ISLAMABAD: The international community rema­ins deeply concerned over minorities’ oppression in India causing dozens of killings of Muslims and people belonging to other communities by extremist groups, says the Foreign Office.

FO spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, at his weekly press briefing on Thursday, said that oppression of non-Hindus in India was on the rise for the past few years. People belonging to minority communities — including Muslims, Christians and Dalits — have been lynched for trading, consuming or even transporting beef by the proponents of Hindutva.

He said India had resorted to harassing relatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders and meting out inhuman treatment to the Kashmiri leaders to deter the indigenous movement for self-determination in India-held Kashmir spearheaded by the Kashmiri youth.

“We have been sensitising the international community as well as the United Nations and other relevant quarters on the grave human rights situation in IoK (Indian-occupied Kashmir) and unending bloodshed of Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces,” he added.

The spokesman said that since July 8, 2016 alone, hundreds of Kashmiris had been mercilessly killed; over 8,000 were victims of pellet guns with hundreds of youths blinded either completely or partially; 19,000 had been wounded, many with life-threatening injuries; over 18,000 arrested with their fate remaining unknown and around a thousand cases of molestation of Kashmiri women had been reported.

Terming the allegations of Afghan media regarding training of Afghan children (in terrorist activities) in Pakistani seminaries a baseless propaganda, he said Pakistan had educated 50,000 Afghan children so far in its schools along with local children with same standards of education.

Replying a question, Mr Zakaria said Pakistan was always ready to alleviate the sufferings of its Kashmiri brothers whether caused by a natural catastrophe or a man-made disaster.

“As we know, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also offered to have pellet-blinded victims treated in any European country,” he said.

He also talked about two kidnapped Pakistani diplomatic staff members, who have been safely recovered by Afghan authorities, apparently in an operation conducted by security forces.

“We have conveyed our thanks (to Kabul) on behalf of the government and the families of the two officials,” he added.

Responding to another question about Indian involvement in regional terrorism, he said there were hard and undeniable facts that clearly identified state actors of India perpetrating and financing terrorism and using their own and other countries’ soil against Pakistan.

“Samjhauta express incident and a report in which former Indian officers had publicly accepted masterminding the incident can be taken as one of the examples of the matter,” he added.

Mr Zakaria congratulated the young Pakistani scholars and sportspersons on their outstanding achievements in different competitions in different parts of the world recently.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2017