-Pakistan conveys strong protest to India on Custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday “categorically rejected” the remarks made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir during a public rally in Gujarat, saying his narrative was not only false and misleading but also reflected “how oblivious the Indian leadership has become of the ground realities in IIOJK”.
Modi, at a rally in Gujarat on Monday, claimed that he had somehow “resolved the Kashmir issue”.
“As I am following the footsteps of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (former Indian Congress leader), I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel,” Modi was quoted as saying by the Indian media.
Reacting to his remarks, the Foreign Office called out the Indian leader for making “delusional statements about having resolved the dispute unilaterally, the Indian leadership must deliver on their commitments to the Kashmiris”.
It said that Jammu and Kashmir was an internationally recognised dispute, the resolution of which had been on the agenda of the United Nations since 1948.
“Despite clear UN resolutions that prescribe a free and impartial plebiscite for the final disposition of the dispute, India has not only illegally occupied the territory but is also guilty of egregious human rights violations employing over 900,000 brutal occupation force,” the FO statement added.
It added that the fact remained that the people of IIOJK continued to brave India’s reprehensible occupation which it sought to perpetuate through malicious demographic changes and strong-arm tactics.
The craftily staged visits of the Indian leadership to the occupied territory and choreographed launches of so-called development projects in a bid to create a façade of ‘normalcy’ will neither dampen the spirit of the Kashmiris struggling to break free from the illegal Indian occupation nor would it deceive the world into believing India’s deception, the FO said.
“Pakistan has consistently called upon the international community to assume its role and responsibility with regards to IIOJK and the ongoing Indian atrocities in the occupied territory.”
The FO noted that India must also be held responsible for its “nefarious scheme of altering the demography of IIOJK”, as well as for its brutal repression of the innocent Kashmiris.
“Pakistan reiterates its call on human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn India’s state terrorism in IIOJK and demand an immediate reversal of the Indian government’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019,” the statement added.
The Foreign Office reiterated that the only solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lay in ensuring that the Kashmiris were allowed to exercise their right of self-determination through the democratic method of holding a UN-mandated free and impartial plebiscite as espoused in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
Separately, the Indian Charge d’Affaires (Cd’A) in Islamabad was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday and conveyed Government of Pakistan’s strong protest over the inhuman custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah, who remained imprisoned in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years.
It was deplored that despite Pakistan’s expression of serious concerns over Mr. Altaf Ahmed Shah’s sharply deteriorating health, as well as his daughter’s letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister apprising him of Mr. Shah’s precarious health condition, the Indian government remained completely indifferent. The government of India not only failed to provide satisfactory medical care to Mr. Altaf Ahmed Shah who was suffering from renal cancer but also created inordinate delays in his hospitalization and essential diagnostic tests.
Even more heart-wrenching is the fact that the Indian authorities remained adamant in denying Mr. Shah’s family access to meet him while deliberately delaying the court hearing of his bail plea on humanitarian grounds. It is evident that Mr. Altaf Ahmed Shah was victimized and punished because he was the son-in-law of revered Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani and a true representative of the Kashmiri people. His death is the consequence of the Indian government’s wilful and deliberate negligence, utter disregard for human rights and its systematic campaign to suppress and brutalize the Hurriyat leaders.
Recalling the condemnable custodial death of Hurriyat leader Ashraf Sehrai last year, after his victimization and arrest under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA), the Indian Cd’A was conveyed Pakistan’s grave apprehensions regarding the ruthless treatment meted out to Hurriyat leaders including Muhammad Yasin Malik, Massarat Aalam Bhat, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Aasiya Andrabi and several others who have been facing illegal detentions in fabricated cases.
Equally concerning is the fact that many of these Hurriyat leaders including Muhammad Yasin Malik are suffering from chronic ailments and require urgent medical attention. It is also alarming that at least 4 Kashmiri political prisoners have died in Indian custody since 2019.
It has been demanded of the Indian government to immediately investigate the custodial death of Mr. Altaf Ahmed Shah and hold to account all those responsible for the brutality.
Pakistan has further demanded that the mortal remains of Mr. Altaf Ahmed Shah be promptly returned to his family so that a proper burial of the deceased in accordance with their wishes can be carried out.
The Government of India has also been called upon to desist from unlawfully keeping the indigenous Kashmiri leadership hostage and denying them their fundamental human rights, immediately halt its state-sponsored terrorism in the IIOJK, release all political prisoners incarcerated on trumped-up charges, stop human rights violations, lift the inhuman military siege and let the people of IIOJK exercise their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their wishes.
