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Thursday March 28, 2024

Case against Nawaz in India ridiculous,point scoring bid: Sartaj

By Mariana Baabar
July 22, 2016

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Thursday said that lodging of a case in India against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ridiculous besides being an attempt for point-scoring and expressed satisfaction on condemnation by the UN and international community of the atrocities the Indian government was carrying out on unarmed Kashmiris.

He said India’s attempts to suppress the voice of Kashmiris is a clear manifestation of state-terrorism when in reality the Kashmir issue is recognised under the United Nations, and Pakistan has decided to approach the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate the human rights violations and the recent wave of violence against the civilians in the India-held Kashmir by Indian forces.

 its own behalf and on behalf of OIC Contact Group on Kashmir to (i) send a fact finding mission to Indian Occupied Kashmir to investigate the slaughter of innocent civilians (ii) impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people exercising their right to protest.

He said Pakistan sees the ongoing situation in IHK as a clear manifestation of state-terrorism to suppress Kashmiri’s voice for the right to self-determination.

"We have requested UNHRC to send a fact-finding mission to India-occupied Kashmir and probe recent killings of innocent Kashmiris," Aziz told the weekly media briefing. Regretfully Pakistan last year failed to be re-elected to the UNHRC.

Pakistan’s decision comes at a time when a team of Indian eye surgeons visiting IoK recently due to unprecedented eye injuries said, “It is a war like situation. We have never seen injuries on this scale”, and even within India, there are strong voices over the brutal use of force in IoK and the uprising has been referred to as indigenous.

Rejecting claims by India that Kashmir is an internal matter of India, Aziz reminded New Delhi that Kashmir has been given recognition by the United Nations.

He urged the international community to take notice of the situation in Kashmir and extend its support to the Kashmiri people. The adviser rejected an Indian claim that the violence in Kashmir is India's internal matter.

"It is not their internal matter because Kashmir issue is recognised under the United Nations," Aziz said. In New Delhi the government appeared to be in a state of denial when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh blamed Pakistan for playing a key role in fomenting the recent trouble in Kashmir and said it was sponsoring terrorism in India. “If there is terrorism in India, it is Pakistan-sponsored,” the home minister said.

But Aziz hit back saying that this Indian attempt to claim that the deteriorating human rights situation in IOK is an internal affair of India is factually incorrect, legally untenable and indeed a violation of international law and UNSC resolutions.

“The spontaneous and wide-spread uprising proves that Kashmir struggle is indigenous and rejects the Indian accusations against Pakistan for stirring trouble in IOK.

Such a brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people especially the right to life”, said Aziz.

Sadly even Facebook is seen taking political decisions where supporting the Indian views in the Valley it has “suspended certain accounts on the social media platform, belonging to both native Kashmiris and foreigners present in and outside of the disputed Himalayan region”.

But Pakistan remains undeterred and says that it is its conviction that by suppressing the voice of Kashmiris people for their right to self-determination India will not be able to legitimise its occupation in the IOK.

“The only plausible solution would be the early implementation of UNSC resolution i.e. a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices”, added Aziz.

Pakistan says it has provided and will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self-determination in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

It called upon the international community to condemn these blatant human rights violations and play their role in ensuring the realisation of human rights of the Kashmiri people through fulfilling its commitments towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the UNSC resolutions.