At a dinner hosted by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Yaqoob, the OIC secretary-general underlined the need for India’s engagement with Pakistan through a dialogue process towards a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.
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According to a report carried by Radio Pakistan, the assurance was given by the OIC’s secretary general, Iyad Ameen Madani, while talking to president of Pakistan-administered Kashmir Sardar Yaqoob Khan in Islamabad.
He said that the OIC would continue to monitor human rights situation in Occupied Kashmir.
“The Prime Minister strongly pleaded the case of Kashmir during General Assembly session past year and we will again forcefully raise the issue”, Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said.
He expressed the hope that a comprehensive dialogue between India and Pakistan would take place to address the core issues.
The UN Secretary-General said that he looked forward to meeting the Pakistani leader again during the upcoming 71st session of the UN General Assembly to “discuss matters of common interest”.
Madani said it was the OIC global community’s responsibility to raise their voice against “atrocities” on Kashmiris and their “call for referendum as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions to enable Kashmiris’ right to self determination”. It is also notable that Ban Ki-moon only asked for bilateral talks and did not acknowledge that the organisation he heads has called for Kashmiris to have the right to self-determination through a referendum almost 70 years ago or that India has continually flouted those resolutions.
In a sharp retort, Pakistan’s foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz said Modi was “only trying to divert world attention from the grim tragedy that has been unfolding in the Indian-occupied Kashmir over the past five weeks”.
“India and Pakistan should solve the conflict of Kashmir together”, read the letter. No one should be afraid of a referendum and the solution should be through the United Nations resolutions in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. “It was all state-sponsored drama as they brought Hazara, Pashtuns and Punjabi people by giving them money to take part in the so-called protest”.
More than 68,000 people have been killed since rebel groups began fighting Indian forces in 1989 and in the subsequent Indian military crackdown.
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Countering the western Pakistani province’s Chief Minister Sanaullah Khan Zehri’s claim that after Modi’s statement on Balochistan there were anti-India protests in the region, Mazdak says that it was all “state-sponsored drama”.
