Islamabad, January 13, 2023 (PPI-OT):The Foreign Office Spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, has said that Pakistan will continue to extend unstinted moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir in their quest for self-determination in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions. Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in her weekly press briefing said that India was attempting to perpetuate its occupation by colonizing Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), including by systematically dispossessing the Kashmiris of their lands.

She said the Indian authorities have introduced new land lease rules, depriving the local farmers, hoteliers and businessmen of their long-held lands on lease. The local authorities have also intensified their campaign to seal or attach the properties of activists and resistance leaders, she added. The Spokesperson deplored that under the amended Land Revenue Act, non-Kashmiris can purchase agricultural land for commercial and other non-agricultural purposes. She said the Indian Army has been given sweeping powers to take possession of agricultural land and residential areas in any part of the occupied territory, after declaring them as “strategic”. Reportedly over 430,000 Kanals of land are already under illegal possession of the Indian military and paramilitary forces, she maintained.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said these developments are manifestation of India’s colonial-settler mind-set and its designs to expand control over the Kashmiris’ lands in clear violation of International Law and the obligations of the occupying power towards occupied territories.

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