UAE, KSA will urge New Delhi to end IOK curfew, rights violations: sources

Foreign ministers of Gulf states are in Islamabad on three-day visit

KARACHI: Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have vowed to use all diplomatic channels to get New Delhi lift the curfew in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and end its rights violations in the valley, Express News has learnt.

Saudi Arabia's Adel bin Ahmed al Jubeir and the UAE's Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan are in Islamabad on a three-day visit to meet Pakistan's civil-military leadership.

According to sources, if New Delhi ends curfew and reinstates the Himalayan valley's autonomy, Islamabad could be ready to restart talks with Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in India.

The Gulf states, insiders said, have promised to back Pakistan on the the Kashmir issue in the United Nations, and other the international platforms.

The foreign ministers have also called for India to take steps to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Islamabad reiterated that any further escalation in the region would be owing to New Delhi's strong-arm tactics.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan's Foreign Office in a statement apprised the envoys on the situation in IOK. He informed the two dignitaries in detail on Pakistan’s concerns over the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the occupied valley.

"Qureshi underlined that these actions were a clear violation of international law, UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements [Simla] and its own solemn commitments since they were aimed at changing the globally acknowledged disputed status of IOK and altering the occupied territory’s demographic structure and identity," the statement read.