ISLAMABAD - All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) chief and former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has urged the world community to take serious notice of the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar
He termed the silence of world bodies over the killings shameful.
“Burmese army is committing inhuman atrocities against the Muslim minority that is to be condemned in strongest words,” he said, according to a statement issued here on Tuesday.
“Muslim countries around the world should collaborate and raise their voice against these atrocities. Muslim countries should formulate a joint strategy to convey their message to the world that followers of Islam were a reality and the world by no means can deny their existence,” he said.
Musharraf was talking to APML Secretary General Dr Muhammad Amjad on the phone. He said that Rohingyas were the world’s most persecuted community who have been facing atrocities since 1942 when the Arakan massacre occurred following World War-II. Later Burmese army launched genocide operations against this community in 1978, 1991-92, 2012, 2015 and now in 2016-17, he said. “It is a shame and an utter disgrace that all this is happening when Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is heading the government who championed the cause of democracy and human rights in the past,” he said.
Moreover, the silence of Muslim countries except for Turkey is regrettable, he said. Gen (retd) Musharraf said that developed countries were practicing double standards that was disastrous for world peace. “At the moment, Indian occupied Kashmir, Palestine, and Burma have become flash points and biggest obstacles for achieving world peace due to the double standards of world’s powerful countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gen (retd) Musharraf in his message on the eve of Pakistan’s Defence Day said that Pakistan Army was among the world’s most strong and well-trained armies.
In a joint statement, the APML and the party’s secretary general said that the Pakistan Army in September 1965 defended against five-time bigger army of India and ‘defeated’ it with unparallel sacrifices and bravery.
“Now, the Pakistan Army is even more trained, well equipped and more motivated than ever. Any enemy force should think five times before any overt or covert engagement with it.”