FO slams guided tours to IIOJK

Says Delhi diverting attention from illegal measures in region

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Saturday said that guided tours to the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and meetings with “hand-picked people” were designed to create a “smokescreen” to divert attention from the egregious human rights violations in the occupied territory.

Rejecting the Indian Ministry of External Affairs remarks, the Foreign Office spokesperson said, in a statement, that the recent visit of a group of Delhi-based diplomats was also meant to divert attention from India’s illegal measures to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory.

He said the statement by UN special rapporteur on minority issues and special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief on the concluding day of the visit has rightly highlighted the Indian attempts to “alter the demographics of the region and undermine the minorities’ ability to exercise effectively their human rights”.

“The loss of autonomy and the imposition of direct rule by the Government in New Delhi suggests the people of Jammu and Kashmir no longer have their own government and have lost power to legislate or amend laws in the region to ensure the protection of their rights as minorities,” Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues and Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief had said.

The special rapporteur added that the region was “established with specific autonomy guarantees to respect the ethnic, linguistic and religious identities of its people. It was also the only state in India with a Muslim majority”.

Also read: Foreign diplomats check India's easing of IIOJK clampdown

New Delhi, in August 2019, illegally and unilaterally revoked the constitutional special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and in May 2020, passed a special domicile law allowing people from the mainland to settle in the disputed region as a means to try and change the demographics of the region.

“No sham electoral exercise in IIOJK can substitute the UN Security Council mandated plebiscite under the UN auspices,” the FO spokesperson added. The spokesperson said India could not even feign “normalcy” with continuing military siege and restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of Kashmiri people.

He said the people’s rights to assembly, free movement, freedom of expression and even to safety of life and property were routinely violated in IIOJK with impunity.

“The talk of ‘inclusive development’ while hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris are being deprived of basic rights and economic opportunities is farcical,” he said, adding that the so called ‘development’ narrative was also an attempt to mislead the international community.

“It is meant to obfuscate the machinations to further disempower and disenfranchise the Kashmiri people who are being reduced to a minority in their own land through the ongoing demographic restructuring in violation of relevant UNSC resolutions and the international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention,” the spokesperson said.

He reiterated call to the international community to urge India to allow the Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.