Unified OIC message on Kashmir ‘critical’: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said a unified political message to India from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) would be critical to help rescind Indian unilateral actions, end human rights abuses and seek a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

The foreign minister, in a video message at the Ambassadorial Meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir held in New York, said the steadfast and resolute support of the OIC was a source of great strength to the Kashmiri people in their just and legitimate struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination.

“We should forcefully demand India to rescind its illegal and unilateral actions in IIOJK; halt its egregious human rights violations; provide access to human rights organizations, including the UN fact finding mission and OIC IPHRC,” he said.

The foreign minister also sought the OIC’s role to seek a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people.

He hoped that the contact group meeting would help identify action-oriented and practical steps to this end. He said during its 47th session in Niamey last November, the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) mandated the Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir to meet regularly and to continue highlighting the Kashmir issue including at the United Nations.

“It is gratifying that the New York Chapter of the Contact Group is playing a prominent role in this collective effort,” he said and lauded Azerbaijan, Niger, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for solidarity with the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The leadership of the OIC Secretary General has been equally instrumental, he added. Qureshi told the meeting that the situation in IIOJK was not hidden from the international community. In the wake of India’s illegal actions of August 5, 2019, the occupied territory has been shrouded in a “veil of darkness”.

He said the inhuman military siege and communications blockade over occupied Jammu and Kashmir had already lasted 550 days. “It is today the largest open-air prison in the world,” he added.

He said since August 5, 2019, the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir has held three meetings, twice at the Ministerial Level. The ministerial declarations issued by the Contact Group have sent a strong message of OIC’s support and solidarity to the international community. The UN Security Council has also considered the matter thrice – in August 2019, January 2020 and August 2020. “It is important to sustain this momentum. A unified political message to India from the OIC would be critical,” he added.