Pakistan warns India any further step on IOK could imperil region’s peace

Pakistan on Thursday warned India against taking any further steps regarding Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK), saying it could “imperil regional peace and security”.

Addressing a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that India must revisit its unlawful and destabilising actions in IOK and ensure full compliance with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

He added that Pakistan would continue to resolutely oppose Indian attempts to change the demographic structure and status of IOK as a disputed territory.

The FO spokesperson said that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had also written a letter to the president of the UNSC and the United Nations secretary general a day earlier to apprise the UN leadership of Pakistan’s concerns on these developments.

Qureshi had conveyed Pakistan’s “grave concern” to the UNSC on reports indicating that India might impose “further illegal and unilateral measures” in IOK, including “division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory.”

In his press briefing today, the FO spokesperson said that the foreign minister had been regularly writing letters to the Security Council and the UN secretary general to keep the UN fully informed of the grave situation in the territory occupied by India.

He said Pakistan had also been reminding the UN Security Council of its responsibility for a peaceful and just settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions.

“We remain firm in our commitment to provide all possible support to the people of IOK in their just struggle for the realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination,” the FO spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that Pakistan had deep concern over the recent reports indicating “Indian machinations for further division, bifurcation and demographic changes in the IOK to perpetuate its illegal occupation”.

“We call upon the international community, including the United Nations, international human rights and humanitarian organisations, global media and world parliaments to take immediate cognizance of the situation,” he said.

He said the IOK was an internationally recognised disputed territory, adding that India’s unilateral and illegal actions in IOK remain in violation of international law and numerous UNSC resolutions.