ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Office has expressed disappointment over the tweet by the US Department of State regarding the resumption of 4G mobile internet in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
“We are disappointed to note the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the US Department of State’s tweet regarding the resumption of 4G mobile internet in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” the Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said while responding to media queries on Thursday.
The Spokesperson said that the reference is inconsistent with the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir as recognized by numerous United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the International Community.
We welcome the resumption of 4G mobile internet in India’s Jammu & Kashmir. This marks an important step for local residents and we look forward to continued political & economic progress to restore normalcy in J&K.
— State_SCA (@State_SCA) February 10, 2021
Chaudhri said that Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest items on the agenda of the UNSC which remains unresolved because of India’s intransigence and unwillingness to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and its own solemn commitments made to Pakistan, the Kashmiris, and the international community.
The Foreign Office Spokesperson said that the political and economic progress of the people of Jammu and Kashmir is inextricably linked to the realization of their desire for exercising the right to self-determination.
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that the International Community including the United States must urge India to stop its consistent and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, incarceration of political leaders, ongoing efforts to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory, extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris in fake “encounters”, and staged cordon-and-search operations — and take genuine steps to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
In a Tweet on February 10, the US State Department wrote “We welcome the resumption of 4G mobile internet in India’s Jammu & Kashmir. This marks an important step for local residents and we look forward to continued political & economic progress to restore normalcy in J&K (Jammu & Kashmir).”
However later in a Press Briefing, the State Department Spokesperson Ned Price clarified that there has been no change in the US’s Kashmir policy and Washington still considers both Jammu and Kashmir as a territory disputed between India and Pakistan.
