WASHINGTON (Kashmir English): A mobile digital billboard campaign was launched across Washington, DC, urging the United Nations to fulfil its long-standing commitment to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and ensure their internationally-recognised right to self-determination.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the campaign was organised by the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF) on the occasion of Right to Self-Determination Day, marking the anniversary of the United Nations Security Council resolution of January 5, 1949, which guarantees Kashmiris the right to decide their political future through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.
The brightly lit digital billboards carried strong messages including: “Kashmiris Demand Plebiscite,” “UN Resolutions: Kashmir Is Not an Indian Territory,” “India—Release All Political Prisoners,” “Stop Land Grabbing in Kashmir,” and “Kashmir Facing Existential Threat—UN Must Act.”
The awareness trucks moved through key federal and diplomatic locations, including the US State Department, Capitol Hill, White House vicinity, Washington Monument, foreign embassies, Lincoln Memorial, World Bank, IMF, and other prominent areas, drawing attention from policymakers, diplomats, media and the public.
Chairman of the World Forum for Peace and Justice, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, said the denial of the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination has kept South Asia unstable and brought India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states, dangerously close to conflict.
He said the unresolved Kashmir dispute remains a serious threat to regional and global peace.
Dr Fai said that since August 5, 2019, when India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the situation in the territory has sharply deteriorated, with mass arrests, suppression of civil liberties, imprisonment of political leadership and systematic demographic changes.
He said international human rights organisations have documented widespread abuses in the occupied territory.
President of WKAF, Dr Ghulam Nabi Mir, said the world community has been deliberately misinformed about the plight of Kashmiris despite nearly eight decades of Indian military control. He said India has consistently defied UN resolutions through deception and political manoeuvring to block a plebiscite.
Kashmiri-American scholar
Kashmiri-American scholar Professor Dr Imtiaz Khan called on the UN Secretary General to facilitate meaningful dialogue among India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people and help create conditions for a free and impartial plebiscite. He also expressed concern over the rise of extremist Hindutva ideology in India and its impact on religious minorities.
Leaders of the Kashmir American Welfare Association said the objective of the campaign was to expose ongoing human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and highlight what they described as the international community’s silence driven by strategic and commercial interests.
President of Kashmir House Washington, Raja Liaqat Kiyani, said Kashmir remains one of the most militarised regions in the world. Quoting Martin Luther King Jr, he said the silence of the international community in the face of injustice is deeply troubling.
The speakers stressed that lasting peace in South Asia is impossible without resolving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and the United Nations resolutions.
