Pakistan has condemned the “unabated killing spree being perpetrated” by the occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, causing the martyrdom of three more Kashmiri youths in Baramullah district over the last two days.
The incidents are reported as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the occupied valley. According to media reports, Modi is scheduled to speak on Sunday (today) in his first public event in the disputed region since New Delhi stripped it of its semi-autonomous status in 2019 and divided it into two directly governed territories.
“More than 580 innocent Kashmiris have so far been martyred by the Indian occupation forces since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019,” read a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Saturday.
According to the Foreign Office spokesperson, the growing number of killings in “fake encounters” and “staged” cordon-and-search operations in the IIOJK during the holy month of Ramazan only highlighted the “ugly reality” of India’s occupation and the anti-Muslim designs of the “Hindutva” inspired BJP-RSS in India.
He said the Kashmiri youth, which had been a specific target of the Indian occupation forces stationed in IIOJK, had however remained unfazed in its determination to thwart the Indian designs of subjugating the Kashmiris with the use of unbridled force.
“Pakistan reiterates its call for investigation of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK by the Commission of Inquiry as recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019.”
The FO once again called upon the international community to play its role in ensuring a peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people for durable peace and stability in South Asia.
The Indian atrocities in the occupied valley have been criticised by human rights experts and world leaders from around the world. Recently, American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called for greater attention to Indian brutalities in the occupied parts of the Kashmir valley during a visit to Muzaffarabad as part of her Pakistan trip.
The Somali-American politician, while speaking to the media in AJK’s capital, said her visit would help her gain a better understanding of the ground realities and provide context to the many human rights reports that she has read about the region.
Moreover, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also called for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute while replying to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s congratulatory message on Twitter.
