The Foreign Office on Friday firmly rejected the “baseless and misleading remarks” made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to the Indian-held Kashmir after the Pahalgam attack.
The Indian premier arrived in the occupied valley today to open a strategic railway line.
According to Indian news media outlets, Modi, during his visit, said that Pakistan attacked ’insaniyat’ and Kashmiriyat’ (humanity and the Kashmiri identity) in Pahalgam.
The Indian premier alleged that Pakistan was “also the enemy of poor’s bread and butter”.
He warned that anyone trying to derail the development in Indian-held Kashmir would have to “face Narendra Modi first”.
Responding to the Indian premier’s remarks, the foreign office today said: “Pakistan firmly rejects the baseless and misleading remarks made by the prime minister of India regarding the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
It added that such statements represented a “deliberate attempt to deflect international attention from the grave and persistent human rights violations being committed in a territory under foreign occupation.”
“We are deeply dismayed that the Indian prime minister has once again chosen to accuse Pakistan of involvement in the Pahalgam attack, without presenting a single piece of credible evidence,” FO said in its statement.
“Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed territory, the final status of which is to be determined in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people,” it said, adding that no amount of rhetoric could change the legal and historical reality.
“Claims of development in IOJK ring hollow against the backdrop of an unprecedented military presence, suppression of fundamental freedoms, arbitrary arrests, and a concerted effort to alter the region’s demography in violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention,” FO said.
FO called upon the international community, including the UN and human rights organisations, to hold India accountable for its oppression and to ensure that the “Kashmiri people are allowed to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”
“Pakistan remains steadfast in its principled support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for their rights and dignity,” FO said.
Modi’s visit follows a recent military confrontation between India and Pakistan over New Delhi’s allegations against Islamabad, without evidence, about a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
As New Delhi launched air strikes in early May, killing civilians, Pakistan downed six Indian jets in response. After tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.
