ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members to draw their attention towards a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue and Indian atrocities in the region.
While addressing a virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, Qureshi urged OIC to put pressure on India to lift communication restrictions in IoK to enable the dissemination of information and to ensure the unfettered supply of daily items to the people.
He said “Since then, the situation has further aggravated. It is marked by gross and systemic violations of human rights and an escalating threat to regional peace and security”.
Indian leadership remains bent upon perpetuating India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, adding that the ‘Hindutva’ agenda of the RSS-BJP combine is deliberately targeting defenseless Kashmiris with unspeakable violence to break their will, FM added.
FM Qureshi further appealed the world community to come forward and raise the issue of the detained eight million Kashmiris in the illegally annexed region.
He also condemned the Indian Domicile law and said that such steps were in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions and must be stopped. Qureshi also said that the reason behind the baseless domicile law was to change the population ratio, which the Modi government wants to achieve.
The minister highlighted the recent domicile law in IOJ&K, stressing that it was in clear violation of relevant UN and OIC resolutions and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.
He said that Pakistan has consistently been raising the issue with the OIC and the international community about India’s “real intentions to change the demographic structure of the region and further disempower and disenfranchise the Kashmiris”.
He deplored that in the garb of epidemic crisis, India was imposing even more stringent lockdown in the occupied territory and enhanced repression of the Kashmiri population through fake encounters, extrajudicial killings and other repressive steps.
FM said, “It is highly reprehensible that while the world community is grappling with the COVID-19 outbreak, India remains busy intensifying its brutalization of the Kashmiri people.”
He maintained that India was seeking to cover up the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiris, by calling it “terrorism” and by blaming Pakistan.
The foreign minister said that the world was battling with the coronavirus pandemic but on the other side India was continuously violating human rights in IoK.
In a statement issued after the meeting, OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef A Al-Othaimeen stressed the group’s commitment to finding a peaceful settlement for the Kashmir issue.
“At the same time, I call on the international community to strengthen its efforts to assist the people of Kashmir to decisively practice their legitimate rights denied for decades,” the secretary-general added.
The group also reaffirmed the continued support for the people of occupied Kashmir and called on the United Nations secretary-general to urge India to abide by the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions and engage in dialogue.
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