Pakistan has expressed “grave concern” over the latest findings of United Nations Special Procedures experts on the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), calling the report further evidence of “severe and systematic human rights violations” against Kashmiris under Indian rule.
In an official statement, the Foreign Office said the UN experts’ report “once again underscores the severe and systematic human rights violations endured by the Kashmiri people under Indian occupation.”
Pakistan said it “notes with alarm” the experts’ observation that Indian actions have led to the “extensive arbitrary arrest and detention of nearly 2,800 individuals, including journalists, students, and human rights advocates.”
It highlighted the “persistent application of draconian legislation, such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),” which has “facilitated indefinite and unjustifiable detentions.”
The statement described as “equally deplorable and deeply troubling” the reported “instances of torture, custodial deaths, incommunicado detention, denial of due legal process and family contact, punitive demolitions and forced evictions, recurring communication blackouts, and suppression of press freedom — including the blocking of 8,000 social media accounts — as well as the rise in hate speech, lynching, and harassment directed at Kashmiris and Muslim communities across India.”
These findings, Pakistan said, “reaffirm Pakistan’s longstanding concerns regarding state-sponsored persecution of Kashmiri Muslims as well as discrimination against minorities across India.”
Islamabad “calls upon India to cease its coercive measures and to unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained in IIOJK,” and urges New Delhi “to take concrete steps to end the persecution of all religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.”
Pakistan affirmed its commitment to a “peaceful, just, and enduring resolution” of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute “in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” and vowed to “continue to extend moral, political, and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their just struggle against foreign occupation.”
