India will give momentum to its campaign to ensure that the issues of terrorism and PoK are placed together in the centre of the agenda at various platforms.
With Pakistan consistently raking up issue of Kashmir at various UN platforms, irrespective of the agenda and topic of discussion at the meetings, India has prepared a comprehensive plan to intensify its diplomatic campaign to corner Islamabad over Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK)- Pakistan-Occupied-Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now exercise its influence and strong diplomacy to counter Pakistan’s agenda on Kashmir more effectively by ensuring that the issues of terrorism and PoK are placed together in the centre of agenda at the various forums. “India through diplomatic, security and intelligence networks will gather more evidence on human rights violations and public opinion condemning Pakistan’s oppressive actions in POJK will be documented in a more systematic and more detailed way to be used to corner Pakistan whenever it raises the Kashmir issue on any platform,” a diplomatic source told The Sunday Guardian.
“At every available opportunity, Pakistan will be called out for illegally occupying certain areas of Jammu and Kashmir,” the source added. Soon after the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had amply hinted at India’s future plan to corner Pakistan over PoK more aggressively. Countering Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari after the SCO meeting, Jaishankar had said “There is nothing left to discuss on Kashmir with Pakistan except Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.” “Now the talks will be on PoK instead of Kashmir,” Jaishankar asserted. “After Bilawal Bhutto’s outburst on Kashmir in Goa, the Modi government decided to launch a more aggressive and more comprehensive diplomatic campaign to corner Pakistan over PoK and PoJK,” a source aware of the meetings at South Block told The Sunday Guardian. Prime Minister Modi is learnt to have discussed this issue with Jaishankar giving him several suggestions for the campaign.
The campaign includes confronting Pakistan leaders with evidence showing how the Pakistan army is involved in massive human rights violations in PoK. It will also be shown how citizens of PoJK strongly want it to be part of India. Similarly, more evidence to expose Pakistan Army’s protection to terror camps in PoK will also be shared with the international community. India was upset when Bhutto rushed to PoK to whip up an anti-India campaign there when a G20 tourism meeting was underway in Srinagar last month. Bilawal’s agenda however came a cropper when he failed to get the desired public support in PoK. On the contrary, India succeeded in sending out the message that Bilawal’s presence in PoK was just a gimmick to divert his people’s focus away from the failure of the Shehbaz Sharif government in resolving the present economic crisis of Pakistan. As Bilawal was trying to instigate people in PoK against India, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha told the Pakistan government to first feed its people before raising Kashmir. “This was a strong message that was given by Sinha as part of India’s diplomatic strategy to make the PoK people feel that Islamabad is just using them against India and is not caring for their problems,” said an official.
In another major statement, Sinha also said Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) is an integral part of India and no power in the world will separate it from India. He also added that he had no doubt that one day the dream of ‘Akhand Bharat’ conceived by the elders would be a reality.
Last year in October while attending the “Shaurya Diwas” celebrations in Srinagar to commemorate the air-landed operations of the Indian Army at Budgam Airport in 1947, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had also stated that the government’s aim was to implement the resolution unanimously passed in the Indian Parliament on 22 February 1994, to reclaim PoJK which included Gilgit and Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Modi government ministers’ statements on PoK are being seen as an indication of the fact that India is set to execute some big plans related to Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.