World must play role to resolve Kashmir issue: Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said the people and government of Pakistan reaffirm their continued unflinching moral, diplomatic and political support to the oppressed people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK) in their legitimate struggle in the face of increasing Indian brutalities and gross human rights violations.

“Pakistan calls upon the international community to urge India to respect the Human Rights Charter, put an immediate end to the gross human rights violations of innocent Kashmiris in the IoK and ensure expedited resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in line with the UNSC Resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. This is essential for regional peace and development,” he said in a message on the Kashmir Solidarity Day being observed on February 5.

The prime minister observed that even after the passage of more than seven decades, the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been deprived of the fundamental right to self-determination in stark contradiction to the promise made to them by the international community through the United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

Since July 2016, Indian atrocities had resulted in the killings of hundreds of innocent Kashmiris and injuring over 20,000. The unprecedented, inhuman use of pellet guns blinded more than 200 people, including women and young children depriving them of any chance of leading fulfilling lives, he added.

The prime minister said the Hurriyat leaders were being harassed on trumped up charges. India refused to allow the visit of the team of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of the OIC, which visited AJK in March 2017, to the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir thus denying the international community an opportunity to evaluate the situation on the ground.

“India obviously has much to hide. India is condoning the use of human shields in Indian occupied Kashmir, which finds no parallel in today’s world and reflects its practice of using brute force to suppress innocent Kashmiris,” he added.