Earlier on Monday, Pakistan invited India for talks on Kashmir, saying it is the “international obligation” of both the countries to resolve the issue, notwithstanding India’s insistence that it would talk on “contemporary and relevant” issues in Indo-Pak relations. “I want to speak a bit about the people in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir”, he said in his 70th Independence Day speech from the Red Fort.
Advertisement
“The second statement within two days on Balochistan by Modi is an admission that India, as a matter of its policy, has continuously been backing the scoundrels in the province”, Balochistan government’s spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly came out in support of “freedom” for Balochistan, leaders of the Baloch nationalist movement on Tuesday have sought the USA and Europe to hold Pakistan accountable for the crimes against humanity.
“Now sometimes, even it is bearing the consequences of terrorism”, he added.
India-Pakistan ties have become frosty after largescale violence broke out in Jammu and Kashmir following the killing of militant Burhan Wani on July 8.
“The world is watching”.
He said that the nomenclature PoK means that the territory is an integral part of India and the accession of Kashmir to India is an issue which was settled decades ago.
“Congress and UPA government have condemned the human rights violations in Balochistan as also in PoK by Pakistani forces and establishment on multiple occasions in the past”, party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said, noting that the first time the UPA did so was on December 27, 2005.
“When children were killed in terror attack on a school in Peshawar (about two years back), there were tears in our Parliament”.
S.D. Goswami said the militants sneaked over onto the Indian side but were challenged by border guards who killed them in a gunfight.
The Baloch nationalist leaders are of the opinion that Pakistan wishes to destruct the peace and stability of the region as they are being hypocritical when they demand Kashmir as their own, while at the same time, crushing the same demand of the people in Balochistan by force.
On Monday, PM Modi in his Independence Day speech sent a strong message to Pakistan.
Advertisement
Pakistan foreign affairs advisor, Sartaj Aziz, responded by accusing India of trying to divert attention from the grim tragedy unfolding in recent weeks in the part of Kashmir it controls.
