DFP urges foreign diplomats not to allow Indian government to use themselves as brand ambassadors to portray a fake normalcy narrative on Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Sep 25 (SABAH): Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party has said that Indian government’s invitation to foreign diplomats to observe the so-called poll exercise in Kashmir was an attempt to mislead the international community about Kashmir.

In a statement issued here, the DFP spokesman advocate Arshad Iqbal said that instead of arranging curated tours of foreign envoys the Indian government should allow independent observes to monitor situation in the restive region that has been marred by conflict and human rights violations since several decades.

Urging foreign diplomats not to allow themselves to be used as brand ambassadors for the Indian government to project its fake normalcy narrative on Kashmir, Iqbal said that India has a history of using such guided trips to the territory as a tool to hoodwink global community and deflect its attention away from the real issue of Kashmir that happens to be one of the longest pending disputes on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Reminding their respective countries’ significant contribution in the passage of the UNSC resolutions that guarantee right to self determination to the people of Kashmir, the DFP spokesman asked the visiting diplomats to play their much needed role to resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute in line with these resolutions.

Terming resolution of Kashmir issue as a key to regional peace, the DFP spokesman said that solution to the lingering dispute lies in these implementation of the UN resolutions.

The so-called elections held under the shadow of guns, he said, cannot be a substitute for Kashmiris’ right to self determination.

He said that the ongoing poll exercise being projected by India as a sign of normalcy was a futile attempt to maintain a status-quo, which he said was no solution to the Kashmir problem.

The DFP spokesman said that the implementation of the UNSC resolutions calling for holding a referendum in the region was the only way forward to resolve the age-old dispute peacefully.

He said that it was quite unfortunate that the Indian government, which keeps bragging on its democratic credentials, has been brazenly violating the UN security council resolutions.

He said that it was high time that the visiting delegation should take a holistic review of the situation in the Indian held territory and refrain from being a part of any such process aimed at downplaying the seriousness of the conflict that has consumed Kashmiris’ three generations.