Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Monday said that the world is not openly speaking out on the issue of occupied valley of Kashmir due to economic and other interests it shares with India.
“Indian forces deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) have been targeting innocent Kashmiris and the evidence of that is the wounded sitting right in front of us,” he said while speaking to media at the LoC along with Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf, as the country marks the first anniversary of the Indian revocation of the special status of the occupied valley. “I laud your efforts and God willing, victory will be yours,” he said. The foreign minister said Kashmiris have rejected India’s August 5 move unanimously and that the world is not raising the issue or speaking about it due to their economic and other interests. He said the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are not alone in their just struggle for the right to self-determination. “The people of Pakistan will raise voice and flags in support of oppressed Kashmiri people on Wednesday,” he said, adding that the struggle will continue until the Kashmiris get their right to self-determination as promised to them by the UN Security Council resolutions.
The foreign minister regretted that the Kashmiris were not allowed to offer Eid-ul-Azha prayers and sacrifice animals. He said the implementation has been started on the action plan to protect the people of Azad Kashmir from the Indian ceasefire violations.
He said no Kashmiri is ready to accept India’s decision to annex occupied Kashmir. “They are restricted and locked up … but minds and hearts cannot be locked up,” he said. Pakistan would raise voice for the Kashmiris at every international forum and highlight their plight at the hands of Indian security forces, he said, and emphasised that the Pakistani nation, military and political leadership had a consensus on the resolution of the Kashmir issue. “Prime Minister Imran Khan as an ambassador of Kashmir and I myself as a foreign minister are fighting your case at every forum,” he said, adding that every effort would be made to “shake the conscience of the world”.
The minister noted that India was giving a false impression about the resumption of normalcy in occupied Kashmir. “If the situation is normal then why are the bodies of martyrs not being returned? It is because they are afraid of the reaction,” he said, adding that New Delhi had deployed 900,000 troops in the region for the same reason. “They are degenerating psychologically, while you are winning this fight with determination,” he said, and told the villagers that the Kashmir Highway in Islamabad had been renamed as the Srinagar Highway “because our destination is Srinagar”. He said the day was not far when Kashmiris “will offer prayers of gratitude at Srinagar’s Jamia mosque”.
Earlier, on arrival at the LoC, Qureshi said the entire country is proud of its soldiers deployed at the LoC. He visited Muzaffarabad where he met the political leadership of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
While departing for the visit to LoC, Qureshi in a video message said that Pakistan stands with Kashmiris. “Innocent Kashmiris are targeted by Indian forces every day at the LoC as New Delhi keeps violating the ceasefire pact between the two countries,” he said. “The Kashmiri people have rejected India’s illegal’s move on August 5, 2019,” he noted, adding that the people of Kashmir will continue their struggle until they get their right to self-determination.
SAPM Yusuf said he was “so proud of our armed forces for defending Kashmiris against constant Indian aggression and CFVs (ceasefire violations)”. He paid tribute to the resolve of the victims of the Indian firing to “support the goal of their Kashmiri brethren for self-determination and liberation from illegal Indian occupation”. “I appeal to the entire nation to join in solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in IIOJK on #YoumeIstehsal. If they keep suffering, we keep suffering,” he tweeted.
Earlier on Saturday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa had said that Pakistan was aware of the enemy’s design to destabilise the country and the region, adding that the army was fully prepared and capable of thwarting any such “covert or overt undertakings”. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), he visited troops deployed on frontlines along the Line of Control (LoC) in Khuiratta Sector as the nation celebrated Eid ul Azha.
