Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the Indian government was” losing the battle of hearts and minds” in engaged Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference alongside Special Envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Council on Jammu and Kashmir Yousef Aldobeay, who’s on a six-day visit to Pakistan along with an OIC delegation, Qureshi added”And you have witnessed in the neighboring country to the west what happens when one loses the battle of hearts and minds.”
Replying to a question, the foreign minister said he was seeing a change in the people of Indian-engaged Kashmir.
The Indian government, he said, had created a print that the situation was normal again in the vale.
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“But the way they snared ( late Hurriyat leader) Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s body disbanded that print,”he said, adding that had the Indian authorities not assessed restrictions,”a ocean of people”would have been witnessed at Gilani’s burial.”It would have reflected the sentiments of the people, contrary to the Indian government’s narrative.”
And so, Qureshi added, the Indian government demanded the courage to let it be.
“They were upset.”
Giving the illustration of the Indian authorities slighting sedition charges on Kashmiri scholars after they celebrated Pakistan’s palm in the T20 World Cup match against India, Qureshi said the incident showed that the” paths of the people and government of enthralled Kashmir were different”.
OIC delegation’s report
Qureshi also blazoned that Pakistan would be hosting the forthcoming session of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) peak in Islamabad in March 2022, where the Kashmir issue would come under discussion in light of a report prepared by the OIC delegation visiting Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
The foreign minister said the CFM would draw conclusions on the matter in light of the report. The conclusions, he said, would include recommendations, on the base of which the Kashmir issue would be stressed at multiple forums, including the UN.
He added that he’d participated with Aldobeay Pakistan’s perspective on the issue and presented to him a picture of the ongoing situation in Indian-engaged Kashmir — the atrocities, shafts and torture being witnessed in the vale.
“And I explained to him how Covid-19 worsened the situation.”
Qureshi said he also told Aldobeay that piecemeal from a philanthropic extremity, the people of Indian-engaged Kashmir also suffered huge fiscal losses.
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According to an analysis, Kashmiris in the vale had faced losses worth$9.5 billion, he said, without specifying the time period during which the losses were recorded.
“Tourism (in the vale) has been destroyed and means of earning have been paralysed,”he lamented.
Criticising the Indian government for its conduct in engaged Kashmir, he said following the recent way taken by the Modi administration, distance between Kashmiris and the government there had increased.
He added that he wished that Aldobeay would be suitable to visit Srinagar in Indian- enthralled Kashmir and interact freely with the media there, the way he was suitable to do it in Azad Kashmir.
Qureshi ended his address saying he was sure that the OIC delegation’s visit would have increased Kashmiris’morale and the ultimate would be anticipating their report.
When it was his turn to speak, Aldobeay appertained to an OIC Contact Group meeting held in New York before this time, where the need for the visit of an OIC delegation to Kashmir was stressed so as to develop a comprehensive understanding of the on- ground situation.
“As the foreign minister said, we will now be presenting our report to the CFM,”he said, speaking through a translator.
The envoy nominated the OIC delegation’s visit to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir” veritably fruitful”.
In response to a question, Aldobeay told media persons that the OIC had passed multiple judgments on the Kashmir issue and Pakistan-India ties.
“We’ve also suggested forming new mechanisms for the resolution of the issue,”he said, adding that he was hopeful that the CFM meeting would lead to fruitful results.
The envoy said that sweats were under way for an OIC delegation to visit Indian-engaged Kashmir.
To another question, Qureshi further explained that the OIC had taken a” forceful station”on the Kashmir issue.
He added that the OIC was largest forum after the UN,”and when it agrees with your (Pakistan’s) narrative, its adds up to the UN Human Rights Commission’s reports (on the matter).”
This, he said, had led to the rejection of the Indian narrative, which shifted the blame for the uneasiness in Kashmir to Pakistan.
” Rejection of the idea that the freedom movement in enthralled-Kashmir was linked to terrorism and acknowledgement (by the rest of the world) that India is no longer as temporal is a big conversion and we need to make on this,”he stressed.
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