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PM Shehbaz will be undertaking a visit to Qatar next week: FO Spokesperson

ISLAMABAD, August 19 (SABAH): Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has said that Pakistan categorically rejects the deliberate Indian attempts of pre-poll rigging and overt manipulation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). He said Kashmiris themselves have also completely rejected the Modi government’s decision to allow non- Kashmiri citizens and temporary residents in IIOJK, to vote in the so-called Kashmir Assembly elections. He said that the move reeks of a blatant attempt to undermine the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and the sinister design of turning the Muslim majority in IIOJK into a minority.

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

FO spokesperson informed that Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will be undertaking a visit to Qatar next week. The Foreign Minister is also visiting four European countries Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, he said. These visits manifest Pakistan’s continuing intense engagement and diplomacy with our partners. We will be sharing further details about these visits in due course, FO spokesperson said.

“We will also be hosting a special screening of the song for our media colleagues to partake the pride we feel at having been given the immense opportunity to represent our homeland internationally” FO spokesperson said.

FO spokesperson said that our Embassies and Missions around the world celebrated the occasion with zeal and fervor through flag hoisting ceremonies, and a host of other events and activities that were attended by a large number of people from the Pakistani community, locals and host government officials.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that on 15th August, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephonic conversation with HRH Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince congratulated people of Pakistan on 75th Anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence. The two leaders also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

While talking about the situation in IIOJK, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that in a blatant display of state terrorism, Indian police took a political prisoner Mohammad Ali Hussain from Kothbalwal Jail Jammu and brought him at Toph Arnia area and killed him in a staged encounter. He said that the killing of Mohammad Ali Hussain under mysterious circumstances at a location far away from the prison is yet another sickening chronicle and a dastardly practice of extra-judicial killing of prisoners in fake encounters by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.

“This is the second such extrajudicial killing of a prisoner – as you would recall Zia Mustafa, from Rawlakot, was taken out of the Kothbalwal jail Jammu and brought to forests in Poonch by the Indian troops and subsequently killed in firing in October 2021” he said.

Asim iftikhar Ahmad said that since 2019, BJP led government in India has unleashed unspeakable atrocities on the innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir. Over 660 Kashmiris have been martyred by Indian Occupational Forces, including over 145 innocent lives this year alone, he said. FO spokesperson said that these cold blooded, underhanded, and blatantly unlawful acts include a ruthless policy of killing and arresting Kashmiris in fake cases, seizing their properties, and dismissing them from government jobs with a view to suppress the ongoing freedom movement.

“We salute the spirit of the oppressed people of IIOJK and their indomitable quest for the right to self-determination guaranteed to them by the UN Security Council. The people of IIOJK stand strong in the face of brutal acts and have categorically rejected the BJP government’s illegal actions post August 2019” he said.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that it is time for the international community to bring its moral force to bear with the Hindutva inspired BJP government of India today and to call for immediate halt of reprehensible state-backed violence, and to play its due role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.