As per estimates, the Kashmiri civilian population has suffered economic losses amounting to up to $3.5 billion since August 5, 2019
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram submitted a statement to a 15 member UN committee discussing the link between conflict and food security that India’s illegal occupation and siege since August 5, 2019, when India forcibly changed the status of Kashmir in violation of its own constitution, have led to a loss of $3.5 billion to the civilian population. The Indian actions have led to hunger and starvation in the occupied valley.
“The complete communications blackout, imposition of shoot-at-sight curfews, and severing of all transport links, imposed now for nearly 600 days, have prevented Kashmiri farmers from reaching their farmlands, resulting in acute food shortages,” the Pakistani envoy said.
Thousands of acres of farmland are left untended, with the locals helplessly watching as their produce rots away. Farm products, constituting the entire year’s worth of income for most Kashmiri farmers, had perished without reaching markets.
“Such deliberate actions to coerce the civilian population into submission constitute violations of UNSC resolution 2417 (2018), which inter alia calls for protecting civilian objects, sources of food production and distribution; and condemns actions that deprive civilian populations of all essentials indispensable for their survival,” Akram said.
The Afghan Peace Process
Ambassador Akram said a peaceful and stable Afghanistan is extremely important for regional peace. He added that Prime Minister Imran Khan believes that only a political solution can solve the Afghan conflict and no military solution will bring an end to the war.
“We believe that sustainable peace in Afghanistan can only be achieved through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” the Pakistani envoy said.