Kashmir dispute: world community urged to respond to people's aspirations

Deploring Indian security forces' brutalities in the occupied Kashmir, a senior Pakistani diplomat on Saturday called on the world community to respond to Kashmiri people's aspirations to gain their right of self-determination and end their prolonged sufferings.
"It is our hope that the world will finally awaken and hear the long unheard voices of millions of Kashmiri men and women fighting to gain their right of self-determination," Iffat Imran Gardezi, deputy chief of mission at Pakistan Embassy in Washington said at a conference marking 'Kashmir Solidarity Day'.
"I am here to reiterate Pakistan's unconditional moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris for a just and peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute," she told the gathering at George Mason University. "We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Kashmiri brethren," the Pakistani diplomat declared.
The conference on "India-Pakistan Relations: Resolving the Deadlock Over Kashmir" was convened by Kashmiri American Council.
Mrs. Gardezi also spoke of last summer's uprising and said, "the youth of Kashmir came out on the roads to register their protest, exchanging stones for bullets from the oppressive Indian forces." There is no justification for India to maintain presence of 700,000 security forces since past few decades, she said, adding that even this presence has not been able to crush the genuine and indigenous freedom struggle.
Expressing grave concerns over the human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir, she said, "Indian forces use old tactics ranging from arrests and detention to brutalities, torture and killing of innocent Kashmiris.
She said that efforts by New Delhi to integrate Kashmiris into mainstream politics are merely an illusion for the international community. They lack substance and truth. "India can no longer remain oblivious to the cries of the Kashmiris. It must recognise basic human rights of the people of Kashmir, and reduce the presence of its forces in the valley".
About the impact of the dispute on the lives and future of more than 1.5 billion people of South Asia, the Pakistani diplomat said the region is being denied its share in world trade and investment. "While the 21st century is being dubbed as Asia's century, the citizens of South Asia risk losing the tremendous opportunities of economic progress if Kashmir issue remains unresolved."
Pakistan, she said, is of the view that dialogue between the two countries is the only way to resolve deadlock over all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mrs. Gardezi hoped that the forthcoming foreign secretary-level talks in Bhutan on February would offer a useful opportunity to pick up the threads for resumption of dialogue. "Kashmir has become a neglected chapter of human rights, it is a black spot on the conscience of humanity," she said.
"Today, the United Nations and the international community celebrates and rejoices at the successful manner in which the people of Southern Sudan have chosen a path for their future," she said, referring to last month's UN-sponsored referendum in which the people voted overwhelming in favour of secession from Sudan. "We see the same dream in the eyes of the Kashmiri people."
Earlier, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri American Council, welcomed the guests. He spoke about the struggle of Kashmiri people for freedom and called for implementation of United Nations' resolutions to resolve the decade-old dispute to usher in peace and stability in South Asia.