FO asks Modi to stop making ‘delusional statements’

ISLAMABAD: In a strong response to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan on Tuesday asked him to stop making delusional statements about having resolved the Kashmir dispute unilaterally, and that his farcical contentions were not only false but also misleading and clearly showed how oblivious the Indian leadership had become of the ground realities in the Illegaly Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).

The Foreign Office on Tuesday was responding to an unbelievable statement that Modi had made in a rally in the Indian state of Gujarat in which he boasted that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel deftly resolved issues related to the merger of other princely states, but “one person” could not settle the Kashmir issue.

“As I am following the footsteps of Sardar Saheb, I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel,” he said.

Hitting back, Pakistan reminded him, “Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognised dispute, the resolution of which has been on the agenda of the United Nations since 1948.” Despite clear UN resolutions that prescribe a free and impartial plebiscite for the final disposition of the dispute, India has not only illegally occupied the territory but is also guilty of egregious human rights violations employing over 900,000 brutal occupation force.

“The fact remains that the people of IIOJ&K continue to brave India’s reprehensible occupation which it seeks to perpetuate through malicious demographic changes and strong-arm tactics. The craftily staged visits of the Indian leadership to the occupied territory and choreographed launches of so-called development projects in a bid to create a façade of normalcy will neither dampen the spirit of the Kashmiris struggling to break free from the illegal Indian occupation nor would it deceive the world into believing India’s deception,” said the Foreign Office.

One recent demonstration of how unnerved Modi was about the reaction in the valley from the people of Kashmir, could be gauged from the fact that on Tuesday when Kashmiri Freedom fighter Altaf Shah, son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, died in a hospital in Delhi, his body was not being released in time to fly him back to Srinagar. Despite pleas from his family to allow him to die a free man, he died a prisoner. He was suffering of acute renal cancer, but neither was his family allowed to visit him nor was he granted bail on humanitarian grounds.

Pakistan on Tuesday also demanded that the mortal remains of Altaf Ahmed Shah be promptly returned to his family, so that a proper burial in accordance with their wishes could be carried out.

“Instead of making delusional statements about having resolved the dispute unilaterally, the Indian leadership must deliver on their commitments to the Kashmiris and to the world and ensure that the people of Kashmir are accorded their inalienable right to self-determination,” added the Foreign Office.

Pakistan has consistently called upon the international community to assume its role and responsibility with regards to the IIOJ&K and the ongoing Indian atrocities in the occupied territory. India must also be held responsible for its nefarious scheme of altering the demography of the IIOJ&K, as well as for its brutal repression of the innocent Kashmiris.

“Pakistan reiterates its call on human rights and humanitarian organisations to condemn India’s state-terrorism in the IIOJ&K and demand an immediate reversal of the Indian government’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019,” said the FO.

The only solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lies in ensuring that the Kashmiris are allowed to exercise their right of self-determination through the democratic method of holding a UN-mandated free and impartial plebiscite as espoused in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Meanwhile, the Indian Charge d’ Affaires (Cd’A) in Islamabad was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday and conveyed the Government of Pakistan’s strong protest over the inhuman custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah, who remained imprisoned in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years.

“It was deplored that despite Pakistan’s expression of serious concerns over Mr Altaf Ahmed Shah’s sharply deteriorating health, as well as his daughter’s letter addressed to the Indian prime minister apprising him of Mr Shah’s precarious health condition, the Indian government remained completely indifferent. The Government of India not only failed to provide satisfactory medical care to Mr Altaf Ahmed Shah who was suffering from renal cancer but also created inordinate delays in his hospitalisation and essential diagnostic tests,” said the Foreign Office.

Even more heart-wrenching was the fact that the Indian authorities remained adamant in denying Mr Shah’s family access to meet him while deliberately delaying the court hearing of his bail plea on humanitarian grounds.

“It is evident that Mr Altaf Ahmed Shah was victimised and punished because he was the son-in-law of revered Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani and a true representative of the Kashmiri people. His death is the consequence of the Indian government’s wilful and deliberate negligence, utter disregard for human rights and its systematic campaign to suppress and brutalise the Hurriyat leaders,” the Indian diplomat was conveyed.

Recalling the condemnable custodial death of Hurriyat leader Ashraf Sehrai last year, the Foreign Office recalled that after his victimisation and arrest under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA), the Indian Cd’A was conveyed Pakistan’s grave apprehensions regarding the ruthless treatment meted out to Hurriyat leaders including Muhammad Yasin Malik, Massarat Aalam Bhat, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Aasiya Andrabi and several others who have been facing illegal detentions in fabricated cases.

“Equally concerning is the fact that many of these Hurriyat leaders including Muhammad Yasin Malik are suffering from chronic ailments and require urgent medical attention. It is also alarming that at least four Kashmiri political prisoners have died in Indian custody since 2019,” said the FO.

It has been demanded of the Indian government to immediately investigate the custodial death of Mr Altaf Ahmed Shah and hold to account all those responsible for the brutality. The Government of India has also been called upon to desist from unlawfully keeping the indigenous Kashmiri leadership hostage and denying them their fundamental human rights, immediately halt its state-sponsored terrorism in the IIOJ&K, release all political prisoners incarcerated on trumped-up charges, stop human rights violations, lift the inhuman military siege and let the people of IIOJ&K exercise their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their wishes.