ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday the oppressed people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoJ&K) would never accept the sinister Hindutva agenda and called upon the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to step up efforts for facilitating a lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute.
“Kashmiri people would never accept the sinister Hindutva agenda of dispossessing them of their land, marginalising them politically and economically, and depriving them of their distinct identity,” the foreign minister said in his address at the emergency virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, convened on Pakistan’s call.
Saudi Foreign Minister (FM) Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu, Azerbaijan’s FM Elmar Mammadyarov, FM of Niger Kalla Ankourao, OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen and President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan attended the video meeting.
Qureshi said the oppressed people of IoJ&K, now more than ever, were counting upon the OIC and the Muslim Ummah. “The OIC must urge India to rescind its unilateral and illegal actions since 5th August, 2019; implement the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions to hold a UN-supervised plebiscite in IoJ&K, halt its blatant human rights violations and provide unhindered access to the OIC, Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), UN, human rights organisations and international media to investigate and report on the situation in the occupied territory,” he said.
Qureshi drew the attention of the forum towards aggravated situation in IoJ&K with deteriorating human rights conditions in the valley since the last year’s meeting of the Contact Group held in New York.
Qureshi mentioned that Pakistan had been consistently sensitising the OIC and international community about the real Indian intention behind its actions, aimed at changing the demographic structure of IoJ&K and further disempower and disenfranchise Kashmiris. Qureshi said it was “highly reprehensible” that while the world community was grappling with Covid-19 pandemic, India remained busy intensifying its brutalisation of Kashmiri people denying them access to medical supplies.
He said India’s actions represented state-terrorism at its worst and mentioned that in last 20 days, 30 young Kashmiris had been killed along with severe collective punishment in the form of torching of houses.
“Not unexpectedly, India is seeking to cover up the reality of the popular and indigenous struggle of the Kashmiri people, by terming it ‘terrorism’ and also by blaming Pakistan, raising the familiar bogey of cross-Line of Control (LoC) infiltration,” he said.
Qureshi said as part of this cover-up, India had intensified its violations of the ceasefire along the LoC and Working Boundary.
“Since January 1, India has committed 1,440 ceasefire violations in breach of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding. India has deliberately targeted innocent civilians on the Pakistani side of the LoC, killing 13, and injuring 104, including women and children,” he said.
Qureshi warned the meeting of a possibility of a “false flag” operation by India to divert world’s attention from its state-terrorism and unacceptable actions in IoJ&K.
He said despite Indian military and political leaders’ belligerent rhetoric and aggressive actions on the ground, Pakistan exercised maximum restraint. “Pakistan does not want another conflict. However, it has the will and capacity to respond forcefully and effectively, and defend itself resolutely against any act of aggression,” the foreign minister said.