Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would address the joint session of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and AJK Council in Muzaffarabad on Monday (today), Radio Pakistan reported.

Bilawal would reiterate Pakistan’s unwavering support to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for the right to self-determination, the state-run broadcaster said.

The foreign minister is in Muzaffarabad on a three-day visit of AJK to express solidarity with the people of IIOJK against the “nefarious motives” of the Indian government to pretend normalcy by holding a G-20 meeting in the disputed territory.

The AJK government has called for protests and rallies throughout the region on Monday against the meeting in Srinagar and human rights abuses in the held valley.

Traders observed a shutter-down strike in all districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Monday against the Group of Twenty (G20) tourism meet in Indian occupied Kashmir.

According to updates by 9am, locals have started protesting against the event that has already by condemned by Pakistan and China.

A protest demonstration started from Garhi Ban Chowk to Azadi Chowk under the Pasban e Hurriyat, an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir.

They want the G20 nations to boycott the tourism meet in the occupied territory and take notice as India was “violating the rights” of Kashmiris.

AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq is scheduled to address the protesters at Azadi Chowk. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto is also expected to address the Legislative Assembly of AJK on Monday (today).

https://www.aajenglish.tv/live/g20-meet-in-occupied-kashmir

A G20 tourism meeting was set to begin on Monday amid high security in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, with China and Pakistan condemning holding the event in the disputed territory.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been disputed between New Delhi and Islamabad, both of which claim it in full, since their independence 75 years ago.

The Indian-controlled portion has been roiled for decades by an insurgency seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan, with tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and Kashmiri rebels killed in the conflict.

Police said last week that security had been beefed up “to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20” meeting, the first diplomatic event in the territory since New Delhi revoked its limited autonomy and took direct control in 2019.

The three-day gathering will take place at a sprawling, well-guarded venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Read: India awaits registration of Turkey, Egypt, KSA for G20 meeting in occupied Kashmir

Roads leading to the location have been freshly black-topped, and electricity poles lit up in the colours of India’s national flag to show what officials say is “normalcy and peace returning” to the region.

India has been promoting tourism in occupied Kashmir and more than a million of its citizens visited last year.

No Chinese delegates will be attending the event.

India and its northern neighbour are locked in a military standoff along their mostly undemarcated border in the Ladakh region.

Beijing also claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in full as part of Tibet, and it considers Kashmir a disputed territory.

“China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meeting in disputed territory and will not attend such meetings,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters Friday.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are reportedly also unlikely to join.

India holds the G20 presidency for 2023 and has planned more than 100 meetings across the country.

China has already stayed away from events in both Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Hundreds detained

Non-G20 member Pakistan controls a smaller part of Kashmir and said holding the tourism meeting in the territory violated international law, UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said last week that India was displaying its “arrogance to the world” and that “it shows their pettiness”, triggering a sharp retort from New Delhi.

India accuses Pakistan of training and supporting militants in Kashmir, which Islamabad denies.

Since India’s 2019 constitutional changes, rebels in Kashmir have largely been crushed – although young men continue to join the insurgency.

But dissent has been criminalised, media freedoms curbed and public protests limited, in what critics say is a drastic curtailment of civil liberties by India.

Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, said New Delhi was seeking to use the G20 meeting to “portray an international seal of approval” on a situation that “should be decried and condemned”. India rejected those comments.

Residents have chafed under the stepped-up security measures, hundreds have been detained in police stations and thousands including shopkeepers have received calls from officials warning them against any “signs of protest or trouble”.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday that the belief that holding the G20 conference would lead to stifling the voice of Kashmir would be proven wrong.

Bilawal made the remarks as he landed on a three-day visit to Azad Kashmir on Sunday, as India gears up to host the G20 conference in Occupied Kashmir.

“It is not possible for India to play any important role in the world while it continues to violate UN resolutions (on Kashmir),” he said.

Bilawal will address the constituent assembly as well as leading a political rally in Kashmir as part of his scehdule. He as welcomed by PPP’s local leadership after reaching Muzaffarabad by helicopter.

The G20 meeting is scheduled to take place in Occupied Kashmir from May 22 to May 24. China has already said that it will not attend a conference held in ‘disputed territory’, but India has claimed that 17 countries have confirmed that their representatives will attend.

The meeting has continuously been criticised by Pakistan as an attempt to legitimise its occupation of the disputed territory. The two countries have fought multiple wars over the Muslim-majority region going back to 1947 and a UN resolution has called for a plebscite as the only solution.

China said on Friday that it is opposed to a G20 tourism meeting next week in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir in India and will not attend.

India, which holds the chair of G20 this year, has organised a series of meetings across the country in the run-up to the summit in New Delhi in September.

“China is firmly opposed to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory, and will not attend such meetings,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

In 2019, India split the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir to create the two federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

A large chunk of Ladakh is under Chinese control.

Ties between New Delhi and Beijing have been strained since a military clash in Ladakh in 2020 in which 24 soldiers were killed.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, will host a meeting of the tourism working group for G20 members on May 22-24.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by nuclear-armed neighbours India and China-ally Pakistan, which has also opposed India’s decision to hold a G20 meeting in Kashmir.

India has countered the objection saying it is free to hold meetings on its own territory. It said on Friday peace and tranquility on its border is essential for normal ties with China.

The Foreign Office stated on Sunday that it was “not only mischievous but highly irresponsible” to imply that remarks made by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on India’s decision to hold the G20 meetings in the occupied Kashmir region would result in violence.

Responding to media queries regarding a video clip insinuating that Foreign Minister of Pakistan threatened India over the conduct of a G-20 meeting In IIOJK , the spokesperson said:

“In a number of public pronouncements during his recent visit to India, the Foreign Minister emphasized the critical importance of relevant UN Security Council resolutions for a peaceful settlement of Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Clearly, he based his case on international law.

The spokesperson added that this is an attempt to shift focus from the Foreign Minister’s key message of conflict resolution through dialogue and in accordance with international law and UN security council resolutions.

“The journalistic norms must be respected while reporting on sensitive inter-state matters.”

Pakistan had already expressed its strong indignation over India’s decision to hold the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar on 22-24 May.

Scheduling of two other meetings of a consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was also termed as ‘equally disconcerting’.

“India’s irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law. Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves,” the earlier press release on April 11 maintained.

Such events could not hide the reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an internationally recognized dispute that had remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades.

“Nor could such activities divert the international community’s attention from India’s brutal suppression of the people of IIOJK including illegal attempts to change the demographic composition of the occupied territory,” it was added.

Pakistan on Tuesday condemned India’s decision to hold Group of 20 meetings in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir next month, calling the move “irresponsible”.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by the two nuclear-armed neighbours who have fought two of their three wars over control of the region.

India currently holds the rotating year-long presidency of the G20 and is set to host a leaders’ summit in New Delhi in early September.

On Friday, India released a full calendar of events leading up to the summit, which included G20 and Youth 20 meetings in Kashmir’s summer capital of Srinagar and in Leh, in the neighbouring region of Ladakh, in April and May.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the choice of venues in disputed territory.

“India’s irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir,” it said.

It went on to accuse India of acting in “disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law.”

“Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves,” it said.

India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment on the statement from Pakistan.

New Delhi has long accused Pakistan of stoking a decades-long separatist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region in India.

Islamabad denies that accusation, saying it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination.

Pakistan also accuses India of human rights violations in the parts of Kashmir under its control, a charge New Delhi rejects.