Pakistan rejects Indian claims on Kashmir
Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday completely rejected and strongly condemned the “unwarranted and totally unacceptable comments made by the Indian Defence Minister at a recent event in occupied Kashmir”.
At a weekly briefing, Foriegn Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that: “Pakistan has also categorically rejected the baseless and misguided remarks made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson in an effort to politicise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).”
Ahmed added that attempts to cast aspersions over CPEC showed India’s insecurity as well as the pursuit of a hegemonic agenda which had held back socio-economic development in South Asia for decades.
“It is in fact India that is illegally occupying the State of Jammu and Kashmir for over seven decades while perpetrating gross and widespread human rights violations and effectuating blatant territorial and demographic changes in the occupied territory in complete contravention of international law and relevant UNSC resolutions.”
He also highlighted the “politicisation” of 44th Chess Olympiad held in India’s Chennai, “by passing the torch relay through Srinagar in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir” which he said was in utter disregard of the globally acknowledged “disputed” status of the territory.
“By way of protesting India’s regrettable and mischievous attempt to mix politics with sports, Pakistan has decided not to participate in the 44th Chess Olympiad and will also raise the matter with the International Chess Federation at the highest level,” the spokesman added.
Ahmad said that Pakistan was deeply concerned over the deteriorating health of Hurriyat leader, Muhammad Yasin Malik, saying that the latter continued to suffer for his “legitimate political resistance to India’s illegal occupation of IIOJK”.
Read more: Pakistan strongly condemns India’s ‘continued persecution’ of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik
“We reject this judicial persecution and demand his immediate release,” he stressed.
The FO spokesman said that the inhuman incarceration of Yasin Malik, his sham trials under fabricated cases, the fallacious conviction and the malfeasant attempts at tarnishing the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for their right to self-determination only further confirmed India’s known credentials as a serial violator of human rights and usurper of fundamental freedoms of the Kashmiri people.
Pakistan, he went on, called upon the Indian government to refrain from victimizing the true representatives of the Kashmiri people by way of inhuman and illegal detentions and implications through sham trials in baseless and fictitious cases.
“Pakistan once again urges the international community to take cognizance of India’s inhuman and illegal detention and treatment of Yasin Malik and of other political leaders, and to ensure that the Kashmiri people can exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them by the UN and the international community,” Ahmad added.
