Pakistan on Monday urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to steps up its efforts to facilitate a lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
“In view of the grave situation, the oppressed people of Indian-held Kashmir now more than ever count on OIC and the Muslim Ummah. The OIC must urge India to: rescind its unilateral and illegal actions since 5 August 2019; implement the relevant UNSC resolutions to hold a UN-supervised plebiscite in occupied valley; halt its blatant human rights violations and provide unhindered access to OIC, IPHRC, UN, human rights organizations and international media to investigate and report on the situation in the occupied territory,” Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi told an emergency virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir. He urged the member states to raise the issue at various international forums, including the UN and Human Rights Council (HRC) through the OIC platform.
The virtual interaction aimed at taking stock of the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Indian-held Kashmir as well as formulating a way forward. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Niger KallaAnkourao, OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen and AJK President Masood Khan also attended the session.
Addressing the forum, Foreign Minister Qureshi said the current Indian leadership remains bent upon perpetuating India’s illegal occupation of Jammu & Kashmir. “The Hindutva agenda of the RSS-BJP combine is deliberately targeting defenceless Kashmiris with unspeakable violence to break their will. Brute force is being used to crush the Kashmiris’ quest for their fundamental rights – especially the right to self-determination enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council and OIC resolutions,” he said. “For the last 10 months, the Kashmiri people have endured untold suffering from continuous lockdown, military siege, communications blockade, and unprecedented restrictions,” he went on to say. “The Indian occupation forces have since violated even basic human right of the Kashmiri people and employed every tool of oppression to further consolidate their stranglehold,” he added.
He said in order to prevent the world from knowing the real situation in Kashmir, the occupation forces are suppressing, intimidating and incarcerating Kashmiri male and female journalists. Pakistan has been consistently sensitizing OIC and the international community about the real Indian intention behind its actions, which is to change the demographic structure of the occupied valley and further disempower and disenfranchise the Kashmiris, he said, adding that the latest steps in this direction are the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of State Law) Order 2020 and the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules 2020.
Qureshi said while the world community is grappling with Covid-19 pandemic, India remains busy intensifying its brutalization of the Kashmiri people. The inhuman restrictions imposed on them have exacerbated the coronavirus challenges, with access to medical and other supplies severely hampered, he said. “The RSS-inspired BJP government has refused to respond to the appeals of the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to release political and other prisoners at risk in crowded jails. Indian occupation forces are operating with complete impunity under the cover of draconian laws such as PSA, AFSPA and UAPA.
There are repeated instances of extra-judicial killings in fake encounters; cordon-and-search operations; and indiscriminate use of pellet guns and live ammunition against unarmed peaceful protestors,” he said, adding that in the last 20 days, 30 young Kashmiris have been martyred and Indian occupation forces are even refusing to return their mortal remains to their families for burial.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said the Kashmiri people will never accept the sinister Hindutva agenda of dispossessing them of their land, marginalizing them politically and economically, and depriving them of their distinct identity. He said the UN Secretary General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, parliaments, human rights and civil society organizations have already voiced their serious concerns. The international media, too, has broken its long silence, since the situation is so grave and the violation of Kashmiri rights so egregious, he added.
The foreign minister said Jammu and Kashmir dispute, just like Palestine, continues to be the longest standing item on the UN and OIC agenda and the occupying powers in both Kashmir and Palestine are pursuing similar tactics to disenfranchise and dispossess the people. He said Pakistan greatly appreciates the OIC’s continued and unequivocal support on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. “This organization has been at the forefront of efforts to support the just and legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir for their inalienable right to self-determination, as reflected by the decisions and resolutions of the Islamic Summits and Council of Foreign Minister sessions, and the statements issued by the General Secretariat and IPHRC,” he added.
