Bilawal thanks friends for shunning G20 meet in Srinagar

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday “saluted” the friendly countries of China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others for shunning the G20 meeting in Srinagar in rebuke to India’s pretense to portray normalcy in the disputed Kashmir region.

Addressing a public gathering in Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Bilawal vehemently criticised the “religiously motivated and Islamophobic” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for maligning Pakistan and the Kashmiri people.

“We would like to salute our Chinese, Saudi and Turkish brethren and all other countries, who refused [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi and G20's invitation, for the sake of the Kashmiri people,” Bilawal told the protest gathering.

“The countries that did attend either downgraded their participation or are present in protest,” Bilawal, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), added. “The entire world is seeing the drama that Modi is orchestrating.”

The public gathering in Bagh was held in protest against India's violations of international law and the UN resolutions by holding the G20 meeting in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

The G20 groups 19 rich nations of the world plus the EU. India holds the presidency of the grouping for 2023 and is holding a series of events in various parts of the country that would culminate in the G20 summit in New Delhi later this year.

Pakistan had protested the holding of May 22-24 conference on tourism in Srinagar. Last Friday, China said it would not attend the event as Beijing was opposed to any even event in a disputed territory.

Several other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Egypt and Indonesia also either boycotted the meeting or reduced the level of participation just to their diplomats posted at the respective embassies in New Delhi.

The meeting was the first major international event since India stripped the region of its special status on August 5, 2019. The event is also seen as Modi government’s attempt to present a façade of normalcy in the IIOJK.

Read FM Bilawal says India 'abusing' G20 with Kashmir meet

“You can take any international publication and see whether their [Indian] aim to portray Kashmir as a normalised region has been achieved,” Bilawal said. “How can they send a message of normalisation when thousands of its soldiers are still in Kashmir?”

He said that India had developed a habit of receiving demure responses, but adding that the real faces of those “who label us as extremists and terrorists have been revealed” before the world.

“When we talk of the Kashmiri people and their rights, they accuse us of representing terrorists. How can they accuse us of engaging in terrorism, when we ourselves have been impacted by the menace. We are the victims of terrorism,” he continued.

“It is not our problem that India is governed by a political party that is religiously motivated and Islamophobic. If there are terrorists, they are the ones who spread terror in Gujarat and over the Samjhauta Express,” he added.

“They label me, the son of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, a 'terrorist' when I call a 'butcher' by his name,” he said, referring to the moniker of ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ to Modi, over the massacre of Muslims in riots there in 2002.

He stressed that now the entire world was seeing the drama that Modi was orchestrating in Srinagar while the representatives of Pakistan were expressing solidarity with their Kashmiri brethren on the very same day.

Bilawal also referred to his participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in India, saying that the decision was taken to prevent India from enjoying “an open pitch”.

“We conducted ourselves in a manner that complied with the SCO rules and regulations as an effort to portray the real image of Pakistanis, Kashmiris and Muslims, who are not terrorists,” the foreign minister stressed.

“On my visit to India, we had said that they [India] will receive fewer guests than expected,” he said. “We are grateful to all the nations that have adopted a principled stance and decided against attending this tourism conference.”

On the occasion, Bilawal raised slogans in favour of plebiscite. “The labourers, merchants, and workers of Srinagar too raise the same slogans as us. We are grateful to all the nations that have adopted a principled stance,” he said.

Referring to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other international forums, the foreign minister stated that Pakistan had constantly been raising the Kashmir issue. “The day when the Kashmiris utilise their right to vote to attain freedom is not far.”

He pointed out that there could be temporary internal issues that Pakistan faced, but “our fraternal relationship with that of Kashmir is one that is generational”. He thanked the representatives of the provinces and the federation for attending the gathering.