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NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday reiterated that Pakistan was prepared to engage with India on Kashmir dispute “but the onus was on the neighbouring country to create a conducive environment”.
“India must reverse its unilateral and illegal measures instituted since Aug 5, 2019,” the foreign minister said while addressing a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group in New York.
The foreign minister said Pakistan had expected that after the ceasefire agreement this year in February, India would take positive steps to enable resumption of engagement for resolution of the dispute. “Instead India intensified its repression,” he said.
FM Qureshi also called upon India to stop human rights violations, halt and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied territory. He also urged the OIC to enhance its efforts in facilitating a lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi pointed out that the oppressed people of Indian-occupied Kashmir were now heavily reliant on the OIC and the Muslim ummah. He requested the participants to raise the issue at all relevant forums of the United Nations.
The minister condemned Indian forces for using pellet guns, imprisoning Kashmiri political leaders, abducting children and women, staging fake encounters and indulging in a killing spree of Kashmiri youth in the occupied territory.
He informed the session that the Pakistan had recently released a “comprehensive and well-researched” dossier containing the entire range of gross, systematic and widespread violations of human rights perpetrated by Indian forces in IOK.
He urged the secretary-general of the OIC to circulate the dossier among all members of the organisation and have it widely disseminated. “There will be no peace in South Asia until the just and equitable resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with resolutions of UN and the wishes of Kashmiri people,” Qureshi stressed.