FM writes to UN about disturbing reports from IOK

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has addressed a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations secretary general to apprise them of Pakistan’s grave concern on reports indicating that India may impose further illegal and unilateral measures in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, including division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory.

A press statement issued on Wednesday said that the foreign minister in his letter has drawn attention to India’s continued military siege of IOK, which has continued for over twenty-two months, to suppress the Kashmiris’ legitimate demands through a massive campaign of repression including gross and systematic violations of human rights.

The foreign minister has recalled that, since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed, tortured, arbitrarily arrested and detained hundreds of Kashmiris, and put almost the entire Kashmiri leadership behind bars.

Highlighting India’s design to undermine the exercise of the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people by changing the demographic structure of IIOJK through the issuance of fake domicile certificates and other measures, the foreign minister underscored that “all the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India in IIOJK since 1951, including the measures initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce in the future, are violations of international law including the Security Council Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention, and ipso facto null and void.”

Stressing that the people of IOK have vociferously rejected the illegal measures imposed by India, the foreign minister called upon the Security Council to fulfil its responsibility to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. He has also urged the Security Council to call upon India to end its campaign of repression in IOK and reverse all its illegal actions, including those initiated on and after 5 August 2019, and to cease and desist from imposing any additional unilateral changes in the occupied territory.

The foreign minister’s letter has also affirmed that Pakistan desires peaceful relations with all its neighbours, including India. Noting that a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people is essential for durable peace and stability in South Asia, the foreign minister has emphasised that the onus is on India to create an enabling environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan.

The letter was handed over to the president of the Security Council by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.