Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Friday said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the leadership of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is nothing but a ‘drama’ to revive New Delhi’s international image.
Speaking to media in Islamabad, the foreign minister said the meeting was a ‘façade’ and a ‘failed attempt to resuscitate India’s image in front of the international community’. “In Thursday’s meeting, 14 Kashmiri leaders were invited …. and the Kashmiri leadership have unanimously demanded that India must revoke the August 5, 2019, steps,” he said.
Qureshi said the talks were an effort to restore India and Modi’s reputation after the hit it took internationally in the wake of India’s repressive measures in IIOJK on August 5, 2019, when the region’s special autonomy was removed. “In my view it was a drama and why was it a drama? Because at best it could be called a public relations exercise but nothing was achieved [from it],” he said, and termed the talks ‘unsuccessful and pointless’. “Kashmiris are still in search of their identity. They are demanding their autonomous status and independence. They want security and are not accepting the demographic restructuring [in IIOJK].”
“All Parties Hurriyat Conference was not invited to the meeting … the Hurriyat leadership has always talked about the right to self-determination,” the foreign minister said. “In the APC (all parties conference), Modi admitted that there were differences between New Delhi and Occupied Kashmir,” he said.
The foreign minister said it had been nearly two years since India revoked Occupied Kashmir’s special status, adding that the Kashmiris were “in despair and were feeling ridiculed.” The foreign minister said the Kashmiri leadership had informed the Indian PM that more than 50% of the industries had been shut down as a result of the restrictions imposed in the Himalayan region. “The leadership demanded that the government compensate the losses incurred over the course of two years …. tourism in Occupied Kashmir took has been shattered. People did not only suffer monetary losses, but their mental health was also severely affected,” he said.
The foreign minister said despite the two-year ordeal, the Kashmiri leadership did not blame anyone, but they put forward some demands, including the revival of human rights and the release of incarcerated leaders. “These demands were put forward by those Kashmiri leaders who were a part of previous governments,” he said.
