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Sujit Chatterjee in Durban
In a sharp attack on India, Pakistan on Sunday raked up the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Conference Against Racism accusing New Delhi of 'brutal repression' that it said had led to the killing of 75,000 people.
Addressing the conference, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar criticised India and said, "It is sad that, in our own region, this theme of denigrating the struggle for self-determination as terrorism and associating terrorism with Islam, is being actively promoted to justify the ongoing brutal repression of the Kashmiri people."
Sattar's comments came three weeks ahead of a scheduled summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Minister of State External Affairs Omar Abdullah is leading the Indian delegation to the conference.
Sattar, in his speech, said, "The effort by Indian publicists to exploit prevalent prejudices cannot mask the fact that 75,000 people Kashmiris have been killed in the last decade of their struggle for freedom. It is clear that a solution to Kashmir will have to respond to the wishes of the Kashmiri people and that such a solution is essential to establish normal relations between Pakistan and India."
The Pakistan foreign minister's raking up of the Kashmir issue also violates Islamabad's promise not to rake up Kashmir issue in international fora.
Sattar also referred to non-papers prepared by Organisation for Islamic Countries in preparations for the conference, one of which referred to Kashmir issue. The relevant OIC paper read, "We express our concern at the grave violations of human rights in many parts of the world and express our determination to work together to prevent their occurrence. The victims of human rights violations in occupied Azherbaijan territories and in Jammu and Kashmir must never be forgotten."
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