Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has strongly condemned India’s latest actions in Jammu and Kashmir, warning that Pakistan seeks peace but will firmly respond to any hostility. Speaking at a rally in Islamabad on Kashmir Exploitation Day, he criticized India’s reported plan to grant statehood to Jammu while keeping Kashmir a Union Territory.
Dar said India’s actions since August 5, 2019—including the removal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and division into two territories—violate UN resolutions and international laws. He added that New Delhi’s steps are a direct attack on the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
He highlighted that India has made several changes to Kashmir’s laws in the past six years, expanded the powers of the Lieutenant Governor, and systematically attempted to change the region’s population makeup. Granting non-Kashmiris domicile rights and voting power is part of this dangerous strategy, he said.
Dar warned that India is trying to turn Kashmir into an internal matter, ignoring the fact that it itself brought the issue to the United Nations. He stressed that all member states, including India, are bound by the UN Charter and its resolutions regarding Kashmir’s disputed status.
He accused India of flooding the region with security forces, violating human rights, suppressing media, and jailing thousands of Kashmiris. Dar also raised concerns about thousands of unmarked graves and women living without knowledge of their missing husbands’ fate.
Concluding his speech, Dar said, “We do not wish to fight with anyone, but if anyone looks at Pakistan with bad intentions, we will strike back with full force.” He called on the global community to take notice of the worsening situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir.