• Indian envoy summoned to protest custodial death of Hurriyat leader
• Shehbaz, AJK PM express condolences

KARACHI: Pakistan on Tuesday “categorically rejected” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that he had somehow “resolved the Kashmir issue”, and also summoned Indian chargé d’affaires to convey a strong protest over the custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

At a rally in Gujarat on Monday, Mr Modi, as quoted by the Indian media, said: “As I am following the footsteps of [India’s first deputy prime minister and home minister] Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel.”

Reacting to this, the Foreign Office said the Indian premier’s “farcical contention” was not only false and misleading but also reflected “how oblivious the Indian leadership has become of the ground realities” in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

“Instead of making delusional statements about having resolved the dispute unilaterally, the Indian leadership must deliver on their commitments to the Kashmiris and to the world and ensure that the people of Kashmir are accorded their inalienable right to self-determination,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hurriyat leader’s death

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Indian chargé d’affaires on Tuesday to convey Paki­stan’s protest over the custodial death of Hurriyat leader Mr Shah, who had been imprisoned in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years, the Foreign Office said in another statement.

“It was deplored that despite Pakistan’s expression of serious concerns over Mr Altaf Ahmed Shah’s sharply deteriorating health, as well as his daughter’s letter addressed to the Indian prime minister apprising him of Mr Shah’s precarious health condition, the Indian government remained completely indifferent,” it said.

PM Sharif, Ilyas condole death

Prime Minister Sharif, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas and several other leaders from both sides of the divide expressed their grief over Mr Shah’s custodial killing, saying it bore yet another witness to the brutal persecution of Kashmiris by the fascist Indian government.

“Deeply grieved at the passing of prominent Kashmiri leader Altaf Shah, son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, while in Indian captivity. The Modi regime denied him treatment despite knowing he was a cancer patient.

“Custodial killings are the norm in Modi’s India. My condolences to the bereaved family,” said PM Sharif in his message on Twitter.

Tariq Naqash in Muzaff­ar­abad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022