Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., on September 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly criticized Indian government actions in Kashmir, drawing a parallel between between Jammu & Kashmir and Palestine.

“Similarly, like the people of Palestine, the people of Jammu and Kashmir too, have struggled for a century for their freedom and right to self determination,” he said, accusing India of reneging on its commitments to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions.

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Mr Sharif accused India of extra-judicial killings, prolonged curfews in the region and other “draconian measures”.

“In a classic settler colonial project, India is seizing Kashmiri lands and properties and settling outsiders into occupied Jammu and Kashmir [Jammu and Kashmir] in their nefarious design to transform The Muslim majority into a minority,” he said.

Mr Sharif highlighted the expansion in India’s military capabilities and said India’s leadership had “threatened to cross the Line of Control”.

“Mr. President, let me state in no uncertain terms that Pakistan will respond most decisively to any Indian aggression,” he said, thumping the lectern.

In a segment on Islamophobia , he identified the “Hindu supremacist agenda” in India as the “most alarming manifestation” of the issue, saying it was aimed at subjugating Indian Muslims and the “obliteration of India’s Islamic heritage”.

It is normal practice for Pakistan’s representative to raise issues around India each year during the UNGA debate. India normally responds, exercising its ‘right of reply’.