Islamabad: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday urged OIC Secretary-General to ask India for the acquittal of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik from all baseless charges and ensure his immediate release from prison so that he can be reunited with his family.

“Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has written a letter to the Secretary-General of the OIC, Hissein Brahim Taha, apprising him about the dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” Foreign Office said in a statement.

In particular, the Foreign Minister has expressed grave concern over the sham conviction of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik in a manifestly dubious and motivated case, dating back to 2017, filed against him by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The Foreign Minister underlined that the conviction of Mr. Yasin Malik and conjuring up of motivated cases against the Kashmiri leadership was continuation of the malicious Indian campaign to suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people and deprive them of their true leadership.

“This was illustrative of India as a serial violator of human rights and usurper of the fundamental freedoms of the Kashmiris,” the statement added.

Expressing his deep concern over the inhuman conditions under which Yasin Malik has been detained in the infamous Tihar Jail since 2019 and the brutal treatment meted out to him, the Foreign Minister urged the OIC, in line with its longstanding and principled position on Jammu and Kashmir, to continue to play its role in the wake of a litany of blatantly illegal actions taken by the Indian government to undermine the legitimate struggle led by the Kashmiri leadership to break the shackles of occupation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022