Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has conveyed the country’s “grave concern” to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on reports indicating that India might impose “further illegal and unilateral measures” in Jammu and Kashmir, including “division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory,” the Foreign Office said.

Qureshi, in a letter addressed to the UNSC president, drew the attention of the United Nations to India’s continued military siege of Jammu and Kashmir, “which has continued for over 22 months, to suppress the Kashmiris’ legitimate demands through a massive campaign of repression including gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

The foreign minister also expressed concern over India’s design to undermine the exercise of what he called “inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people” by changing the demographic structure of J&K through issuance of “fake” domicile certificates.

He underlined that “all the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India … since 1951, including the measures initiated on and after August 5, 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce in the future, are violations of international law including the Security Council Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention.”

Noting that a just settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people is essential for durable peace and stability in South Asia, the foreign minister emphasised that the onus was on India to create an enabling environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government in India had on Agusut 5, 2019, repeated Article 370 of the country’s constitution that had given a special status to J&K and downgraded it into a union territory. Ladakh, till then a part of Jammu and Kashmir, was made a special union territory.

(SAM)