ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Friday said for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the year 2020 was marked with "Indian brutalities and oppression" of Kashmiris.

"The military siege, communications blockade, media blackout, incarceration of the Kashmiri leadership, and every possible violation of human rights of the Kashmiri people continue for 515 days since Indian's illegal and inhuman actions of August 5, 2019," Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in his weekly media briefing.

The spokesperson said in their brazen acts of state terrorism, the Indian occupation forces martyred more than 300 innocent Kashmiris, including women and children, in fake encounters and staged cordon-and-search operations.

He said during the same period, 750 Kashmiris were critically injured, while 2,770 innocent Kashmiris were arbitrarily detained and 922 houses destroyed as part of collective punishment inflicted on the Kashmiri communities.

In pursuit of its agenda to convert the Muslim majority of IIOJK into a minority, he said, the Indian government issued more than two million fake domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris under the so called "Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020".

The spokesperson said Pakistan reiterated its call for a UN Commission of Inquiry, as recommended by the OHCHR in its two reports in 2018 and 2019.

"The commission should thoroughly investigate the Indian crimes against the Kashmiri people during the past three decades," he stressed.

The spokesperson expressed Pakistan's deep concern over the health condition and continued incarceration of Kashmiri leadership, including founding leader of Kashmiri organisation Dukhtaran-i-Millat and the "Iron Lady of Kashmir" Asiya Andrabi, leader and founder of the Jammu & Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party; Shabbir Ahmed Shah; and prominent leaders such as Yasin Malik, Masarat Alam Bhat, Mohammad Ashraf Sehraie, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

He recalled that Pakistan had written to the UN Secretary General and the UN Human Rights Commissioner, particularly highlighting the inhuman and illegal treatment of Andrabi.

Chaudhri said to divert attention from its internal failings and the situation in IIOJK, India continued to escalate tensions along the Line of Control (LOC).

"During 2020 alone, Indian occupation troops made 3,097 ceasefire violations, deliberately targeting the civilian populated areas. In these unprovoked Indian violations, 28 innocent civilians embraced shahadat, while 257 sustained serious injuries," he said.

The spokesperson said the Indian government with its illegal and inhuman actions had failed and "will continue to fail in breaking the will of the Kashmiri people".

"The brutalisation of innocent Kashmiris at the hands of Indian occupation troops, will only further strengthen their resolve for freedom from illegal Indian occupation.

I wish to reassure our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that they are not alone in their rightful struggle," he said.

He said Pakistan would continue to stand with them till the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination.

APP

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2020 marked with Indian oppression of Kashmiris - The Express Tribune