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UNSC convenes special meeting on worsening human rights situation in IIOJK: source

China, which is among the five permanent Security Council members, pushed for the meeting

By Web Desk
August 05, 2020
No official details had been released of the meeting which is being held behind closed doors with an Indonesian representative in chair. — AFP/Files

ISLAMABAD: United Nations Security Council had convened a special meeting in New York to discuss the worsening human rights situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a senior diplomatic source informed Geo.tv on Wednesday.

No official details had been released of the meeting which was held behind closed doors with an Indonesian representative in chair. A post-meeting statement has yet to be issued.

China, which is among the five permanent Security Council members, pushed for the meeting owing to reports of widespread human rights violations and a crippling curfew in the Indian occupied part of the disputed territory.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on behalf of Pakistan, welcomed the meeting. "This is a mark of solidarity of the international community and Council members with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, subjected to a savage military siege," he said.

"This third meeting in a year by the UN Security Council serves as a stark repudiation to the Indian claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an 'internal matter' and further reaffirms validity of UN resolutions on the Kashmiris' right to self determination through an impartial plebiscite," Qureshi added.

The situation has worsened in India-occupied Kashmir since the Modi government unilaterally annexed the Himalayan territory last year on August 5 and placed an extensive security clampdown in the Muslim majority areas to quell any popular backlash.

New Delhi also dismissed the state legislative assembly and arrested the entire political leadership of the occupied territory.

The move was vehemently condemned by Pakistan which pushed for the issue to be raised in the UNSC since the territory had been declared a disputed one through various resolutions in 1948 and later years.

The Wednesday meeting is the fourth such meeting on Jammu and Kashmir since August 16 last year. Two other closed-door meetings were held in December 2019 and January this year.

The Himalayan state is divided between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals and claimed by both in totality.