Nouakchott, March 17, 2023 (PPI-OT): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today briefed the Contact Group of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the humanitarian and human rights situation in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The Foreign Minister was participating in the meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 49th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The meeting was chaired by the OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha and attended by Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Niger, Azerbaijan and true representative of Kashmiris and OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC).

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari explained that the situation in IIOJK had deteriorated with India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 and the subsequent attempts at demographic changes in the occupied territory. By issuing millions of fake domiciles to non-Kashmiris and enacting laws that allow non-residents to buy and own land in IIOJK, India was trying to convert Kashmiris into a disempowered minority in their own land. These steps are in flagrant violation of international law especially the Fourth Geneva Convention which interdicts an occupying power from taking such measures, he said. The Contact Group expressed alarm at the situation in the IIOJK and adopted a Joint Communique reaffirming OIC’s position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and reiterating its firm rejection of India’s unilateral and illegal actions of 5 August 2019.

It requested the OIC Secretary General and the Member States to raise their voices for the just cause of Kashmir at the international fora and hold India accountable for its oppression of the Kashmiri people. The Contact Group also called upon India for immediate cessation of human rights violations in IIOJK and taking steps for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

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