India's objective is to maintain its illegitimate control over occupied J&K: Qureshi

• Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi discusses the ongoing crisis in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir with Special Envoy of the OIC for Jammu and Kashmir.
• Qureshi says India's unilateral measures have resulted in losses worth $9.5 billion to the Kashmir economy.
• The next meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers will be held in Pakistan in March 2022.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said to Special Envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador Yousef Aldobeay, that India's objective is to maintain its illegitimate control over India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Both the officials discussed the ongoing crisis in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as the foreign minister apprised the envoy of India taking steps to change the demographic ratio in the region by evicting locals.

Qureshi said: “Illegal measures taken by India in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir are a blatant violation of UN resolutions and international law.”

“Oppressed Kashmiris are facing a double lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic,” Qureshi said, adding that “extrajudicial killings of innocent people, arbitrary arrests, rape of women, coercion have become a daily routine.”

The foreign minister highlighted that people living in occupied Jammu and Kashmir are suffering irreparable economic loss due to unilateral measures taken by India.

Qureshi recalled that on the occasion of the 76th session of the General Assembly, during his visit to New York, he drew special attention towards the serious and systematic human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the negative role of India in the region.

“The dossier issued by the Government of Pakistan on September 12, 2021, contains full details of the war crimes committed by the Indian occupying forces,” he added.

The minister emphasised that a solution to the dispute is important for regional peace and stability.

“The unilateral and illegal Indian action of August 5, 2019, can neither change the fact nor can it end the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination enshrined in relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he emphasised.

It is pertinent to mention here that Yousef Aldobeay is visiting Pakistan from November 7 to 12.

Pakistan to hold next meeting of OIC in March 2022

Addressing a joint press conference after the meeting, Qureshi welcomed Yousef Aldobeay and his delegation.

At the OIC meeting in Niamey, Niger, Aldobeay was given the responsibility to observe the serious human rights violations in the IoJK and to keep the OIC informed.

“This visit of the representative is very timely,” Qureshi said during the press conference.

“In September 2021, we presented a dossier based on irrefutable evidence of serious human rights violations in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding the visit is also important because the next meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers will be held in Pakistan in March 2022.

The issue of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir will definitely be discussed in this meeting and by that time a report would be compiled on this matter, he said.

Qureshi said that he has discussed in detail the serious human rights violations in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir with the OIC special representative.

“I have informed him what difficulties the unarmed citizens of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir faced during the COVID-19,” he said, adding that India's unilateral measures have cost the Kashmir economy losses worth $9.5 billion.

“India believes that unilateral measures taken on August 5, 2019, have benefited them a lot but the reality is the opposite,” he said.