IOK nightmare a test of world conscience: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday the continued humanitarian nightmare in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (oJK) was a test of the world’s conscience.

The Prime Minister said this in a meeting with prominent British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford and American international law expert Eric Lewis who called on him here.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Barrister Shahzad Akbar also attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the worsening human rights violations by the Indian occupation forces in IoJK and the Prime Minister highlighted the plight of the innocent Kashmiri people.

Khan reiterated that the international community should act against the illegal annexation of the IoJK by the Indian occupation forces.

He reaffirmed that Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the just and legitimate struggle of the people of IoJK for the realisation of their right to self-determination according to the UN Charter, UNSC resolutions and in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office rejected comments by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesperson about a tweet of Prime Minister Khan regarding discriminatory citizenship bill passed by the Indian Parliament this week.

“Many international human rights organisations and neutral observers even from within India have characterised the legislation as discriminatory against Muslims and unconstitutional,” the Foreign Office spokesman said and reiterated that this Indian legislation was premised on a falsehood, both with regard to the alleged decline in non-Muslim population in Pakistan as well as their alleged persecution in the country.

The spokesman said objectively speaking, India should be the last country to pretend being a “protector” of the minorities, adding the world’s media have widely reported on and condemned the deplorable conditions of the minorities in India, especially since the assumption of office of right-wing BJP in 2014. He said the architects of the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat did not have the moral high-ground to preach about the rights of minorities to India’s neighbouring countries, adding today’s India was synonymous with lynching of members of minority communities including low caste Dalits by mobs, often with state complicity.

He said the persecution of nearly eight million unarmed and innocent Kashmiri Muslims, incarcerated by 900,000 Indian security forces for over four months, was a living testimony to India being a country with no respect for human rights and minority rights.

“We urge the international community to take notice of the violation of minorities’ rights in India, including the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal occupation of India,” the spokesman said.