We strongly urge members of int’l community to hold India to account for its atrocities in IIOJK: FO Spokesperson

ISLAMABAD, May 20 (SABAH): Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has said that we strongly urge the members of the international community to hold India to account for its atrocities in Illegally Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and to play their due role in enabling the Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination as pledged to them under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

This was stated by Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad while addressing a weekly press briefing at the Foreign Office on Friday.

At the states of the press briefing FO Spokesperson conveyed deepest condolences on the passing away of Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali. He was a distinguished, learned and outstanding person, who also made his mark as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. May the departed Soul Rest in Peace in Jannah.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that the Government and people of Pakistan received with a deep sense of sadness and grief the news of the passing away of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

FO spokesperson said that on 18 May, the Indian Charge d’ Affaires was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed over a demarche conveying Pakistan’s strong condemnation on the framing of fabricated charges against Hurriyat leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, who is currently imprisoned in the infamous Tihar jail by the Indian authorities.

It is highly reprehensible that Muhammad Yasin Malik has been convicted yesterday in a manifestly dubious and motivated case dating back to 2017.

Predictably, the one-sided case has not only convicted Yasin Malik on fictitious charges in defiance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) but also attempted to make conjectural insinuations about Pakistan.

The renewed haste, with which cases against Kashmiri leadership are being pursued, further exposes the nefarious Indian designs to undermine historic and distinct political and cultural identity of IIOJK. The conviction of Yasin Malik and conjuring up of motivated cases against the Kashmiri leadership is patently the continuation of the malicious Indian campaign to deprive the Kashmiris of their true leadership.

But the draconian strong-arm tactics of the Indian occupation can never dampen the spirit of the indigenous Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination.

He said that it is a matter of grave concern that India, as a serial violator of human rights and usurper of fundamental freedoms of the Kashmiris, continues to commit widespread and gross human rights violations in IIOJK with impunity. During the week, three more Kashmiris were martyred during so-called cordon and search operations in IIOJK. Such gruesome acts are well documented by the UN and international human rights organizations. On various occasions, including September 2021, Pakistan has also presented to the UN and the international community evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK.