India establishing new agency in IIOJK to ‘terrorise Kashmiris’

Pakistan on Thursday said that despite deploying 900,000 troops in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), New Delhi is trying to portray false sense of normalcy in the occupied valley to mislead the international community.

“India is trying to portray false sense of normalcy and development in IIOJK. But the reality on ground is totally different as you have also noted that the Kashmiri people have rejected these attempts,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said at weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

Expressing “serious concern” on the reports about Indian occupation forces setting up a so-called new investigation agency in IIOJK, he said this could be another repressive tool to further terrorise Kashmiris.

New Delhi on Monday approved the establishment of a new, specialised investigating agency, State Investigation Agency (SIA), in IIOJK which will primarily investigate terrorism related cases, according to the Indian media.

He said the heavy deployment of India troops made the occupied territory the most heavily militarised zone in the world, and they continued with this policy of subjugating the people of IIOJK through the barrel of the gun.

“Regarding the reported investment/development projects in IIOJK, that clearly is an effort by India to divert international attention from its illegal occupation and human rights violations, serious violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity in IIOJK,” the spokesperson said.

He said in continued acts of state terrorism, occupation forces martyred 22 Kashmiris during the month of October in IIOJK.

He said the Kashmiri students continue to be penalised, threatened and persecuted by India over a cricket match between Pakistan and India.

“This is reflective of the extremist anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmiri Hindutva mindset in India that Pakistan has been forewarning about, and you would have seen recent reports in the international media critical of these worrying developments,” he commented.

Expressing “serious concern” on the reports about Indian occupation forces setting up a so-called new investigation agency in IIOJK, he said this could be another repressive tool to further terrorise Kashmiris.

“It is extremely reprehensible that minorities, particularly Muslims are being unabatedly attacked by extremist Hindutva brigades with impunity and state complicity in BJP-RSS regime,” he added.

Also read: Indian envoy summoned over ‘killing of Pakistani prisoner in IIOJK’

He said disturbing recent incidents, including, stopping Muslims to offer Friday prayers at several places, attacks on many mosques and Muslim businesses in Tripura, rendering Muslims homeless and landless in Assam, victimisation of renowned persons, targeting of Urdu language of Muslim minority and violence against Muslims on flimsy pretexts were clear signs of the fascist polity in India.

“We call upon the international community to play its role to stop the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks against minorities particularly Muslims in India, and ensure their safety, security and well-being and protection in particular of their places of worship and heritage sites,” he added.

To a question about Pakistan’s participation in COP26 Summit, the spokesperson said Prime Minister Imran Khan had been in the lead globally in advocating strong action for combating climate change and that the country had a “very constructive and strong participation” in the summit as well.

Asked about FATF, he said, Pakistan had concerns about politicisation of FATF by some countries, which was not consistent with the technical nature of the issues discussed in this forum.

On Kartarpur Corridor, he said Pakistan’s policy had been very clear and remained strongly committed to its functioning, and supported its early reopening. We hope India would respond positively, he added.

‘No US military or air base in Pakistan’

Later, while responding to a question the FO spokesperson reiterated that there is no US military or air base in Pakistan.

He termed the all reports in this regard as baseless and speculations.

Also read: ‘Absolutely not’: PM says US bases won’t be allowed

Pakistan last month denied that it had reached any formal agreement with the US for the use of its airspace to conduct “military and intelligence operations” in Afghanistan.

The statement came after the CNN, in its report, cited three "sources familiar with the details of a classified briefing" to the US Congress, and said that the Biden administration had informed US lawmakers that the country was close to striking a formal deal with Pakistan on the use of its airspace to conduct operations in Afghanistan.

The report claimed that Pakistan had "expressed a desire" to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in return for help in its own counterterrorism operations and assistance with managing the relationship with India.

(With input from News Desk)