Pakistan rejects Indian minister’s remarks on Kashmir law

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday rejected the “irresponsible” remarks by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tweet condemning the recent Indian steps to illegally change the demographic structure of the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoJ&K).

“The latest Indian action, aim at further usurping the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people through changing the domicile law at a time when the world is busy fighting Covid-19 pandemic, once again betrays the BJP leadership’s rank political opportunism and moral bankruptcy,” Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement.

She said India’s incessant regurgitation of the claim that occupied Jammu and Kashmir was an “internal affair” would neither turn this falsehood into truth, nor make this illegality, valid. The spokesperson said the IoJ&K was an internationally recognised “disputed” territory, as enshrined in the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

These resolutions stipulate that the final disposition of the state of Jammu and Kashmir will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices, she added.

“No amount of Indian sophistry could obfuscate India’s state-terrorism in IoJ&K and the RSS-inspired ‘Hindutva’ agenda being imposed by the BJP government. Nor would India’s use of brutal force ever succeed in breaking the will of the Kashmiri people fighting for their inalienable right to self-determination,” she remarked.

“It should also be clear to India that, for their part, Pakistan and its leadership would never flinch in their support for the just and legitimate cause of the Kashmiri people,” the spokesperson added.