The Foreign Office on Friday spoke about the recent heckling of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, saying “the FO takes notice of such incidents involving Pakistani ministers [during foreign visits]”.

The statement from FO Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed comes a day after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was heckled by unidentified people at the Dulles International Airport in Washington DC after he landed in the US capital ahead of important meetings with global lending institutions.

Responding to a question at a weekly press briefing today, Iftikhar said US officials had also taken notice of the misbehaviour with the finance minister at the US airport.

He recalled that Saudi authorities had also taken notice when the government delegation was targeted by certain individuals during the visit.

To another question, the FO spokesperson appreciated the statement from Germany’s foreign minister regarding the Kashmir dispute.

At a press conference, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had said: “Germany also has a role and responsibility with regard to the situation in Kashmir. Therefore, we support intensively the engagement of the United Nations, to find peaceful resolutions in the region.”

The spokesperson said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also raised the Kashmir issue at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, however, “India is not responding properly to settle the dispute.”

Earlier, the spokesperson also talked about the custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah and demanded that the Indian government must immediately investigate the incident and hold accountable to those who were responsible.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the extra-judicial killing of two more Kashmiris in fresh acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Indian occupation forces in IIOJK,” he added.

The spokesperson said the latest incidents of violence and hostility perpetrated by Hindutva extremists against Muslims in India, during the recent Hindu festivals were a matter of grave concern.

“This is yet another manifestation of the growing ‘saffron terror’ that has deeply permeated the Indian society.”

We call upon the international community to hold India accountable for its crimes against humanity in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to take cognizance of the rapidly deteriorating situation of Islamophobia in India and the resultant threat to the safety and security and well-being of its Muslim citizens and other minorities.

He recalled the statement of the Indian Prime Minister’s “farcical contention that he had, somehow, “resolved the Kashmir issue”, was not only false and misleading but also reflected how oblivious the Indian leadership had become of the ground realities in IIOJK.