Kashmir witnessing 'new wave of freedom movement', says Nawaz Sharif

Islamabad: Upping the ante, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said Kashmir was witnessing a “new wave of freedom movement” and asked the diplomats to apprise the world that Kashmir was “not an internal matter” of India. [caption id=“attachment_2933108” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nawaz Sharif. Reuters[/caption] Addressing the concluding session of the three-day Envoys Conference organised by foreign ministry here, Sharif said, “resolution of the lingering dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people is the corner stone of Pakistan’s foreign policy”. “Today Kashmir is witnessing a new wave of freedom movement,” Sharif said, needling India on a day when Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Islamabad to attend the Saarc Interior Ministers’ Conference. “This movement is running into the bloods of third generation of Kashmiri people and the world has itself seen its intensity in the wake of 8 July,” Sharif said, referring to the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in Kashmir. “The Kashmiri youth are writing new chapters of sacrifices to get the right to self determination,” he said. “They have lost eyesight due to bullets but the desire for freedom is guiding them to the destination,” he added. He asked Pakistani envoys to apprise the world that “the Kashmir was not an internal matter of India”. “The ambassador should make the world feel that Kashmir is not the internal problem of India, as India already accepted it as dispute territory and the UN also declared it as a dispute between India and Pakistan,” he said. The conference was attended by envoys of Pakistan posted at Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Afghanistan, UN New York, UN Geneva, Vienna, Brussels and Moscow among others. Sharing his vision with the envoys, Sharif said that all bilateral issues with other regional countries should be solved though talks in a peaceful way. “We cannot afford a conflict. If we became part of any conflict, then our progress in the social and economic fields would be affected,” he said. He said Pakistan wants peace in the world on the basis of honour, dignity and equality. “But our desire for friendly ties should not be considered as weakness. We believe in mutual interests, respect for sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of others,” Kashmir said. Earlier, the Prime Minister’s advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz told the concluding session that it was wrong to portray that Pakistan was facing isolation. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN Maleeha Lodhi said the conference acquired special importance in view of the Prime Minister’s directives to take stock of the current situation. She said, “Kashmir remained top agenda of the conference in view of the indigenous Kashmir uprising in the backdrop”. Lodhi said that in line with the Prime Minister’s directive, she would step-up diplomatic campaign to highlight alleged human rights violations in Kashmir at the UN.