Pakistan disapproves US tweet referring IIOJK not as ‘disputed region’

Pakistan has expressed displeasure over the US State Department’s tweet for not referring Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as a ‘disputed region’.

The US Department of Statement a day earlier welcomed the resumption of 4G mobile internet services in IIOJK which were suspended after the Indian government abrogated the autonomous status of Muslim-majority region in August 2019 but the statement did not mention the region’s disputed status.

However, the US State Department on Wednesday clarified that there is no change in Washington's Kashmir policy and the new administration of President Joe Biden still considers the territory as disputed.

“We are disappointed to note the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the US Department of State’s tweet regarding the resumption of 4G mobile internet in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement issued on Thursday.

The reference is inconsistent with the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir as recognised by numerous United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions and the international community, he added.

Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest items on the agenda of the UNSC, which remains unresolved because of India’s intransigence and unwillingness to implement the relevant UNSC resolutions and its own solemn commitments made to Pakistan, the Kashmiris and the international community, the statement added.

The FO spokesperson also said the political and economic progress of the people of IIOJK is inextricably linked to the realisation of their desire for exercising the right to self-determination.

The international community, including the United States, must urge India to stop its consistent and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK — including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, incarceration of political leaders, ongoing efforts to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory, extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris in fake “encounters”, and staged cordon-and-search operations, the spokesperson said.

He further asked the world community to take genuine steps to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions.