Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday reiterated that a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people remained a prerequisite for durable peace and stability in South Asia.

He was talking to the OIC’s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, Yousef Aldoubeay, who called on him here. The Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tarig Bakhit, and senior members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) delegation were also present on the occasion.

The Prime Minister underlined the importance of the OIC’s principled position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the resolute support of the Islamic Ummah to the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination.

He highlighted the atrocities being committed by India in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), with over 900,000 troops deployed in the occupied territory, making it the most militarized zone in the world.

The Prime Minister underscored that the illegal and unilateral actions of India since 5 August 2019 were aimed at disenfranchising the Kashmiris and altering the demographic structure of the IIOJK in order to convert it into a Hindu dominated territory.

These illegal actions were in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention, he stressed.

The Prime Minister underscored the urgent need to allow access to the OIC, UN and other human rights organizations international media to visit IIOJK and conduct independent investigations into and reporting upon human rights abuses.

He also called for provision of humanitarian support and assistance to the people of IIOJK.

The Prime Minister strongly underscored the need for the Islamic world to forge greater unity against the challenges posed by the extremist political ideologies stoking Islamophobia.

He also underlined the imperative of peaceful resolution of international conflicts and longstanding disputes including Jammu & Kashmir and Palestine.

Separately, the special envoy of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Jammu and Kashmir Yousef Aldoubeay met with Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood here on Monday.

The OIC’s Assistant Secretary General (ASG) for Humanitarian Affairs Tarig Bakhit and other senior members of the OIC delegation were also present.

Welcoming the special envoy, the foreign secretary underscored that the visit reaffirmed the OIC’s resolute support to the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination. As a collective voice of the Islamic Ummah, this steadfast and principled position was a source of strength to the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

On the human rights situation in the IIOJK, the foreign secretary stressed that since its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, India had denied all fundamental rights and freedoms to the Kashmiris, detained the legitimate Kashmiri leadership and killed, maimed and summarily executed and tortured Kashmiris on a mass scale. The Covid-19 pandemic had turned the dire situation into a grave humanitarian crisis.

The foreign secretary added that subsequent steps by India including the issuance of over 4.2 million domiciles to Indian citizens were meant to disenfranchise the Kashmiris and to turn the Muslim majority of the IIOJK into a Hindu dominated territory. These actions were in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.

The foreign secretary emphasized that the exclusionist policies being pursued by the RSS-BJP dispensation reflected their ideological agenda of establishing a Hindu Rashtra. This majoritarian outlook espoused suppressing all minority communities, especially the Muslims. It posed a serious threat to regional peace and stability, he added.

The foreign secretary stated that the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had issued separate Kashmir reports in 2018 and 2019 and Pakistan had underlined that this reporting should continue. The foreign secretary handed over a copy of the dossier on the human rights violations by the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK unveiled by the Government of Pakistan on 12 September 2021.

Commending the leading role of the OIC on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the foreign secretary noted that the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir had convened four Ministerial meetings since the Indian actions of 5 August 2019. He welcomed the clear and unequivocal reaffirmation of the OIC’s principled stance on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the joint communique adopted by the Ministerial meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir in New York, on 23 September 2021.

Thanking the foreign secretary for the detailed update of the situation in the IIOJK, the special envoy expressed OIC’s abiding solidarity and support to the legitimate Kashmiri struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The OIC’s special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir is visiting Pakistan and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir from 7-12 November 2021 to undertake a first-hand assessment of the human rights and humanitarian situation in the IIOJK. He earlier visited the region in March 2020.