Bilawal writes to UN on illegal 'delimitation' exercise in IIOJK by India

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday wrote a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council and the UN's secretary-general regarding India's ploy of reducing the representation of Muslims through the unlawful "delimitation" exercise in the Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), Radio Pakistan reported.

In the letter, the foreign minister urged the UN Security Council to remind India that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally-recognised dispute, adding that New Delhi should refrain from bringing about any illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory.

Bilawal called upon India to let the people of IIOJK determine their own future through a free and fair plebiscite under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

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The foreign minister also underscored India's gross and widespread human rights violations in the occupied territory and drew particular attention to the ongoing Indian efforts to further marginalize, disempower and divide the beleaguered Kashmiri population.

He said the move is designed to pave way for installing yet another puppet government in the territory that is pliant to the BJP-RSS combine and panders to its "Hindutva" ideology.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government broke up IIOJK into two federal territories in 2019 as part of a move to tighten its grip over the region. A commission under his government had finalised 90 assembly constituencies for IIOJK, excluding Ladakh, with 43 seats for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir. Earlier, Jammu had 37 seats and the Kashmir valley 46.

The commission, whose report has been rejected by Jammu and Kashmir's Peoples Democratic Party, said it had been difficult to accommodate competing claims from various sides.

In January, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said that elections would be held in IIOJK soon after the delimitation process was completed.

He also promised to reinstate the disputed region's statehood once the “situation became normal”.