By Amjad Qaimkhani
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, highlighted the profound and lasting impact of decades of occupation on the daily lives of people in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) during a side-event in New York marking Kashmir Solidarity Day.
The event, titled “Leaving No One Behind: Social Development Challenges in Conflict-Affected and Occupied Territories,” brought together diplomats and international representatives to discuss the human cost of prolonged conflict.
Speaking before an audience that included permanent representatives from Turkiye, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Azerbaijan, Asim Iftikhar described how the promise of development in Kashmir had largely become an illusion. “When dignity is denied and voices are silenced, development ceases to be a promise and becomes a hollow notion,” he observed, drawing attention to the extraordinary militarization that has dominated civilian life in the region for decades.
He detailed the widespread human rights abuses endured by the Kashmiri people, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and a culture of impunity. These practices, he argued, had left families fractured and communities traumatized, inflicting deep psychological scars and eroding trust within society.
The social fabric of Kashmir, he warned, had been severely damaged, leaving generations to contend with both visible and invisible wounds. In his remarks, Asim Iftikhar also drew a parallel with the situation in Palestine, noting that the hardships faced by Palestinians mirrored the struggles of Kashmiris under occupation.
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