Daily Times

Pakistan Friday urged the international community to hold India responsible for its brazen persecution of innocent Kashmiris and play its role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Speaking at the weekly press briefing here, the Foreign Office Spokesperson said Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week and conveyed Government of Pakistan’s serious concerns over the deteriorating health condition of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah who had been incarcerated in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years and was suffering from renal cancer and was consistently denied medical aid by Indian authorities. “We also remain deeply concerned over the deteriorating health and continued incarceration of Kashmiri political prisoners including Hurriyat leaders like Yasin Malik who are languishing in different jails of India and in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).” “Mirwaiz Umar Farooq remains under house arrest and is continuously denied access to go to the Jamia Masjid to deliver the Friday sermon,” he added. The Spokesperson said IIOJK continued to be strangled economically, facing the brunt of Indian occupation forces economic terrorism.

“While the region has a stark unemployment rate, its farmers are faced with prolonged and forced road blockades by the occupation forces, exposing them to risks of the produce going rotten. This is a deliberate attempt to destroy the region’s economy.” “Reprehensibly, in the past one-week, Indian forces have blatantly carried out a series of extra-judicial murders with impunity. Eight innocent Kashmiris were mercilessly martyred by Indian occupation forces in Baramulla, Shopian and Pulwama. Since its unilateral and illegal actions of 5th August 2019, Indian occupation forces have martyred more than 678 Kashmiris, including at least 158 this year.” He said Pakistan reiterated its call for the investigation of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK by a Commission of Inquiry as recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its Kashmir Reports of 2018 and 2019.

He said, “We strongly rejected Indian External Affairs Minister’s highly irresponsible remarks insinuating at Pakistan’s

so-called involvement in international terrorism.”

Pakistan’s contribution to world peace, from successful counter-terrorism operations to our role in the global fight against terrorism, was widely acknowledged by the international community, he noted. In stark contrast, he said nowhere was state-terrorism more evident than in IIOJK, where over 900,000 Indian occupation forces continue to terrorize, torture and torment innocent Kashmiris with impunity.