India wants to maintain its illegitimate control over IIOJ&K: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said to Special Envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador Yousef Aldobeay, that India's objective is to maintain its illegitimate control over India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Both the officials discussed the ongoing crisis in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as the foreign minister apprised the envoy of India taking steps to change the demographic ratio in the region by evicting locals.

Qureshi said: “Illegal measures taken by India in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir are a blatant violation of UN resolutions and international law. Oppressed Kashmiris are facing a double lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic,” Qureshi said, adding that “extrajudicial killings of innocent people, arbitrary arrests, rape of women, coercion have become a daily routine.”

The foreign minister highlighted that people living in occupied Jammu and Kashmir are suffering irreparable economic loss due to unilateral measures taken by India. Qureshi recalled that on the occasion of 76th session of the General Assembly, during his visit to New York, he drew attention towards the serious and systematic human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and the negative role of India in the region.

“The dossier issued by the Government of Pakistan on September 12, 2021, contains full details of the war crimes committed by the Indian occupying forces,” he added. The minister emphasised that a solution to the dispute is important for regional peace and stability.

“The unilateral Indian action of August 5, 2019, can neither change the fact nor can it end the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination enshrined in UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.