Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Thursday, while calling for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s enhanced efforts for a lasting solution to Jammu and Kashmir dispute, said the oppressed Kashmiri people counted on OIC and Muslim Ummah more than ever.
Addressing a meeting of the OIC Contact Group in New York, Qureshi requested the participants to raise the issue at all relevant forums of the United Nations, including the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
The minister condemned Indian forces for using pellet guns, imprisoning Kashmiri political leaders, abducting children and women, staging fake encounters and indulging in a killing spree of Kashmiri youth in the occupied territory.
Qureshi informed the session that the government of Pakistan had recently released a comprehensive and well-researched dossier containing the entire range of gross, systematic and widespread violations of human rights perpetrated by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.
“The 131-page dossier covers accounts of 3,432 victims of war crimes perpetrated by senior officers of Indian occupation forces. The crimes catalogued in the dossier are corroborated by video and audio evidence that we have meticulously gathered over time,” he told the participants.
He urged the secretary-general of the OIC to circulate the dossier among all members of the organisation and have it widely disseminated.
“There will be no peace in South Asia until the just and equitable resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with resolutions of UN and the wishes of Kashmiri people,” the foreign minister stressed.
Hitting out at the extremist “Hindutva ideology” of the incumbent Indian government, Qureshi lamented that the RSS-BJP regime had also embarked on a design to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory and obliterate the distinct identity of the Kashmir people.
He said over 4.2 million fake certificates had already been issued in another “so-called” Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020.
The foreign minister said Pakistan had expected that after the ceasefire agreement this year in February, India would take positive steps to enable resumption of engagement for resolution of the dispute. “Instead India intensified its repression,” he said.
Qureshi highlighted that Pakistan was prepared to engage with India for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute but the onus was on the neighbouring country to create a conducive environment.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on called upon the international community to “take immediate cognisance of the compelling evidence” contained in a dossier issued by Pakistan on September 12 against India’s heinous crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The foreign ministers of the contact group met on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York today.
They called upon the world powers to “hold India accountable” for the crimes committed by Indian occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier, Qureshi stressed sustained and positive engagement of the international community with the newly-established government in Afghanistan, as he met his Turkish and Saudi counterparts.
