File photo. Fabrice Coffrini—AFP
Pakistan’s foreign minister writes to UNSC, U.N. secretary-general to reiterate concerns of human rights abuses in India-held Kashmir
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council president and the U.N. secretary-general, Pakistan’s foreign minister has urged the global body to exercise its responsibility in preventing India from continuing its human rights atrocities in India-held Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office, minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi updated the senior officials on the current situation in the disputed territory, including the “illegal demographic changes being undertaken by in the occupied territory by India” in violation of all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and international law.
“In the letter, the foreign minister has apprised the Security Council of India’s implementation of an elaborate strategy of military occupation, land confiscation, influx of non-Kashmiris, and creation of alien settlements in IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir]. As a result of the Indian agenda to convert the Muslim majority of IIOJK into a minority, the indigenous Kashmiris are losing their political and cultural identity, their rightful demographic majority, and ownership of their properties in their own homeland,” read the statement.
It said that Qureshi had also underscored the “indiscriminate and unprovoked ceasefire violations by India across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary” in recent weeks, including the deliberate targeting of civilian populations. “The over 2,700 ceasefire violations committed by India this year have resulted in the death of 25 innocent people and serious injuries to more than 200 civilians,” it added.
In his letter, the foreign minister urged the Security Council to exercise its direct responsibility to prevent India from trying to alter the demographic structure of Jammu and Kashmir, “and to secure the implementation of its own resolutions which recognize the Kashmiris’ legitimate right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under U.N. auspices.”
The Foreign Office noted that the letter was part of an ongoing series of efforts by Pakistan to keep the global body informed of the situation in India-held Kashmir. It said this served to “demand resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”