Bilawal appreciates his allies’ decision to skip the G20 summit in Srinagar.
Foreign Minister: Terrorists are responsible for the Gujarat carnage and the Samjhauta Express explosion.
In a rebuttal to India’s attempt to depict normalcy in the disputed Kashmir region, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday “saluted” the friendly countries of China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others for skipping the G20 summit in Srinagar.
Bilawal harshly blasted the “religiously motivated and Islamophobic” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a public speech in Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), for its attacks on Pakistan and the Kashmiri people.
For the sake of the Kashmiri people, Bilawal said the demonstration crowd, “we would like to salute our Chinese, Saudi, and Turkish brethren and all other countries, who refused [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi and G20’s invitation.”
“The countries that did attend, either downgraded their participation or are present in protest,” Bilawal, who is also the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said. “Modi’s drama is being broadcast around the world.”
The Bagh rally was organised in response to India’s decision to host the G20 summit in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), which is in violation of international law and several United Nations resolutions.
The G20 consists of the European Union and 18 other developed countries. India will host the G20 summit later this year in New Delhi as part of the country’s yearlong leadership of the organisation in 2023.
The tourism conference that took place in Srinagar from May 22-24 was met with protests from Pakistan. China announced on Friday that it would not be attending because Beijing is against holding any kind of event in contested territory.
Besides these two countries, several others, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Egypt, and Indonesia, either didn’t send any representatives or sent only those stationed at their embassies in New Delhi.
Since India revoked the region’s special status on August 5, 2019, this summit was the first significant foreign event to take place there. The event is also being interpreted as the Modi government’s attempt to make the IIOJK appear more normal.
To test “whether their [Indian] aim to portray Kashmir as a normalised region has been achieved,” Bilawal suggested consulting any overseas magazine. As one commenter put it, “How can they send a message of normalisation when thousands of its soldiers are still in Kashmir?”
He claimed that India was used to being ignored, but that the identities of those “who label us as extremists and terrorists have been revealed” to the world.
They say we’re speaking for terrorists whenever we defend the rights of the people of Kashmir. They have no right to accuse us of terrorism when we have been victims of it. He continued, “We are the victims of terrorism.”
Having a religiously motivated and Islamophobic political party in power in India is not our concern. Terrorists, if there are any, are the ones responsible for spreading fear in Gujarat and aboard the Samjhauta Express, he said.
“They label me, the son of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, a ‘terrorist’ when I call a ‘butcher’ by his name,” he said, alluding to Modi’s nickname as the ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ for his role in the slaughter of Muslims in rioting in that state in 2002.
He emphasised that on the same day that Pakistani leaders expressed sympathy with their Kashmiri brethren, the entire world was watching the drama that Modi was creating in Srinagar.
In addition, Bilawal said that the decision was made to deny India “an open pitch” at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers conference he attended in India.
“We conducted ourselves in a manner that complied with the SCO rules and regulations in an effort to portray the real image of Pakistanis, Kashmiris, and Muslims, who are not terrorists,” the foreign minister emphasised.
They [India] will welcome fewer guests than planned, he stated, referring to his previous trip there. “We appreciate all the countries that have taken a stand on principle and decided not to attend this tourism conference.”
At the event, Bilawal chanted pro-referendum slogans. Workers, shopkeepers, and service industry personnel in Srinagar chant the same slogans we do. We appreciate the principled attitude taken by so many countries,” he remarked.
The foreign minister added that the Kashmir issue had been raised repeatedly by Pakistan in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other international forums. It won’t be long before the Kashmiris use their right to vote and win their independence.
There may be short-term problems within Pakistan, he said, but “our fraternal relationship with that of Kashmir is one that spans generations.” He expressed appreciation to the delegates from the several provinces and the federation for being present.
