Pakistan has firmly rejected the “baseless and misleading remarks” made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) after the Pahalgam false flag operation.
Modi arrived in Reasi in IIOJK, the other day, to inaugurate the Reasi rail bridge and flagged off train to Srinagar. Addressing at a rally in Katra, he accused Pakistan of attacking’insaniyat and Kashmiriyat’ (humanity and the Kashmiri identity) in Pahalgam and went so far as to label Islamabad “an enemy of poor’s bread and butter”.
In a strong rebuttal, the Foreign Office said: “Pakistan firmly rejects the baseless and misleading remarks made by the prime minister of India regarding the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
It added that such statements represented a “deliberate attempt to deflect international attention from the grave and persistent human rights violations being committed in a territory under foreign occupation.”
“We are deeply dismayed that the Indian prime minister has once again chosen to accuse Pakistan of involvement in the Pahalgam attack, without presenting a single piece of credible evidence,” FO said in its statement.
“Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed territory, the final status of which is to be determined in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people,” it said, adding that no amount of rhetoric could change the legal and historical reality.
“Claims of development in IOJK ring hollow against the backdrop of an unprecedented military presence, suppression of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary arrests, and a concerted effort to alter the region’s demography in violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention,” FO said.
Pakistan called upon the international community, including the UN and human rights organisations, to hold India accountable for its oppression and to ensure that the “Kashmiri people are allowed to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”
“Pakistan remains steadfast in its principled support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for their rights and dignity,” FO said.