OIC Contact Group reaffirms support for legitimate rights of Kashmiris

NEW YORK: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir reaffirmed its support for the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for realization of their inalienable right to self-determination and freedom from the Indian occupation, ARY News reported.

The foreign ministers of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir met on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly. The Secretary-General of the OIC chaired the meeting.

The Contact Group also rejected the illegal and unilateral actions taken by India on August 5, 2019 and subsequent steps to change the internationally recognized disputed status of the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and to alter the demographic structure of the occupied territory, said a joint communiqué issued after the meeting.

“Declared that the final settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and a UN supervised plebiscite, is indispensable for durable peace and stability in South Asia,” the communiqué said.

It denounced India’s illegal and unilateral actions and subsequent steps which were in direct violation of UNSC resolutions and were aimed at changing the demographic structure of IIOJK, preventing the realization of the inalienable right to self- determination of the Kashmiris as well as violating their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

It recalled the statement issued by the UN Secretary General of 8 August 2019 which affirmed that the position of ‘the United Nations on Jammu & Kashmir region is governed by the UN Charter and applicable UN Security Council Resolutions,’ it said.

Rejecting the issuance of fake domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris granting them the voting rights, and amendments in land ownership laws, the Group said these were in contravention of the existing UNSC resolutions and in violation of the international humanitarian law including the 4th Geneva Convention.

The communiqué further deplored that the Indian forces continued to perpetrate a vicious campaign of repressive actions, including extrajudicial killings of innocent Kashmiris in fake encounters; custodial killings and “cordon-and-search” operations.

The Contact Group members also condemned that the entire Hurriyat leadership, the true representatives of Kashmiri political aspirations, had been under continued detention for three years with most having been subjected to brutal and inhumane treatment at the hands of Indian occupation forces.

The group urged the OIC Secretary General to continue to monitor the implementation of the action plan on Jammu and Kashmir agreed during the last meeting of the OIC Contact Group on 22 March 2022 in Islamabad and present a report on the situation in IIOJK to the next meeting of the OIC contact group.