Pakistan denounces fresh round of curbs on Kashmiri Political Parties

ISLAMABAD, March 19 (SABAH): Pakistan has denounced the Indian authorities’ decision to declare the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League and four factions of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League as “unlawful associations”. It also denounces the decision to extend the ban on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Mohammad Yasin Malik faction) for five more years.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in a statement issued on Tuesday said that with the fresh notifications, a total of 14 Kashmiri political parties have become outlawed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The affiliates of these parties are also facing persecution. Most notably, a death penalty has been sought for Mohammad Yasin Malik, who was awarded life sentence in 2022. However, such oppressive tactics cannot suppress the Kashmiri people’s aspirations for realization of their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

FO spokesperson said that India’s ongoing campaign to crush dissent in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) contravenes the international human rights and humanitarian law as well as democratic norms.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the Government of India is urged to lift the curbs on the banned Kashmiri parties; release all the political prisoners, including Yasin Malik; and implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.