Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has formally taken up the issue of continued Indian atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir with United Nations, the Security Council, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
As tension continues to grow between the two countries, the Adviser on Foreign Affairs on Friday wrote letters to UN Secretary-General, the President of the UN Security Council, the Secretary-General of the OIC, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to express serious concern over the situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian External Affairs Ministry has described the situation in the Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir as its "internal matter" but Pakistan rejected the statement, saying the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is decades' old internationally recognised dispute between the two countries, as there are numerous pending resolutions of UN Security Council, calling for solution of the dispute.
According to Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, through the letters, the Adviser expressed Pakistan's serious concern on the alarming situation in the IOK, drawing attention to the brutal killings of innocent civilians and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiris by the occupying Indian security forces. In his letters to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, the Adviser noted that in these times of democracy and accountability, the international community, led by the United Nations, cannot remain passive to the callous behaviour and grave violations of human rights by India in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir over the last many decades.
The letters recalled that the United Nations has a special and permanent responsibility with regard to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council and is yet to be resolved in accordance with its relevant resolutions.
He further wrote that the current situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is in fact the result of the continued denial by India of the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people through a free and fair plebiscite under the UN auspices that was assured by the United Nations in its multiple resolutions.
The Adviser noted that non-resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was a constant source of tension and instability in the region, and a threat to international peace and security. "Lack of progress in finding a durable solution to the Kashmir question in accordance with the UN resolutions, and the continuing violations of human rights in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and lack of accountability thereof, have led to feeling of frustration and resentment especially among the new generation of Kashmiris who are increasingly adding their voice to the decades long Kashmiri indigenous movement for self-determination", he observed.
He said that India can no longer be in denial of these facts by terming the situation as its "internal matter", a position that has no standing whatsoever, in view of the internationally recognised disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir as also reflected in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the letters noted. The Adviser urged that India should be called upon to stop killing of innocent civilians and to cease its repressive policies and human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.