ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan highly appreciates the strong and consistent support provided by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and its institutions to the Kashmir cause.
Talking to a delegation of the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) which met him at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad on Thursday, the foreign minister emphasized that the IPHRC visit was especially timely since it coincided with the completion of two years of Indian illegal actions of August 5, 2019.
Qureshi hailed the independence exhibited by the IPHRC in line with its mandate by dispassionately exposing Indian atrocities in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). He said that in the past, the IPHRC had issued a report and several statements highlighting the deplorable plight of the Kashmiri people and India’s illegal and unilateral actions while endorsing the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Apprising the delegation about continued Indian atrocities and human rights violations in IIOJK, Qureshi said that torture, rape, and sexual violence were employed as instruments of suppression, and pellet guns were indiscriminately used, resulting in death, injuries, and blinding. India’s Occupation Forces enjoyed complete impunity under draconian laws such as Public Safety Act (PSA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The foreign minister told the delegation that several political leaders, activists, human rights defenders, and journalists remain incarcerated even during the pandemic. Despite using every single tool of oppression, India has failed to subjugate the Kashmiri people, he said.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, in IIOJK were in gross violation of UN Security Council resolutions as well as commitments made by the Indian leadership to the Kashmiri people.
The minister said that Indian attempts to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory were in violations of international law including the 4th Geneva Convention.
