Emergency meeting of OIC Contact Group on Kashmir to be held today

ISLAMABAD: An emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Kashmir-focused wing has been summoned on Tuesday (today) after the Indian government rushed through a presidential decree to abrogate Article 370 of its Constitution which accorded a special status to Indian-occupied Kashmir.

As per details, the session will be attended by representatives from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and other member countries.

A day earlier, India’s BJP government moved a bill in the upper house of the parliament (Rajaya Sabha) to remove Article 370 from the Indian constitution amid opposition members’ protest. It was later signed by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, stripping the state of Kashmir off its special status and turning it a Union Territory with the legislature.

Denouncing the move of the Indian government to repeal Article 370 for occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan declared to “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps.”

In a statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office strongly condemned and rejected the announcements by the Indian government regarding the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

The foreign office stressed that the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory. “No unilateral step by the Government of India can change this disputed status, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. Nor will this ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan.”