Qureshi invites Mirwaiz Umar Farooq for London event on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference spoke on telephone today where Qureshi briefed him on the efforts of the government of Pakistan to highlight the gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The Foreign Office did not indicate as to who made these calls which are not unusual but rarely made public. This time it appears that Qureshi contacted Mirwaiz to invite him for an event on Kashmir to be held in London at the House of Commons together with an exhibition being held in London on 4-5 February 2019.

Unfortunately, Mirwaiz responded that though he would have wanted to be present for the London events, but his passport and those of his contemporaries, had been confiscated by the government of India to prevent them from traveling abroad.

Mirwaiz was updated on efforts by Pakistan to highlight the centrality of Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the grave human rights violations against the Kashmiri people by India, which are being widely condemned and need to be immediately stopped.

Qureshi raised the June 2018 report issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the APPKG report of the UK Parliament while emphasising that India should permit visit of the Commission of Inquiry, as envisaged in both reports.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq appreciated efforts of the government of Pakistan and emphasised that the Indian atrocities shall never be able to suppress the will of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who will continue to raise their voice against severe Indian repression and in the face of Indian black laws.