UNITED NATIONS: Foreign Ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in their annual coordination meeting on Saturday evening on the sidelines of the 67th General Assembly session of the United Nations adopted 85-point joint communiqué extending its full support and cooperation to the member states to join hands to resolve the issues including Jammu and Kahmir, Palestine and improve the image of Islam.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States OIC including Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar from Pakistan held their Annual Coordination Meeting at United Nations Headquarters under the Chairmanship of Yerzhan Kazykhanov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.

The meeting reaffirmed its principled support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realization of their legitimate right to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and aspiration of the Kashmiri people. It emphasised the need for full respect of human rights as well as the importance of taking all requisite steps to provide relief and comfort to the Kashmiris.

It further called upon India to allow international human rights groups and humanitarian organisations to visit Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting expressed concern at the indiscriminate use of force and gross violations of human rights committed against the innocent Kashmiris and regretting that India had not allowed the OIC Fact Finding Mission to visit Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir or responded favourably to the offer of a Good Offices made by the OIC.

The meeting noted that the discovery of mass graves with 2156 unidentified bodies in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been confirmed by International Human Rights organisations and urged India to undertake independent investigations into the discovery of mass graves and ensure free and fair trial of those responsible for these heinous crimes.

The meeting commended the efforts of Pakistan and its readiness to engage with India to resolve all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir dispute and urged the international community to play its due role to settle this long standing dispute on UN agenda for the overall improvement of the relations between Pakistan and India as well as to promote regional peace and stability.

The meeting reaffirmed the collective commitment of all OIC Member States to a long-term engagement in Afghanistan in order to bring peace, stability and socioeconomic development to the country and to tackle challenges of illicit drug trafficking and extremism.

The meeting expressed strong condemnation of the production and projection of the reprehensible film insulting Islam by an irresponsible group in the US, resulting in unfortunate violent incidents.

The meeting denounced the aggressions perpetrated against many diplomatic missions around the world and the irresponsible violations, which claimed the lives of some workers of these missions, and insisted on the need to guard against those who promote or are planning to produce such films in order to provoke Muslims.

The meeting called on all member states and the international community to counter the production and promotion of media materials which insult the revealed religions and their symbols, through international institutions and mechanisms, and stressed the need to respect religious and cultural diversity in the world.

The meeting called upon the international community to exert efforts to prevent incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims and to take effective measures to combat the defamation of religions and negative stereotyping against persons based on their religions, faith or race.