Pakistan's Permanent Representative at the United Nations Asim Iftikhar Ahmad says decades of occupation have deeply impacted daily lives of the people in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He was speaking at a side-event marking the Kashmir Solidarity Day titled "Leaving No One Behind: Social Development Challenges in Conflict-Affect and Occupied Territories", in New York.

Asim Iftikhar remarked that development becomes an illusion rather than a promise when dignity is denied and voices silenced. He said civilian life in IIOJK has been subjected to extraordinary militarization.

Pakistan's Permanent Representative further said that enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and pervasive impunity have left families fractured and communities traumatized. He said these practices have inflicted deep psychological scars, eroded trust, and damaged the social fabric of the Kashmiri society.

Referring to the situation in Palestine, Asim Iftikhar said Palestinians are also experiencing similar situation that of the people of Kashmir.

Other speakers, who spoke on the occasion, include permanent representatives of Turkiye, OIC, and Azerbaijan.