Kashmir Solidarity Day observed at Embassy of Pakistan, France

PARIS: The Embassy of Pakistan in France organized a special event today marking the Kashmir Solidarity Day, ARY News reported.

The event was attended by a cross-section of Pakistani diaspora in France, overseas Kashmiris, academics, and journalists who expressed support for the seven decades long struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination.

They called on the international community and the media to highlight the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and to hold India accountable for its atrocities and human rights violations.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Mumtaz Zahra Baloch voiced strong support for the Kashmiri people in their just struggle against Indian occupation and oppression. She rebuffed India’s efforts to tarnish the image of the Kashmiri freedom movement, terming the movement as peaceful and legitimate and based on the UNSC resolutions.

Ambassador Baloch urged India to: reverse all illegal and unilateral measures taken on or after 5 August 2019; halt and reverse the illegal demographic changes in IIOJK; and immediately release Kashmiri political leadership, journalists, human rights defenders and youth held in arbitrary detention. She also called on India to take concrete and meaningful steps for the full implementation of UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.

The Ambassador appreciated the role being played by the Pakistani and Kashmiri community living in France for supporting the Kashmir cause. She expressed full commitment of the Embassy of Pakistan in France to the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.