Kashmir dispute cannot be solved by force: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has reiterated that the Kashmir dispute cannot be solved by the use of force as he commented on intensifying brutalities carried out by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir.

In a statement on Friday, the minister said the Indian strategy of using force against the Kashmiri people for the past seven decades has “totally failed”.

His comments come after a Kashmiri youth died in police custody in Sopore several days ago and the Thursday killings of a woman and three others in a brutal operation carried out by Indian paramilitary soldiers in Srinagar.

“India tried to use force to gag the voice of Kashmiris through draconian laws and restrictions,” he said, adding there is no precedent to the atrocities that have been committed in Indian-occupied Kashmir since August 5 last year. “India cannot succeed in resolving the dispute by these atrocities,” he added.

Qureshi said the Kashmiri people bury their martyrs in Pakistan’s national flag, which proves they “have not accepted” India’s moves. The Foreign Minister recalled his recent bilateral meetings on sidelines of the SCO, during which he drew the world’s attention towards the unresolved Kashmir issue.

Meanwhile, the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat forum and other pro-freedom leaders strongly denounced the custodial murder of Irfan Dar in Sopore and the four other killings in the Batamaloo neighbourhood of Srinagar by occupation police and troops, Kashmir Media Service reported.

Batamaloo and its adjoining areas remained shut on Friday. The deceased woman’s son said Indian forces killed his mother without any provocation. Aqib Reyaz told reporters that they run a bakery and during wee hours of Thursday, they were going to their shop in a vehicle. “When I turned my vehicle, the Indian forces fired upon us and my mother died instantly,” he said.