ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi Tuesday reiterated that Pakistan would go to every forum to ensure that Indian atrocities in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) were halted and the dispute was resolved in line with the aspirations of the Kashmiris and the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s principled political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle for the right to self-determination.
The foreign minister was talking to a five-member delegation of British parliamentarians led by Khalid Mahmood, and comprising Imran Hussain and Stephen Timms who called on him and discussed the current deteriorating human rights situation in IoJ&K. The delegation is on a four-day visit to Pakistan, the Foreign Office in a press release said.
The foreign minister apprised the delegation of the illegal unilateral actions by India in IoJ&K and the ruthless military siege of the valley which continued consecutively for three weeks, without any respite, despite international condemnation and censure.
He emphasized that the nefarious attempts by India to alter the disputed status of IoJ&K was a clear violation of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir. India had severed all lines of communication cutting off millions of Kashmiris from the world, he added.
Qureshi said the international media and other reputable human rights organizations continued to report on night raids by Indian occupation forces, abduction of young boys, sexual assault of women, torture and lack of access to food and essential medicines.
The United Nations Security Council Consultation on Jammu & Kashmir dispute, which India frenetically tried to stop, was a testimony to the fact that it was an internationally recognized dispute, he added.
“Indian actions are a grave, destabilizing threat to the already volatile situation in South Asia and could have serious implications. The United Nations Security Council has a role to ensure peace and security in the region,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Qureshi further said Pakistan had expressed its concerns to the international community about Indian diversionary tactics, including the escalation at the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary and the possibility of an Indian false flag operation.
The foreign minister stressed the efforts of the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora and said that every effort was critical in raising the issue of gross human rights violations in IoJ&K in the Europe and beyond.
He said that consistent efforts were required to sensitize the international community regarding the deplorable situation of human rights in IoJ&K.
The foreign minister lauded efforts of the British parliamentarians in highlighting the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
The members of the UK parliamentary delegation recognized Pakistan’s concerns regarding the latest developments in IoJ&K and said that the continued curfew as well as potentially serious human rights abuses not being reported due to the blanket media blackout deserved the attention of the international community
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