US should not ignore ground realities in IoK: FM Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the international community to pay attention to the gross and blatant human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The foreign minister was addressing photography and cultural exhibition organized to pay tribute to the Kashmiris’ resilience in their just struggle for the right to self-determination.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the diplomats should visit Azad Kashmir and the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to assess the ground realities and judge for themselves as to what the people want there.

The foreign minister said Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir is under military siege over the last eighteen months. He hoped the new US administration which is talking about human rights protection will stop ignoring the ground realities in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He expressed the confidence that the OIC and the EU will also play their role in this regard.

Qureshi said Kashmir is not an internal matter of India.  He said the dispute has been on the agenda of Pakistan-India talks in the past whilst the UN Security Council has held three discussions on it in the wake of 5th August 2019 illegal Indian steps in the valley.

He said Pakistan wants to resolve this dispute through dialogue and peaceful manners as there is no military solution to it.  He said Pakistan did not vitiate the environment and the one who did it needs to create an environment for engagement.

In his remarks, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said Kashmir is heaven on earth but India has turned it into hell through its brutal acts. He said Pakistan will continue to stand by their Kashmiri brothers and sister till they get their inalienable right to self-determination in line with the UN Security Council resolutions. 

He pointed out that Prime Minister Imran Khan has forcefully raised Kashmir dispute at all the forums and these efforts have not gone unnoticed. He said the world community must take cognizance of the Indian ill will and evil designs to usurp the rights of Kashmiri people.

President Azad Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan said India has unleashed cultural invasion in the occupied Kashmir. Mosques, shrines and the language of Kashmiri people are under attack in the valley., he added. He said the holding of photography and cultural exhibition is very timely to highlight the plight of oppressed Kashmiri people.