Digital ads trucks in New York flash messages urging UN to resolve Kashmir dispute

New York: A noted Kashmir advocacy organization rented mobile digital advertising trucks displaying sharp messages around New York City that exhorted the United Nations to implement its decades-old resolutions pledging to the people of Kashmir their right to self-determination as they drove around the landmarks of Manhattan.

The electronic screens on the trucks carried messages such as ” From Kashmir to Palestine: Occupation is Crime”; “(Indian) Supreme Court Decision is a Delusion: Kashmir Needs a Resolution”; Indian Forces on Killing Spree: Kashmir Needs to be Set Free”; “Kashmiris Reject Indian Occupation: UN Resolution Only Solution”; “Indian Brutality in Kashmir Galore: World Community Cannot Ignore”; “Kashmir Facing Existential Threat: United States Needs to Act”; “Settler Colonialism and Demographic Alterations: India Shreds UN Resolutions”; and “Indian Judiciary a False Glitter: Manipulated by Hindutva Litter”. Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, secretary general of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), which rented the trucks, called the move an effective way to spread a message as the brightly lit words on the screens catch the attention of the people walking on the streets and those coming in and out of government and commercial buildings.

The digital trucks were operational all day on Friday, passing by the UN headquarters, Times Square, Freedom Tower, Battery Park, Central Park, Indian Mission, and Indian Consulate while crisscrossing several city streets and avenues as part of observance of Right of Self-Determination Day. On Jan. 5, 1949, the UN Security Council passed a resolution supporting the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

In a statement issued on August 8, 2019, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while commenting on the deteriorating situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir following New Delhi’s annexation of the disputed territory, said,The position of the United Nations in this region is governed by the e UN Charter a applicable Security Council l resolutions.” Speaking at the event, Dr. Fai emphasized that the unresolved conflict over Kashmir threatens the international peace and security of the world. “It is far past time for the UN to take forceful action to restore the faith of common people that it is an agency that can live up to its bold charter and mission of bringing peace and stability to the world,” he said.

Dr Ghulam N. Mir president of the WKAF and chairman of the Kashmir Diaspora Coalition (KDC),  denounced the inhumane level of atrocities, deaths, and imprisonments of political leaders, human rights activists, and journalists in Kashmir under the largest illegitimate Indian military occupation, a dehumanization that has gone on for over 76 years. India, he said, has ‘arrogantly’ disregarded the UN mandates and continued to trample over the rights of millions of people in the erstwhile state of J&K. Dr Imtiaz Khan, a professor at George Washington University Medical Center, said that over the years, the dispensation of justice and protection of human rights by the UN has been linked to the economic prowess of the aggressor and dependent on the financial interests of world powers.

“The time is opportune for the UN to get engaged with this issue, prevail upon India to implement the resolutions, and provide succor to the people of Kashmir,” he said.

“Doing so will provide a glimmer of hope not only to Kashmiris but to other oppressed people in the world, especially when the clouds of war are hovering across the continents.”

Sardar Sawar Khan, former advisor to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, said that the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir acquire a continuing, decisive importance because they constitute the only international agreement freely negotiated between India and Pakistan on the future status of Kashmir.

They also embody the only principle on whose basis a just and durable settlement of the problem can be achieved—the principle of freedom of choice by the people concerned. Sardar Taj Khan, Senior Vice President, of Kashmir Mission, USA; Raja Mukhtar, senior leader of JKLF, North America; Sardar Imtiaz Khan Garalvi, Secretary General of the Kashmir Mission; Haji Mohammad Shafi, a community activist; and Sardar Sajid Sawar, a youth leader, also called on the UN Secretary-General to take immediate steps to implement Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.