india

Updated: Aug 27, 2019 07:29 IST

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday described his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as a “historic blunder” that has opened the door for Kashmir’s “freedom”.

Khan made the remarks during an address to the nation on television and radio, his second speech on the Kashmir issue since the Indian government’s decision to scrap the region’s autonomy on August 5. Khan also reiterated his attacks on the ideology of Modi, the BJP and the RSS. Noting that Modi had made a “historic blunder”, he said: “Time will prove this is a historic opportunity for the people of Kashmir to attain freedom because of their (India’s) mistake due to arrogance.”

India has described the changes in Kashmir as purely an internal matter and New Delhi has indicated that the Kashmir issue will not be part of any future discussions with Islamabad.

The United Nations, Khan said, has the responsibility of ensuring that the Kashmiri people could decide their future through a referendum. “They (India) have played their trump card, they don’t have any card to play now. Now whatever needs to be done will be done by us and the world,” he said.

“This is the UN’s responsibility, they promised the people of Kashmir that they would protect them. Historically, world bodies have always sided with the powerful but the UN should know that 1.25 billion Muslims are looking towards it,” he added.

Khan questioned whether big countries would keep looking at their economic interests alone in relation to India’s actions in Kashmir. “Because they should remember, both countries have nuclear weapons…In a nuclear war, no one will win. It will only wreak havoc in this region, but the entire world will face consequences,” he said.

He said when he had came to power last year, Pakistan had wanted to solve the Kashmir issue and usher in peace with India because the two countries share many problems, including inflation, poverty, unemployment and climate change. “So we wanted to be friends with everyone…I made many overtures for dialogue (to India) but there were always some problems,” he said.

Khan noted: “First they had elections coming up, so we waited for that to be over. We thought when elections would be over, the situation will be different. Then Pulwama happened, a Kashmiri man blew himself up.

“They (India), instead of introspecting, pointed fingers at us. After the elections, we realised they had a different agenda and they tried to blacklist Pakistan at FATF…On August 5, they sent additional military troops to Kashmir and announced it was now part of India. This was against the vision of their founding fathers and UN resolutions.”

Khan repeated Pakistan’s claim that India was planning a “false-flag operation” to divert attention from the Kashmir issue. He also said Pakistan had “won on the diplomatic front” by internationalising the Kashmir issue.

Outlining his government’s strategy for the Kashmir issue, he said: “I believe the entire nation should stand with the Kashmiri nation. I have said that I will act as Kashmir’s ambassador.

“I will tell the world about this, I have shared this with heads of states that I have been in contact with. I will raise this issue at the UN as well.”

Khan announced a ceremony will be held every week to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people and the Pakistani people will come out on Friday to show solidarity.