Indian Brazenly Persecuting Innocent Kashmiris: FO Spokesperson

Pakistan Friday urged the international community to hold India responsible for its brazen persecution of innocent Kashmiris, and play its role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2022 ) :Pakistan Friday urged the international community to hold India responsible for its brazen persecution of innocent Kashmiris, and play its role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Speaking at the weekly press briefing here, the Foreign Office Spokesperson said India's Charge d'Affaires in Islamabad was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week and conveyed the Government of Pakistan's serious concerns over the deteriorating health condition of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah who had been incarcerated in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years and was suffering from renal cancer and was consistently denied medical aid by the Indian authorities.

"We also remain deeply concerned over the deteriorating health and continued incarceration of Kashmiri political prisoners, including Hurriyat leaders like Yasin Malik who are languishing in different jails of India and in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

"Mirwaiz Umar Farooq remains under house arrest and is continuously denied access to go to the Jamia Masjid to deliver the Friday sermon," he added.

The spokesperson said the IIOJK continued to be strangled economically, facing the brunt of Indian occupation forces' economic terrorism.

"While the region has a stark unemployment rate, its farmers are faced with prolonged and forced road blockades by the occupation forces, exposing them to risks of the produce going rotten. This is a deliberate attempt to destroy the region's economy." "Reprehensibly, in the past one-week, Indian forces have blatantly carried out a series of extra-judicial murders with impunity. Eight innocent Kashmiris were mercilessly martyred by Indian occupation forces in Baramulla, Shopian and Pulwama. Since its unilateral and illegal actions of 5th August 2019, Indian occupation forces have martyred more than 678 Kashmiris, including at least 158 this year." He said Pakistan reiterated its call for the investigation of extra-judicial killings in the IIOJK by a Commission of Inquiry as recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its Kashmir Reports of 2018 and 2019.

He said, "We strongly rejected Indian External Affairs Minister's highly irresponsible remarks insinuating at Pakistan's so-called involvement in international terrorism." Pakistan's contribution to the world peace, from successful counter-terrorism operations to its role in the global fight against terrorism, was widely acknowledged by the international community, he noted.

In stark contrast, he said, nowhere was state-terrorism more evident than in the IIOJK, where over 900,000 Indian occupation forces continued to terrorize, torture and torment innocent Kashmiris with impunity.

"No pretense at portraying normalcy, as is attempted by the recent visit of the Indian Home Minister to IIOJK can hoodwink the world into believing that the situation is normal in IIOJK. The visit means nothing for the oppressed and subjugated Kashmiris; it is a mere smokescreen aimed at diverting international attention from the grave human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian occupation troops in IIOJK." He said the world was also aware of the saffron terror orchestrated and unleashed by the BJP-RSS zealots against Muslims in India.

"Most recent harrowing example is the public floggings meted out to Muslim men in Gujrat for allegedly disturbing the Hindu religious festival of Navrati." He stated, "We have always said that the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lies in the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions, and the stipulations of these resolutions are very evident.

"They provide the legal basis on which this issue needs to be resolved. Importantly, it revolves around the organization of a UN supervised plebiscite to ascertain the will of the Kashmiri people. So it is very evident that the desire, the will of the Kashmiri people is very primordial in the solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute."The spokesperson said Pakistan supported a solution that was in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people. "So I think the Indian side needs to understand that if they are really genuine and serious in resolving this dispute, they have to proceed in accordance with this international legal framework, which is there, which has been there for seven decades, and which has the legitimacy and acceptance of the international community."