Pakistan rejects Indian plan to conduct G20 summit in IOJK

ISLAMABAD, June 25 (SABAH): Pakistan on Saturday has strongly rejected and opposed the Indian government’s reported plan to hold a G20 summit, an influential gathering that brings together the world’s major economies, in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) next year.

According to a report published in The Indian Express on the other day, India decided to host the meetings of G20 in the disputed region next year and formed a five-member committee to coordinate the event.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Saturday, Pakistan condemned the neighbouring country’s plans, stressing that occupied Kashmir was an internationally recognised “disputed” territory between Pakistan and India.

The territory has been under forcible and illegal occupation of India since 1947 and this dispute has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades.

The FO observed that India was responsible for “widespread atrocities and egregious human rights violations” in the region. “Since its illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed 639 innocent Kashmiris in extra-judicial murders.

Pakistan also strongly urged the international community to call upon India to end its gross and systematic violations of human rights in IOJK, revoke its illegal and unilateral actions, and free all political prisoners including the true Kashmiri leaders.

“The only way to lasting peace in South Asia is by granting the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir their inalienable right to self-determination as pledged to them in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the FO added.