Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi has warned of the possibility that India may take further illegal action in occupied Kashmir after its August 5, 2019 move of scrapping the region's special status.
In a letter addressed to the President of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the United Nations Secretary General, Qureshi shared with them Pakistan's concern in this regard.
A statement by the Foreign Office on Wednesday said that the foreign minister apprised the UNSC president and the UN secretary general that there are reports indicating "India may be contemplating the imposition of further illegal and unilateral measures in the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), including division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory".
Qureshi also drew attention to India's continued military siege of occupied Kashmir for 22 months with a massive campaign to suppress the Kashmiris' legitimate demands and its gross and systematic violations of human rights
"The foreign minister recalled that, since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed, tortured, arbitrarily arrested and detained hundreds of Kashmiris, and put almost the entire Kashmiri leadership behind bars," read the Foreign Office statement.
Highlighting India’s design to undermine the exercise of the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people by changing the demographic structure of occupied Kashmir through the issuance of fake domicile certificates and other measures, the foreign minister underscored that “all the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India in IIOJK since 1951, including the measures initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce in the future, are violations of international law including the Security Council Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention, and ipso facto null and void.”
Qureshi called upon the UNSC to "fulfil its responsibility to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute", stressing that the people of occupied Kashmir have "vociferously rejected" the illegal measures imposed by India.
He has also urged the Security Council to call upon India to "end its campaign of repression" in occupied Kashmir and reverse all its illegal actions, including those initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and to "cease and desist from imposing any additional unilateral changes in the occupied territory".
The letter affirmed that Pakistan desires peaceful relations with all its neighbours, including India, but that "the onus is on India to create an enabling environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan".
It observed that a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the the relevant UNSC resolutions and wishes of Kashmiris "is essential for durable peace and stability in South Asia".
Qureshi's letter was handed over to the President of the Security Council by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, according to the Foreign Office.
The foreign minister has been regularly addressing letters to the Security Council and the UN Secretary General in order to keep the UN fully informed of the grave situation in the territory occupied by India, and to remind the Security Council of its responsibility for peaceful and just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions.