Pakistan urges OIC to take concrete steps for resolution of Kashmir issue

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has called upon members states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take concrete steps to resolve the long-standing Kashmir dispute, saying “Kashmiri people counted on the OIC and the Muslim Ummah more than ever”.

The foreign minister, in his remarks during the breakfast meeting with members of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, urged the member countries to raise the issue at the relevant UN fora, including the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.

He said since August 5, 2019, over 8 million Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continued to face lockdown, military siege, arbitrary detentions and unprecedented restrictions.

He said under a suffocating military siege and in the face of ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian army had continued so-called cordon and search operations, put down protests violently and continued the use of pellet guns.

The occupation forces also tortured and imprisoned Kashmiri political leaders, abducted children and women, staged fake “encounters”, and indulged in a killing spree of Kashmiri youth in IIOJK, Qureshi said.

He said following the extremist “Hindutva” ideology, the RSS-BJP regime has also embarked on a design to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory and obliterate the distinct identity of the Kashmiri people.

“To further its plans, over 4.2 million fake domicile certificates have been issued already under the so-called “Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020”. This is what the Indian leadership itself ominously calls a ‘Final Solution’ for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Qureshi said.

Referring to the snatching of mortal remains of great Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who passed away on September 1 after prolonged illegal Indian detention and house arrest, the foreign minister said that the later leader was not allowed to seek medical treatment abroad.

The occupation forces denied him the last rites of a Muslim funeral and buried him in a non-descript place rather than the ‘Cemetery of Martyrs’ as desired by Syed Geelani before his death.

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Even Geelani’s family members were later charged for draping his body in the Pakistani flag – as he had wished.

“The government of India was so afraid of Syed Geelani and what he stood for that they resorted to this inhumane act even after his passing away. This clearly shows that India would trample all civil and human values to perpetuate its brutal occupation of IIOJK,” the foreign minister remarked.

Dossier on Indian war crimes

FM Qureshi said Pakistan had recently released a comprehensive and well-researched Dossier containing the entire range of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of human rights perpetrated by Indian forces in IIOJK.

The 131-page dossier covers accounts of 3,432 cases of war crimes perpetrated by senior officers of the Indian occupying forces. The crimes catalogued in the dossier are corroborated by audio and video evidence that we have meticulously gathered over time.

“There will be no peace in South Asia until the just and equitable resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the resolutions of the Security Council and wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he reiterated.

Qureshi said last February, Pakistan accepted the revival of the 2003 ceasefire understanding along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Pakistan is prepared to engage with India for a resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. However, the onus is on India to create a conducive environment. It must: Reverse its unilateral and illegal measures instituted since 5 August 2019; Stop its human rights violations in IIOJK; Halt and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied State,” he remarked.

Calling Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine as one of the two longest standing items on the UN and OIC agenda, he said Pakistan greatly appreciated the OIC’s continued and unequivocal support on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He said the OIC’s Contact Group had made an invaluable contribution in galvanising global attention to the worsening situation in IIOJK.