Credit: Gary Raynaldo  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, at press conference at New York UN world headquarters on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019. 

By Gary Raynaldo   / DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday condemned India’s ‘genocide’ in Kashmir and warned of possible war with its South Asian neighbor that could possibly go nuclear if the international community fails to intervene.  PM Khan held a press briefing at the United Nations world headquarters in New York to address the situation in Kashmir. Khan is in New York attending the annual UN General Assembly. Pakistan and India have been in a dispute over Kashmir since 1947.  The  dispute is said to be the oldest, unresolved international conflict in the world today. Kashmir is a disputed territory divided between India and Pakistan but claimed  by both sides. What makes the conflict potentially apocalyptic  is the fact that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers.

“Today, for 50 days, people of Kashmir have been locked down by 900,000 soldiers. For 50 days, there  is no news coming out  of Kashmir. There is a total news blackout. I have met Kashmiris  in New York who complain they  cannot get in touch with their families. They don’t know what is going on. There have  been mass arrests. My whole point of coming here is to highlight this. This is unprecedented. 8 million people in an open jail is unprecedented in this day and age. And then this nonsense that this is a part of India so the world should stay out.”

-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, arrives at press conference at New York UN world headquarters to speak on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019.

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, at press conference at New York UN world headquarters on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019. 

India Today is Governed By a Racist, a Hindu Supremacist”:  Pakistan PM Khan

“The sad fact is, unfortunately, India today is governed by a racist, a Hindu supremisists, a party RSS, (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)  which was banned in India two or three times as a terrorist organization. RSS was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. PM Modi who  is a life member of the RSS was responsible for the pogrom which  took place in Gujarat  where 2,000 people were butchered, burned.  150,000 Muslims became homeless. Unfortunately India past 6 years been governed by extreme party. It belived in the ethnic cleansing of musliims from India. This is the founders of RSS.  Adolf Hitler, Mussilini were there role models. And this is what we face right now.”

-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan

The Pakistan PM stated that  the current India government does not consider Muslims or Christians as equal citizens. “They do not believe in the narrow Ghandi secular plural India society. India is changing.  I am alarmed. I think the world leaders need to know.  I have spoken to the world leaders, President Trump, (UK PM)  Boris Johnson,  Germany President Merkel,  France President Macron. And this is the  time for the world  to act before this goes too far. Because this is the first time after the Cuban crisis, two nuclear-armed countries are going to come face to face.”

Credit: Gary Raynaldo  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the Pakistan Ambassador to the UN Dr Maleeha Lodhi at press conference at New York UN world headquarters on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019. 

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, at press conference at New York UN world headquarters on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019. PM Khan points to the long-history of Soviet presence in Afghanistan, war on terror, Jihad. 

U.S. Pakistani Relations Fragile Due to Concerns of Radicalization and Nuclear Weapons

The Pakistani PM blames radicalization of Pakistani society on the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.  “In 1980s, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan,  Pakistan, along with the United States, helped by the United States, we organized the resistance to the Soviets. And the resistance was organized by Pakistani ISI training these militants, who were invited from all over the Muslim world to do Jihad against the Soviet Union. And so we created these militant groups to fight the Soviets. Then, of course, fighting the Soviets, Jihad was glorified. Jihadis were heroes then. Come 1989, Soviets leave Afghanistan. The United States packs up and leaves Pakistan with a lot of those groups. And then comes 9/11 and Pakistan again joined the U.S. in the war on terror. And now we are required to go after these groups as terrorists, who were now, they were indoctrinated that fighting foreign occupation is Jihad. When the U.S. arrived in Afghanistan, it was supposed to be terrorism.  I opposed this from day one. I said we had first trained these guys to fight Jihad and it was a great idea, and now we are telling the same groups it’s terrorism. We should have at least stayed neutral.”

PM Khan Accuses India Modi Government of Blaming Pakistan For Terror Attacks 

Credit: Gary Raynaldo  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan at press conference at New York UN world headquarters on the situation in Kashmir Sept 24, 2019. 

“PM Modi is saying  terrorist are being lined up on the borders of Kashmir waiting from Pakistan to go inside (India). What sort of a nonsense is this.  What possible benefit is Pakistan going to have now sending terrorist when there are 900,000 security forces there. All that will happen is there will be more oppression on the people of Kashmir. What would be achieved from that, except Pakistan will be blamed and secondly, there will be more oppression. But this is typical. I have heard PM Modi talking  about this that Pakistan should stop terrorism.  But what is worse than this sort of this state terrorism that  is going on. How can anyone justify 8 million people locked up inside (Kashmir) for 50 days.”

-Pakistan PM Khan 

Prime Minister Khan A  Famous Cricket Player Before Politics 

Credit: Getty images /  Imran Khan during the Pakistan Cricket tour of the British Isles in 1987.

Khan, 66,  was born to a landowning Pashtun family of Mianwali in Lahore in 1952. He was  educated at Aitchison College in Lahore, then the Royal Grammar School Worcester in Worcester, and later at Keble College, Oxford. He started playing cricket at age 13, and made his debut for the Pakistan national cricket team at age 18, during a 1971 Test series against England. After graduating from Oxford, he made his home debut for Pakistan in 1976, and played until 1992. He also served as the team’s captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992, notably leading Pakistan to victory at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Pakistan’s first and only victory in the competition.