Qureshi, ex-secretaries brainstorm IOK

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Friday consulted the country’s former foreign secretaries on the latest situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) where the security and communication clampdown has been in force since August 5.

According to the foreign minister, India had deprived the world of getting access to the ground realities in the IOK by imposing restrictions on the means of communication.

Friday’s meeting comes on the heels of deliberations between Pakistan and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud where the focus was on the IOK situation and deliberations on finding ways and means to see how the OIC could play a more robust role to further advance the cause of Kashmir.

There has been criticism even from politicians and some senior former Foreign Office diplomats that after the UN speech by the prime minister, the momentum could not be maintained on Kashmir where stronger voices were raised from important world capitals.

The former foreign secretaries also discussed the recent anti-Muslim citizenship law proposed by the Indian government, and the heating up of the Line of Control, which had taken casualties on both sides.

Prime Minister Imran Khan too has called upon the world capitals to take seriously the heating up of the LoC by India which is clearly a plan to divert attention from India’s internal anarchy The foreign minister said Pakistan was and would continue exposing Indian brutalities in the Occupied Kashmir at every platform.

“The fire which was started by the Modi government in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) on August 5, has now engulfed entire India,” said FM Qureshi as per information coming from the Foreign Office to The News, though no formal statement of the consultations was issued.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India was resorting to continuous ceasefire violations along the Line of Control to divert world’s attention from its internal anarchy.

“Pakistan is exposing Indian brutalities in the held valley at every platform, Hindutva-based thought of Modi government has divided the entire India,“ he added. He said India had deprived the world of getting access to the ground realties in the IOK by imposing restrictions on the means of communications. Besides the continued curfew, Indian aggression in the IOK, the critical situation of peace and security of the region was also raised.