Pakistan has strongly condemned the alleged harassment of relatives of Kashmiri Leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq by Indian authorities.

The Foreign Office spokesperson condemned the coercive, pressure tactic by India and termed it a concerted attempt to harass the Kashmiri leadership and subjugate the indigenous Kashmiri struggle to the oppressive Indian regime.

He was responding to a question regarding reports about the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) serving a notice to Molvi Manzoor Ahmed and Molvi Shafat Ahmed, uncles of the Kashmiri Leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, asking them to report to NIA Headquarters in New Delhi.

Earlier, NIA had arrested Shahid Islam, a close aide of Farooq, on charges of terror financing.

“The persistent Indian denial of the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiri people now appears to have mutated to frustrated focus on all kinds of trumped up charges,” read a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

India needs to realise that the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for their right to self-determination cannot be wished away, or subjugated, through such oppressive measures, it added.

“Intimidating relatives of Kashmiri leaders and psychologically torturing them through such reprehensible moves serves no purpose but add to the long list of grave human rights violations committed by India against unprotected Kashmiris.”