By Our Diplomatic Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday reiterated that Pakistan will continue to extend legal, moral and diplomatic support to people of Kashmir.
In his special message, Qureshi said Prime Minister Modi’s BJP-led Indian government has besieged the armless Kashmiri people from the past hundred days. He said innocent Kashmiri children and women are being subjected to oppression by the Indian forces. The foreign minister said Kashmiris are unable to get access to the food and medicines owing to the continuous curfew in the held valley and shadows of death are hovering there.
He said, on one side, Pakistan is opening the corridor of love and, on the other, India is imposing restrictions over offering Juma and Eid prayers in occupied Kashmir. He said the Kashmiris were even not allowed to take out processions of Muharram-ul-Haram and Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH). Shah Mehmood Qureshi urged the international community and human rights organizations to play their due and proactive role to get the Kashmiri people rid of the Indian brutalities.
Agencies add: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Masood Ahmed Khan on Tuesday met with Punjab Governor Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar at Governor House here on Tuesday to discuss the issue of India’s attempts to change names of Muslim areas in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
Keeping in view the nefarious designs of India, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Masood Ahmed Khan have announced to reach out to their contacts and liaison in the international community including members of parliament, human rights organizations and government functionaries to apprise them about ongoing Indian aggression in IOK, said a press release.
Human rights violations, 100 days of curfew and other unjustified measures by Indian government including its plan to change the names in Muslim settlements in IOK were strongly condemned in the meeting and it was decided that the Punjab Governor and the AJK President will make joint efforts to expose Indian plans of changing the socio-cultural fabric of the occupied valley by changing names of Muslim places along with committing countless other atrocities against the Kashmiri people. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar said that India’s design to change the name of Muslim settlements in Occupied Kashmir was a conspiracy against Kashmiris as well as an attempt to shatter regional peace for which, he vowed to rally the world community.
He said that Pakistan’s government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan is highlighting the Kashmir issue in an effective manner at all international forums. He called upon the international community to send its observers in IOK, and added that parliamentarians of Western countries must also be allowed to visit the occupied valley. The Punjab Governor said that changing the status of IOK by Indian government was a violation of United Nations Organization (UNO) resolutions and it was binding upon the UNO to take strict notice of the situation and work towards getting the curfew lifted. AJK President Masood Ahmed Khan said that Indian plans of changing Muslim areas’ names was aimed at converting the Muslim population into a minority. He said that India’s plans would have adverse consequences, adding that on October 31, India had issued a bogus map of Ladakh in which Ladakh and Kashmir were shown separately.
He said that Indian Army had arrested more than 15000 Kashmiri youth. Pakistan had raised voice for Kashmiris, he said and asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at UN General Assembly and protest demonstrations in New York had played a crucial role in bringing the core issue of Kashmir to limelight.
He said that Pakistan would not allow for the relentless violation of the rights of the Kashmiri people and added that the curfew in IOK needs to be lifted.
