FM assures Pakistan’s support to Kashmiris on Black Day

Slams Indian forces’ illegal actions of muzzling Kashmiri voices and denying their basic rights

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Kashmiris must know that Pakistan would always stand by them even as Indian forces muzzled their voice and denied their basic rights.

“The humanity dies every day when people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, including women and children, face an unending journey of agony,” said Qureshi on Tuesday at an event held at Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in connection with the Black Day being observed against Indian accession of IIOJK in 1947.

The plight of the children of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) suffering wounds of pellet guns and mental trauma was highlighted at the event as a global wake-up call.

The event titled 'I am THAT Kashmiri child' gathered ministers, diplomats and Pakistani children at the lawns of MoFA, who joined in raising a united voice for the rights of Kashmiri children which was denied by Indian occupation forces. Qureshi said Indian forces had illegally occupied IIOJK 73 years ago, while New Delhi again took illegal action of putting Kashmiris under military siege on August 5, 2019.

“Kashmiris are being subjected to most inhuman behaviour with their political, economic and cultural rights being denied by India,” he said, condemning the demographic structure of the Occupied Valley being changed by violating the Geneva Convention.

Briefing on the plight of Kashmiris, he said it was difficult to imagine living under virtual imprisonment over a year and not knowing the whereabouts of abducted children and their trauma while they see parents beaten up in front of their eyes.

The federal minister lamented Hinduvta ideology making the lives of Kashmiris miserable.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said India by landing its occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 had denied the basic right of Kashmiris, who wanted to accede with Pakistan.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan at the forum of the United Nations has reminded the world that the dispute of Kashmir needs to be resolved as per resolutions of the UN Security Council,” he said, adding the military siege following the illegal act of India on August 5 was an alarming situation which needed urgent attention of the international community.

A documentary titled 'Scared, ill or killed' was screened on the occasion depicting the plight of Kashmiri children facing pellet gun wounds and denial to education and health facilities.

On the occasion, schoolchildren read out poems and letters expressing solidarity with the Kashmiri children. APP