Pakistan condemns extra-judicial killing of four more Kashmiris in occupied valley

ISLAMABAD, June 21: Pakistan strongly condemns the extra-judicial killing of four more Kashmiris in fresh acts of state-sponsored terrorism by Indian occupation forces in Pulwama and Baramulla districts of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), said a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Tuesday. Since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, more than 636 Kashmiris have embraced martyrdom in fake ‘encounters’ and so-called ‘cordon-and-search operations’, the statement added and recalled that this year alone, 113 extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris have been recorded. The intensified military crackdown and the rising numbers of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK are part of the extremist anti-Muslim designs of the “Hindutva” inspired BJP-RSS combined. Ironically, Kashmiri youth have been a specific target of the 900,000 strong Indian military occupation force stationed in the IIOJK. “India must realize that the use of brutal force against the Kashmiri people, extra-judicial killings, custodial torture & deaths, forced disappearances, incarceration of Kashmiri leadership & youth and other methods of subjugation have failed in the past and will not succeed in the future.” MoFA said in the statement that through a dossier unveiled last year, Pakistan has provided to the world, incontrovertible evidence of the gross and systemic oppression and human rights violations by the Indian occupation forces in the IIOJK. Pakistan reiterated its call for an investigation of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK by establishing an independent inquiry commission as recommended by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019. Pakistan also urged the international community to hold India responsible for its brazen suppression of innocent Kashmiris.- NNI