Pakistan ‘in no hurry’ for talks with India: Qureshi

Foreign minister says govt ready for dialogue to discusses issues but Delhi needs to create conducive environment

MULTAN:

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday Pakistan was ready for a dialogue with India to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries, but stressed that New Delhi would have create a conducive environment in order for the talks to take place.

Talking to the media persons after inaugurating the Ramazan Relief Package at a Utility Store in his hometown of Multan, Qureshi elaborated that India must restore the special status of Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and stop brutalities inflicted upon the Kashmiri people.

“Pakistan is ready for dialogue with India if it [New Delhi] ensured the conducive environment,” Qureshi told the reporters. “India would have to show flexibility for talks on all the issues, including Kashmir, Siachen, water, Sir Creek and others.

Stressing that “Pakistan is not in a hurry”, Qureshi said that India’s unilateral actions on August 5, 2019 in IIOJK were the main hurdle in the resumption of any dialogue. He added that he even did not seek a meeting with his Indian foreign minister on the fringes of the Heart of Asia conference in Dushanbe.

Read more: Islamabad acknowledges contacts with New Delhi

He said the India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government could not suppress the Kashmiris’ indigenous freedom movement through the brutal acts. The whole world, including the European Union (EU) and human rights organisations are questioning India over the worst rights abuses in IIOJK, he said.

The foreign minister stressed that “war is no solution to resolve the disputes”. He pointed out that the ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC), which had come into effect recently, was benefiting the peoples on both sides of the divide.

The foreign Minister was referring to an agreement reached between the director generals of military operations of the two countries to observe ceasefire on the LoC and the Working Boundary. The agreement took effect on February 24.

However, inside IIOJK, the situation kept on deteriorating amid extrajudicial killing of the Kashmiri youth in so-called siege and search operations by the Indian occupation forces. In the latest such incident on Friday, Indian forces opened firing from heavy weapons and grenades on a mosque in Shopian.

Addressing the passing-out parade of the 143th Long Course at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Nadeem Raza urged the world community to take notice of the human rights violations in IIOJK.

The Foreign Office in a statement strongly condemned the desecration and damage caused to the mosque during so-called ‘cordon-and-search operation’ and repeated incidence of extrajudicial killing in various places in IIOJK.

The Foreign Office said that these acts were a manifestation of the unabated state-terrorism to which the Kashmiris had been subjected to in the occupied territory. “This inhuman conduct of Indian forces is reflective of their moral bankruptcy as well as the prevalent culture of impunity in IIOJK,” it said.

“History is witness that the use of brutal and indiscriminate force against the Kashmiris and targeting of their religious places has not succeeded in breaking their [Kashmiris] will. Such attempts will not succeed in the future as well.”

The statement stressed that the government and the people of Pakistan would continue to stand by the Kashmiri people in their just and legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant United Nations resolutions.

APP WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM NEWS DESK