often hear of these so-called win-win solutions; what is that all about? Kashmiris are not asking for autonomy or self-rule\u00a0 their struggle is legitimate and supported by UN resolutions,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

Nabi also spoke of the reasons why the Kashmiri diaspora\u2019s efforts in the US had failed to generate any results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two reasons; the US has commercial contracts with India worth some $110 billion and it is using India as shield against China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ali Nawaz Chowhan, a Pakistani judge who has served at The Hague and as former chief justice of the Gambia, said India\u2019s \u201cwar crimes in Kashmir\u201d will never stop unless top UN officials take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is being done to people of a particular faith in Kashmir by Indian forces is nothing less than a holocaust the magnitude of wrongs being committed by India [in Kashmir] is no less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nasir Qadri, director of the LFOVK, said the Kashmir dispute is a source of \u201cinternational armed conflict between India and Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia and Pakistan have fought three major wars over Kashmir; this is not an internal issue but an international armed conflict where two states are directly involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is India has forcibly placed more than 700,000 troops in Kashmir for the past 72 years, while completely disregarding Kashmiris\u2019 right to self-determination as supported by UN resolutions this is a case of a prolonged military occupation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD Peace that is not based on the principle that governments derive all their just power from the governed can never \u2013 and should never \u2013 last, speakers said at a webinar on the Kashmir issue on Friday. \u201cAccording to the additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions, which relate to people fighting colonial domination, alien […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1467,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-kashmir","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16495,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16494\/revisions\/16495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}