UNITED NATIONS: Reaffirming their support to the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination, foreign ministers of the Islamic countries have called for resolution of the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India.
At their annual coordination meeting, the foreign ministers of 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted the reports of various OIC Contact Groups, including the one on Jammu and Kashmir, which also asked the organisation’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to monitor the human rights situation in Kashmir and submit a report at the next session of the council of ministers.
The meeting, held on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, was chaired by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and attended by foreign ministers of member states and OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani.
Speaking at the meeting, Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz referred to the broad range of challenges confronting the Muslim world and briefed the meeting on the gross violations of human rights in Indian-held Kashmir.
He regretted that the aggression of the Indian occupation forces took a new turn following the extra-judicial killing of the Kashmiri youth leader, Burhan Wani, on July 8. As a result, more than 100 innocent Kashmiris had lost their lives, while thousands of Kashmiri men, women and children were injured, many seriously.
The deliberate and indiscriminate use of pellet guns against Kashmiris had caused blindness to 150 youths, he said. The adviser urged the international community to demand that state-sponsored policies of suppression in IHK were ceased, fundamental rights of the Kashmiris respected and the UNSC resolutions providing Kashmiris their right to self-determination implemented by India.
The adviser also reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering support to the cause of Palestine and restoration of peace and stability in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The meeting underscored the need for greater cooperation between the OIC member states to combat terrorism and violent extremism, and to promote a culture of inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and understanding.
A delegation of the True Representatives of the Kashmiri People also spoke on the occasion and apprised the meeting of the latest situation in the occupied territory. Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Masood Khan called upon the OIC secretary general to urge the UN Secretary General and the president of the UN Security Council to address the grave and deteriorating situation in IHK.
