“Narendra Modi has made a huge blunder in arrogance…now this is a historic moment for Kashmiris to realise their decades-long dream of achieving freedom from India,” he said in the address broadcast live on national television.
PM Imran said the United Nations had a responsibility to ensure that the people of Kashmir had the right to decide their own future through a referendum.
“The responsibility today lies on the international community,” he said, adding that Pakistan would “go to any length at every forum” to press the issue.
He called on Pakistanis to stop work for half an hour on Friday as a mark of solidarity with Kashmiris.
“We as a whole nation give this message to the 8 million Kashmiris that we are standing with them,” he said.
The premier said UNSC meeting over the Kashmir conflict was a diplomatic achievement for Pakistan, which rejected New Delhi’s stance that IOK was an ‘internal matter’.
He said he planned to embark on a diplomatic tour soon to raise the issue in international forums including the UN General Assembly in September.
“I will tour the world and tell them what is happening… the Modi government is pursuing a policy which brought havoc globally in the past,” he said.
“They (RSS) believe that Hindus are supreme and others are second-class citizens. They have a fascist ideology, they have been sidelined by India’s past government as a terrorist organisation,” he said. “They were the ones who assassinated [Mahatma] Gandhi for trying to promote Hindu-Muslim unity. After [former prime minister Jawaharlal] Nehru’s death, the RSS ideology started gaining ground.
He added, “Many Muslim governments, which are not openly supporting us due to their business interests, will sooner or later support our position.”
The premier said a Pak-India nuclear war will not only wreak havoc in this region, but the entire world will face consequences.
He lamented that his Indian counterpart did not respond to his peace overtures, and instead hurled allegations to avoid dialogue.
His address comes amid a brutal lockdown in occupied Kashmir in place since August 4, a day before New Delhi revoked the disputed territory’s special status, which prevented outsiders from purchasing land and settling there.
Restrictions on movement and a communication blackout in the occupied valley continued for the 22nd consecutive day on Monday.
