Pakistan rejects India’s ‘illegal amends’ to IOK’s land ownership laws

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday categorically rejected India’s recent illegal amendments in the land ownership laws in occupied Kashmir, saying it was a “clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, and international law”.

The Foreign Office in a statement reminded India that the valley is an “internationally recognised dispute under the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions and international law”. “India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and subsequent measures, particularly the domicile law and now the land ownership laws, are aimed at changing the demographic structure of IIOJK to convert the Kashmiris into a minority in their own land,” noted the FO. It added that by changing the demographic structure of the occupied valley, New Delhi was violating the 4th Geneva Convention and committing a “war crime”. “All these measures and laws, lacking legal and moral legitimacy, are forced upon the oppressed people of IIOJK through the barrel of the gun with an unprecedented military siege in the most militarised zone in the world,” said the FO.

Pakistan reiterated that such steps can neither change the disputed nature of the region as recognised by the United Nations and the international community nor can they “prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people”.

Pakistan urged the UN and the international community to take "immediate action to stop India from changing the demography and distinct identity” of occupied Kashmir. It also asked global body of nations to urge new Delhi to facilitate the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as per the relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.