Islamabad, Nov 5, (Asia Free Press): Pakistan on Thursday said that despite deploying 900,000 troops and paramilitary deployment in Indian Occupied Jammu Kashmir IOJK, India was trying to portray false sense of normalcy and development in the territory, reported Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).
“India is trying to portray false sense of normalcy and development in IOJK. But the reality on ground is totally different as you have also noted that the Kashmiri people have rejected these attempts,” Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in his weekly press briefing.
He said the heavy deployment of India troops made the occupied territory the most heavily militarized zone in the world, and they continued with this policy of subjugating the people of IIOJK through the barrel of the gun.
“Regarding the reported investment/development projects in IOJK, that clearly is an effort by India to divert international attention from its illegal occupation and human rights violations, serious violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity in IIOJK,” the spokesperson said.
He said in continued acts of state terrorism, Indian troops martyred 22 Kashmiris during the month of October in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the Kashmiri students continue to be penalized, threatened and persecuted by India over a cricket match between Pakistan and India.
“This is reflective of the extremist anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmiri Hindutva mindset in India that Pakistan has been forewarning about, and you would have seen recent reports in the international media critical of these worrying developments,” he commented.
Expressing “serious concern” on the reports about Indian occupation forces setting up a so-called new investigation agency in IOJK, he said this could be another repressive tool to further terrorize Kashmiris.
“It is extremely reprehensible that minorities, particularly Muslims are being unabatedly attacked by extremist Hindutva brigades with impunity and state complicity in BJP-RSS regime,” he added.
He said disturbing recent incidents, including, stopping Muslims to offer Friday prayers at several places, attacks on many mosques and Muslim businesses in Tripura, rendering Muslims homeless and landless in Assam, victimization of renowned persons, targeting of Urdu language of Muslim minority and violence against Muslims on flimsy pretexts were clear signs of the fascist polity in India.
“We call upon the international community to play its role to stop the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks against minorities particularly Muslims in India, and ensure their safety, security and well-being and protection in particular of their places of worship and heritage sites,” he remarked.
Asked about FATF, he said, Pakistan had concerns about politicization of FATF by some countries, which was not consistent with the technical nature of the issues discussed in this forum.
Asked about the Kartarpur Corridor, he said Pakistan’s policy had been very clear and remained strongly committed to its functioning, and supported its early reopening. We hope India would respond positively, he added.
The Indian government has already deployed 50 additional companies of Indian paramilitary forces, 30 of them in Srinagar alone, to muzzle the voices of people and to suppress the ongoing struggle for the right to self-determination in IOJK.
India has also ordered the setting up of a special agency in the name of the State Investigation Agency (SIA) in IOJK to further tighten the noose around the Kashmiris.
The new agency was announced two weeks after the Indian Home Minister, Amit Shah, visited Jammu and Kashmir for the first time since the scrapping of the erstwhile state’s semi-autonomous status in August 2019.
IOK witnessed a fresh spate of violence in October, during which Indian occupational forces martyred at least 22 Kashmiri youth during encounters. Many of whom were unarmed civilians and were killed extra-judicially.
