Pakistan slams India over extra-judicial killings in Occupied Kashmir

Foreign office says another eight Kashmiris have been martyred in Pulwama and Shopian by Indian forces

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has denounced the unabated extra-judicial killings of Kashmiri youth by the occupation forces in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

"More than 110 innocent Kashmiris have been martyred by the Indian occupation forces during the past 5 months in fake encounters and so-called cordon-and-search operations," Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement issued on Saturday.

The statement came a day after the regional police said that they martyred eight freedom fighters in two separate gunfights in the occupied valley during the last 24 hours.

"In the last two days alone, another eight Kashmiris have been martyred in Pulwama and Shopian," the FO spokesperson said, holding the Modi-led BJP leadership responsible for the "politically-motivated, arbitrary" killings of Kashmiris.



The international law prohibits arbitrary deprivation of life and extra-judicial killings and this norm is codified in every major human rights treaty and convention, according to the FO statement.

"No illegal Act, such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), can sanctify or provide legal cover to a crime recognised as such by international law."

It called upon the international community to take immediate cognisance of the persistent reports of arbitrary and extra-judicial killings in IOJ&K, falsely labelled as having been the result of “encounters” or as having occurred in “cross-fire”.

The virtual impunity of the Indian occupation forces must end and the perpetrators must be held accountable for such heinous crimes against the Kashmiri people, the FO spokesperson demanded.