India committing blatant rights violations in occupied Kashmir: FM Qureshi

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said that India is carrying out blatant rights violations in the occupied Kashmir, ARY News reported.

“The international community must play its role in forcing India to lift inhuman curfew restrictions in the held valley”, Qureshi said while talking to media along with US Senator Chris Van Hollen, , who called on him in Multan.

He said the US senator was denied permission to visit Occupied Kashmir to witness the situation there, while Pakistan has open permission to foreign observers to visit any of area of Azad Kashmir, they want.

He questioned why India is not permitting foreign observers to visit occupied Kashmir if everything is normal and it has nothing to hide from the international community?

Shah Mehmood Qureshi said innocent Kashmiris are under curfew for the last 62 days and they have been deprived of their basic human rights.

Talking to media on the occasion, the US senator said he wanted to visit occupied Kashmir to analyze the situation over there, but was denied by the Indian government.

A key senator from the United States Democratic Party, Chris Van Hollen, wanted to visit occupied Kashmir to see the situation first-hand but the Indian government had denied him permission to go there.

Known for his views on the situation in Kashmir, Chris Van Hollen is the first US Congressman to have been denied permission by the Indian government after the repeal of the special status of the occupied territory by the Indian government on August 5, as per Kashmir Media Service.