OIC Contact Group rejects Indian moves to change demographic structure of IOJK

 

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that the members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group have rejected India’s moves to change the demographic structure of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, ARY News reported on Monday.

The OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir held a virtual meeting today against the backdrop of the situation in the occupied valley which was attended by foreign ministers of Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and representative of IOJK.

FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while addressing a media briefing in Islamabad today, said that the situation of the occupied Kashmir was worsening day by day and the participants of the emergency meeting expressed deep concerns over the developments.

Indian troops were targeting helpless Kashmiris through the continuation of lockdown, military siege, communications blockade and other restrictions despite the existence of coronavirus pandemic, said Qureshi. He added that India is targeting defenceless Kashmiris to break their will through violence to accomplish the Hindutva agenda of RSS-BJP.

The OIC Contact Group members have also listened to the message of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) president, he said.

The foreign minister condemned India’s attempt to convert the minority into majority through the execution of an illegal citizenship bill. He also criticised the detention of Hurriyat leadership for more than 10 years and extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris besides carrying out atrocities in the valley.

He said that OIC Contact Group backed the stance of Pakistan and rejected the Indian moves to change the demographic structure of IOJK. They also agreed to constitute an observer group to review the situation of the occupied Kashmir.

FM Qureshi said that the Kashmir dispute also possessed importance like the Palestine issue.

Qureshi said that India has intensified its violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary in order to divert world’s attention from its state-terrorism and unacceptable actions in Occupied Kashmir. He added that India may resort to “false flag” operation and undertake some other misadventure which could imperil regional peace and security.

The foreign minister said that Pakistan was against engaging into another conflict, however, it has the will and capacity to respond forcefully and effectively to defend itself resolutely against any act of aggression.

In a joint communique issued after the Group’s virtual emergency meeting, the members rejected the newly-notified “Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Order 2020” and “Jammu & Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate Rules 2020” aimed at changing the demographic structure of Occupied Kashmir.

The communique affirmed that Indian actions of 5th of August last year and new domicile rules are in complete violation of the UNSC Resolutions, international law including the 4th Geneva Conventions, and India’s own solemn commitments to implement UNSC resolutions, Radio Pakistan reported.

It welcomed the two reports issued by the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in June 2018 and July 2019 comprehensively documenting the gross and systematic violations of human rights in the held territory.

The forum deplored the extended, months-long, lockdown of the Kashmiri people and communications blackout since 5 August last year, suppression of Kashmiris through arbitrary detentions and fake “encounters” against armless Kashmiris.

It expressed concern over India’s intensified ceasefire violations on the Line of Control, resulting in deaths and injuries to civilian population particularly women and children.

The gathering called upon the OIC Member States to raise the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in their bilateral engagements with India with a view to safeguarding the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory and ensuring expeditious implementation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.