AJK delegation meets Qureshi: Strategy to highlight IHK lockdown internationally discussed

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday reaffirmed Pakistan's continued moral, political and diplomatic support to the oppressed Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the right to self-determination. The foreign minister was speaking to parliamentary leaders from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) who along with the AJP Prime Minister, Raja Farooq Haider, met him here at the Foreign Office. The meeting discussed future strategy for highlighting the six months long curfew and gross human rights violations in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir since Narendra Modi government's illegal and unilateral steps of August 5, 2019, said a statement issued by the media team of the foreign minister.

The delegation included Syed Abdullah Gilani, Syed Faiz Ahmad Naqshbandi and Rafique Dar, a representative of jailed Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, and other senior Kashmir leaders. "We [have] made extensive efforts to highlight grave human rights violations [being committed] in occupied Kashmir at [the] diplomatic level," Qureshi told the delegation of Kashmiri leaders from the AJK. "The issue of Kashmir is present on the agenda of the UN Security Council, but our effort to move the UNSC again was aimed at highlighting the Kashmir issue afresh, and get Pakistan's stance reiterated. We achieve success at the UNSC and the Kashmir issue was discussed," he added.

The foreign minister further told the delegation that Pakistan effectively raised Kashmir issue at the meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. He said that the Kashmir issue had also been discussed at the European Union (EU) Parliament and the US Congress. Qureshi said that as a result of the ongoing efforts Pakistan had successfully exposed the real face of Modi government before the international community, which was inspired by Hindutva ideology.

The foreign minister said that a special Kashmir Cell was established at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the direction of the prime minister, which was playing an effective role to highlight the Kashmir issue. "Pakistan will continue to provide moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiri people on every front till the Kashmiris get their just right to self-determination," Qureshi was quoted a saying.

The AJK prime minister, while lauding the efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, emphasized continued joint efforts for highlighting the Kashmir issue at the international level.