PM Imran to leave for US on Sep 23, would address UNGA

Prime Minister Imran Khan will leave for the United States on four-day official visit on September 23.

During the visit, the prime minister will address United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

Imran Khan will also hold separate meetings with leaders of different countries.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will arrive in the US before the prime minister.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had warned the global community about simmering tensions between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India as 
the possibility of having a dialogue with Modi-led Hindu nationalist government has “nearly” ended.

PM Khan asserted that all possible efforts were made to negotiate with the Indian government, but Indian PM Narendra Modi “is unlikely to initiate talks with the Pakistani government.

Amid the escalating military tensions, PM Khan has intensified his criticism of India over its atrocities and human rights’ violations in Kashmir, saying he would no longer seek dialogue with Indian officials –implying that the danger of war between nuclear neighbours is rising.

In an interview with New York Times, PM Khan stated: “There is no point in talking to them. I mean, I have done all the talking. Unfortunately, 
now when I look back, all the overtures that I was making for peace and dialogue, I think they took it for appeasement,” Mr. Khan said during 
the interview, at the prime minister’s office in Islamabad. “There is nothing more that we can do.”

Khan has repeatedly denounced India’s Hindu nationalist government for terminating Indian-occupied Kashmir’s autonomy through a rushed presidential decree on August 5.

Since then, India has deployed tens of thousands of troops to quell any possible unrest and severed nearly all communications in the poor Himalayan region, what has been termed as a possible “nuclear flashpoint” by Pakistan Armed Forces’ media wing’s Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor in a press conference.

Indian soldiers and police officers have been accused of using excessive force on Kashmiri civilians, and have detained the territory’s political 
leadership, drawing strong criticism from rights groups and the United Nations.

It has been difficult to ascertain the full extent of the crackdown because of the Indian measures.

In their litany of accusations, PM Khan and his cabinet ministers have likened the New Delhi government to Nazi Germany and claimed that a 
genocide is unfolding in the territory. 

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