‘Polls in held Kashmir no substitute for plebiscite’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday expressed deep concern and accused India of settling non-State subjects in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) in hope of turning Muslim majority there into a minority and dividing the population on ethnic, religious and communal lines.
“No elections in the IHK could be a substitute to the plebiscite under the auspices of the UN,” Foreign Secretary, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, informed the Islamabad-based Ambassadors of OIC countries on the status of the issue and the plight of the Kashmiri Muslims in the IHK.
He was briefing the OIC diplomats on the eve of Kashmir Solidarity Day to be observed on February 5.While expressing solidarity with and to reiterate Pakistan’s political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris in the struggle for their right to self-determination, the foreign secretary stressed that the peace in the region would remain elusive without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions that call for a free and fair plebiscite to determine the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
His statement also pointed to the brutalities committed by the Indian security forces in the IHK to suppress the indigenous Kashmiri movement against Indian rule and quoted the staggering figures of Kashmiris killed, women widowed and dishonoured, and children orphaned in gross human rights violations in the IHK.
The OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, consisting of Azerbaijan, Niger, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, meets regularly and adopts resolutions affirming OIC’s continued support to the Kashmiris.
The ambassadors were told that Kashmiris had welcomed the recent mandate given to OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) to monitor human rights violations in the IHK. The foreign secretary emphasised that the OIC, as a body of 57 countries with the world’s 1/5th population and many trillion dollars GDP, could influence India to fulfil its obligations under UN resolutions, to de-militarise the IHK and refrain from blatant human rights violations.