ISLAMABAD, April 14: Pakistan is deeply concerned over reports of the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces and their burial in mass graves.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said Pakistan also “demands an immediate, comprehensive and impartial international inquiry into the matter.”

He said the massacre of Palestinian refugees perpetrated by Israeli forces in occupied Palestinian territories, particularly in Jenin, “adds another chapter to the shameful annals of the (Ariel) Sharon government’s crimes against the Palestinian people.”

He also called on the UN Security Council to act urgently on Secretary General Kofi Annan’s proposal to develop an international force to maintain peace in the Middle East region.

In order to avoid being accused of following double standards in overseeing the implementation of their resolutions, the council and its permanent members needed to devise “effective measures to end Israel’s defiance” of their resolutions, he maintained.

By refusing international media and the Red Cross access to the area of its military operations, “Israel once again demonstrated its contempt of the world opinion and defiance of UN resolutions,” he said.

Yasser Arafat, on the other hand, “demonstrated respect to humanitarian law by denouncing all terrorist attacks which target innocent civilians,” he added.

“Pakistan demands the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories and the urgent resumption of the political process for the settlement of the Palestinian issue in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has deplored remarks made by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a public meeting in Panaji (Goa) describing Muslims as “intolerant and violent.”

“It is...strange that Mr Vajpayee, himself a lifelong member of the Hindu reactionary and fundamentalist RSS, a promoter of the Hindu fanatic and fascist agenda, should choose to call Muslims intolerant,” said an FO statement.—APP/dpa