ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday rejected the baseless Indian contentions regarding alleged damage to Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan and termed these as part of Indian leadership's unrelenting anti-Pakistan propaganda.

Responding to media queries regarding certain Indian leadership statements with regard to the alleged damage to Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan, Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui asserted that Pakistan completely rejected the baseless contentions regarding Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan.

She added that the Indian allegations were contrary to the historical facts, international law and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

"Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory recognized as such by the international community. The Dispute is the longest outstanding item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which remains unresolved due to forcible, brutal and illegal occupation of a part of Jammu and Kashmir by India since 1947," she said, adding that the regurgitation of false and preposterous Indian claims did not change the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Farooqui said that the Indian government's contentions concerning the Buddhist cultural heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan were preposterous.

"These are part of Indian leadership's unrelenting anti-Pakistan propaganda. With its tarnished human rights record in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) and abdication of responsibility to protect its minorities from Hindu extremists, the RSS-BJP governmenthas no credentials whatsoever even to feign concern for minorities, either at home or elsewhere," she added.

Farooqui asserted that the India's state terrorism and extra judicial killings in fake encounters in IOJ&K, vandalization and destruction of minorities' places of worship including the historic Babri Mosque, lynchings by cow vigilantes under government's watch, Gujarat massacre of 2002 and targeted killings of Muslims in Delhi in February 2020, and rendering millions of people stateless with discriminatory steps such as NRC were well documented by international human rights and humanitarian organisations.

Rather than pretending concerns for minorities beyond its borders, Farooqui added that it was time for Indian leadership to do serious introspection and take requisite steps to safeguard and protect the lives, rights, and places of worship of minorities in India.

"India must realise that its baseless contentions about Gilgit-Baltistan cannot divert international attention away from the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the need for its immediate resolution in accordance with the relevant UNSC Resolutions and aspirations of Kashmiri people," she added.

Till the implementation of the UNSC resolutions through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices, Farooqui added that no illegal and unilateral action or repetition of false claims by India could alter the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.