Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri. Courtesy Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Office spokesperson rebuts with allegations of Delhi’s actions in India-held Kashmir threatening regional peace
Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Thursday “categorically rejected the allegations of any cross-border infiltration,” adding that regional peace and security was solely threatened due to India’s “brutalization of Kashmiri people.”
In a statement, spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri urged Delhi to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and its own pledges to the international community and the Kashmiri population. “India’s illegal and unilateral actions of Aug. 5, 2019 in India-held Kashmir were against international law and manifestly anti-peace,” he said. “The movement against the Indian occupation and its state-sponsored terrorism in India-held Kashmir is indigenous and is likely to continue till India decides to act in accordance with UNSC resolutions, mandating a free and impartial plebiscite in the occupied territory,” he added, in a reiteration of Pakistan’s longstanding stance of the Kashmiris being forced to take up arms to defend themselves from Indian aggression.
Chaudhri’s rebuttal came in response to comments made by Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on Wednesday, in which he claimed that firing incidents across the Line of Control had taken place because of “infiltration by Pakistan.” He claimed during the appearance that there had been a lot of cross-border fire over the LoC “because there has been infiltration from their side.”
While acknowledging the ceasefire agreement as a “good step,” he alleged that “part of the problem [since 1947] has been the use of cross-border terrorism [by Pakistan].”
The Foreign Office spokesperson, in his statement, noted that Kashmir had been the “core outstanding issue between Pakistan and India” since 1947, stressing it awaited settlement per international legitimacy. “Rather than regurgitating insinuations against Pakistan, India will be well advised to create enabling environment for a meaningful and result-oriented engagement for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as well as any other issues,” he added.