DNA
ISLAMABAD, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday said that the illegal and unilateral steps India took on August 5, 2019, were blatant violations of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, international laws and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The deputy prime minister, addressing the participants of a walk, held in connection with the Yaum-e-Istehsal-e-Kashmir, marking the fifth anniversary of the revocation of Articles 370 and 35 A by India in 2019 to revoke the special status of disputed Kashmiri territory, said the Indian tactic to usurp the rights of Kashmiri people through such constitutional amendments was an act of folly.
He said the people of Pakistan and Kashmir had a centuries-old association and were bound by unbreakable bonds of history, geography and religion and shared their joys and sorrows. The people of Pakistan could not accept or dissociate themselves from the situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The deputy prime minister said that India which claimed to be a champion of human rights and democracy, should grant access to human rights bodies to enable them to witness the ongoing human rights abuses in the territory.
He told the gathering of federal ministers, politicians, government officers, and men, women, and children from different walks of life, that Pakistan had been forcefully raising the Kashmir issue at all international forums be it the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), D-8 or Gaza conference held in Astana. Similarly, Pakistan has also raised the voice for the suffering people of Gaza where around 40,000 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli occupation forces.
Besides, he said this was for the first time, that OIC special envoy on Islamophobia was appointed consequent to Pakistan’s efforts on the subject.
Reiterating Pakistan’s continued political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people, the deputy prime minister urged India to announce a plebiscite in the occupied territory to make the Kashmiri people exercise their right to self-determination.
He said the Indian tactics like the revocation of a special status of Kashmir could not suppress the commitment and passion of the Kashmiri people for freedom. Such measures were only meant to change the demography and settle Hindus and other non-Muslim communities there to convert the Muslim majority into a minority.
He prayed to Allah Almighty that the Kashmiris get their due right of freedom to practice their religion and exercise their right to self-determination and concluded his address by raising slogans of “Kashmir banay ga Pakistan” (Kashmir to become Pakistan).”
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Qazi led the walk which started from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and culminated at D Chowk, and was participated by the officers and personnel of the foreign ministry and people from different walks of life.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and other federal ministers also joined the walk and raised slogans to reiterate Pakistan’s support for the Kashmiri people and condemn the unabated Indian brutalities in IIOJK.
The participants carried the flags of Pakistan and Kashmir as well as the banners inscribed with “Abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, continuity of 77 years of occupation” and “Five years of Indian brutalities in IIOJK.”
