ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday strongly opposed India’s bid to host the forthcoming G-20 summit in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir in utter disregard of the globally-acknowledged “disputed” status of the territory, “which is a travesty that the international community cannot accept under any circumstances.”
“We have seen news items appearing in the Indian media indicating that the government of India might be contemplating holding some G20-related meeting/ event in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Pakistan completely rejects any such attempt by India,” said Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar while commenting on India’s bid.
As is well-known, he asserted that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory between Pakistan and India. The territory has been under forcible and illegal occupation of India since 1947 and this dispute has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades, he added.
“India is responsible for widespread atrocities and egregious human rights violations in IIOJK. Since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed 639 innocent Kashmiris in extra-judicial murders,” he said, adding that numerous reports of the UN, including the two commissioned by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2018 and 2019, have re-confirmed ongoing Indian atrocities against the Kashmiri people.
At UN, Pakistan slams India’s repression in IIOJK
Most ominously, he added that India has been seeking to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory in flagrant violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, international law, and the 4th Geneva Convention. He further stated: “It is expected that in case of any such controversial proposal from India, which would be designed to seek international legitimacy for an illegal and tyrannical occupation continuing for over 7 decades, the G20 members will be fully cognizant of the imperatives of law and justice and would reject it out-right.”
“Pakistan also strongly urges the international community to call upon India to end its gross and systematic violations of human rights in IIOJK, revoke its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and free all political prisoners including the true Kashmiri leaders,” he added.
He stated that the only way to lasting peace in South Asia is by granting the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir their inalienable right to self-determination as pledged to them in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
India media reported on Friday that Jammu and Kashmir government in the occupied territory will be hosting its first-ever G-20 meeting next year in 2023 and that a committee has also been constituted for overall coordination with regard to the moot.
If India’s bid succeeds, it will be the first-ever international event in the disputed and occupied territory after India’s illegal annexation of the Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the August 5, 2019, illegal measures.
The G-20 (Group of Twenty) is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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