As part of Pakistan’s sustained diplomatic outreach, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has approached the President of the United Nations Security Council and the UN Secretary General to apprise them of India’s continuing gross and systematic violations of human rights in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK); India’s unlawful campaign to colonize the occupied territory; and India’s belligerent and hostile actions against Pakistan, including persistent ceasefire violations, which pose a threat to peace and security.
In his letter addressed to the President of the Security Council and UN Secretary General, the Foreign Minister has underscored that all unilateral and illegal measures taken by India in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir in violation of international law including relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the 4th Geneva Convention, such as changes in the demographic structure, usurpation of land and farcical “elections”, are null and void.
Drawing attention to India’s perpetration of terrorism and subversion against Pakistan, the Foreign Minister has recalled the detailed dossier presented to the UN containing irrefutable evidence of India’s active planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution of terrorist activities against Pakistan. India’s smear campaign to malign Pakistan internationally revealed through the EU DisinfoLab report has also been brought to the attention of the Security Council. The Foreign Minister’s letter has noted that the recent exposé of transcripts in the Indian media further establishes its orchestration of “false flag” operations and belligerent actions for domestic political and electoral gains.
The Foreign Minister also apprised the Security Council of alarming incident in December 2020 of firing upon a clearly marked vehicle of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), threatening the safety and security of UN peacekeepers and impeding the fulfillment of their mandate.
The Foreign Minister has called upon the Security Council to urge India to:
(i) Immediately lift the continuing military siege and rescind the illegal and unilateral actions in IIOJK;
(ii) Remove restrictions on communications, movement and peaceful assembly;
(iii) Immediately release incarcerated Kashmiri political leaders and allow them to express the wishes of the Kashmiri people;
(iv) Free all arbitrarily and illegally detained Kashmiris;
(v) Freeze and reverse the new domicile rules and property laws designed to change the demographic structure of IIOJK;
(vi) Remove the draconian laws enabling Indian occupation forces to continue human rights violations with impunity, including extrajudicial killings in fake encounters; and
(vii) Allow access to the occupied territory to the UN observers, international human rights and humanitarian organizations, observers and the international media.
The Foreign Minister has further called upon the UN Security Council to exercise its legal and moral authority to secure the implementation of its resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir which guarantee the Kashmiris’ inalienable right to self-determination.
The letter by the Foreign Minister is part of Pakistan’s continuous efforts to keep the UN Security Council and the Secretary General fully apprised of the grave situation in IIOJK and the threat it poses to peace and security in the region.
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