Islamabad, June 16, 2021 (PPI-OT):Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has addressed a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the United Nations Secretary General to apprise them of Pakistan’s grave concern on reports indicating that India may be contemplating the imposition of further illegal and unilateral measures in the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), including division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory. In his letter, the Foreign Minister has drawn attention to India’s continued military siege of IIOJK, 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 has 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 IIOJK have vociferously rejected the illegal measures imposed by India, the Foreign Minister has 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 IIOJK 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 emphasized that the onus is on India to create an enabling environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan. The Foreign Minister’s letter was handed over to the President of the Security Council by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.
The Foreign Minister has been regularly addressing letters to the Security Council and the UN Secretary General in order to keep the UN fully informed of the grave situation in the territory occupied by India, and to remind the Security Council of its responsibility for peaceful and just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions.
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