PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami has asked the government to convene a multiparty conference and take political parties on board in the backdrop of New Delhi’s stance after the Pulwama attack in India-held Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, JI provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan criticised the government’s decision to place ban on Jamaatud Dawa and its welfare body, Falah-i-Insaniat, adding that the federal government had shown weakness by taking the decision.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan cannot solve this issue through tweets. He should call a multiparty conference and take the nation into confidence on the matter,” he said.

Expressing concern over violations of human rights in the held valley, he said that attack on Indian troops in Pulwama was reaction to the atrocities perpetrated by Indian security forces against the innocent people. He said that Indian forces had started genocide of Kashmiri people and had killed 350 PhD scholars in one year. He said that United Nations’ report about occupied Kashmir carried all details.

He said that the Indian government had started hue and cry to divert attention of the international community from the atrocities its troops were unleashing against Kashmiri people. He suggested that the government constitute a parliamentary committee comprising parliamentarians of all political parties on the matter. He said that the government should send parliamentary delegations to different countries to present the case of Kashmiri people.

Mushtaq Ahmad said that aggression against Pakistan would prove death warrant for India.

He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intentionally escalated the tension on the pretext of Pulwama attack to influence the upcoming elections in the country.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2019