Qureshi says world not openly speaking out on Kashmir due to economic, other interests

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday maintained that the world was not raising the Kashmir issue or speaking about it openly due to their economic and other interests shared with India.

The foreign minister made these remarks while speaking to the media during a visit to the Line of Control (LoC) along with Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security, Dr Moeed Yusuf as the country marks the first anniversary of the Indian revocation of the special status of occupied Kashmir.

Lamenting that Indian forces deployed along the LoC have been targeting innocent people and the evidence of that was the wounded sitting right in front of them, the minister said that Kashmiris have rejected India’s August 5 move unanimously.

“I laud your efforts and God willing, victory will be yours,” he said.

The ministers briefed the media regarding ceasefire violations being carried out by Indian forces.

Qureshi said the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir are not alone in their just struggle for the right to self-determination.

“The people of Pakistan will raise voice and flags in support of oppressed Kashmiri people on Wednesday.”

He said this struggle will continue until the Kashmiris get their right to self-determination as promised to them by the UN Security Council resolutions.

The foreign minister regretted that the Kashmiris were not allowed to offer Eid ul Adha prayers and sacrifice animals.

He said the implementation has been started on the action plan to protect the people of Azad Kashmir from the Indian ceasefire violations.

On Friday, the minister had announced that he would visit the LoC on August 3 to deliver a message that the Pakistani nation stood with their Kashmiri brethren in their struggle for self-determination.

The visit also coincides with 'Yaum-e-Istehsal' being marked in the country on August 5, to show solidarity with the Kashmiris for India's revocation of Article 370 of its constitution in a bid to annex the disputed territory.

The minister had said that the whole nation should raise its voice against the military siege imposed by New Delhi in Indian occupied Kashmir a year ago after the revocation of its special status and convey a message to the Kashmiris that they were not alone in their struggle for the right to self-determination.

"On the day (August 5, 2019), IoJK’s flag was lowered, the Kashmiris were put behind the bars, and perhaps today no Eid prayer congregation was held in Srinagar," he added.

The Kashmiri people had been facing immense difficulties, pain, and persecution under the continued military siege for the last one year, Qureshi stressed.