—– China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia abstain from controversial G20 Summit in disputed region
—– Egypt as an invited country boycotts the huddle in Srinagar
—– Pakistan bashes India for ‘show of arrogance’
—– Addressing AJK Legislative Assembly Bilawal says motive behind G20 Session is to show Kashmir undisputed
SRINAGAR/MUZAFFARABAD: China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia officially withdrew from participating in the ongoing G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Kashmir with Egypt also joining the trio among nine invited countries.
120 foreign delegates from 17 countries arrived in Srinagar on Monday but there was no representative from China, though some private tourism representatives from Turkey and Saudi have joined.
Earlier Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: “China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory. We will not attend such meetings.”
Meanwhile, in an address to the AJK Legislative Assembly yesterday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari bashed India for its “display of ar-rogance”.
“India’s continued denial of the rights of the Kashmiri people is a wrongful and illegal act,” he said, stressing that “no amount of diplomatic duplicity or Indian state-perpetrated terror can change this fact”.
He lamented that occupied Kashmir had become an “open prison” today where Muslims were being forced to breathe fear. “This mayhem continues under draconian laws allowing continuity to the Indian occupying forces.”
Bilawal highlighted that New Delhi’s “wretched, systematic and perpetual barbarism not just violates international law but it makes a mockery of the fundamental human rights”.
“How can the world be a bystander when a large country usurps the rights guaranteed by the security council?” the minister asked.
He reiterated that holding the G20 moot in occupied Kashmir was yet another “show of arrogance” on India’s part. “How can India possibly claim that normalcy has returned to occupied Kashmir?
“I wish to remind the Indian leaders that unilateral steps in held Kashmir will neither accord democracy to their occupation nor suppress the true oc-cupation of the Kashmiri people,” he asserted. “If India wants to be a superpower, then it needs to act like a superpower,” Bilawal said.
He added that his presence in AJK proved the intergenerational support and commitment to the Kashmir cause. “We want good relations with our neighbours, including India, but good relations cannot be achieved through a disputed resolution.” –Agencies
