India’s move to hold tourism moot in IIOJK a violation of UN Charter: FO

Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday expressed its strong indignation over India’s decision to hold the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar on May 22-24.

“India’s irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

The FO said, “With its decision to host G-20 events in IIOJK, India is again exploiting its membership of an important international grouping for advancing its self-serving agenda.”

It said the scheduling of two other meetings of a consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was equally disconcerting.

“Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves. Such events cannot hide the reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an internationally recognized dispute that has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades,” it said.

The statement added that such activities could not divert the international community’s attention from India’s brutal suppression of the people of IIOJK including illegal attempts to change the demographic composition of the occupied territory.

It said for a country that has a grandiose vision of itself and its place in the world, India has once more demonstrated that it is unable to act as a responsible member of the international community.