ISLAMABAD - Declaring liberation of Occupied Kashmir a ‘national objective’, Pakistan yesterday ruled out possibility of the Composite Dialogue with India without having Kashmir issue on the agenda.
“Kashmir will be the core issue in any (broad spectrum) dialogue with India, whenever it takes place,” Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria told the weekly press briefing here at the Foreign Office.
“Kashmir is our national objective” and Pakistan would continue to support Kashmiris’ right to self-determination, he declared.
About the meeting between Pakistan Rangers and Indian Border Security Forces that concluded yesterday, he said it was the routine arrangement between two sides to discuss the operational issues under Border Ground Rules of 1960.
Nafees confirmed that Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh would be visiting Islamabad early next month to attend the SAARC Ministers Conference scheduled to take place on August 3 and 4.
It will be the first visit by a senior Indian government figure after Pathankot airbase attack and flare up in Kashmir.
Singh is also likely to have a bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the sidelines.
Zakaria said if a bilateral meeting was held then Pakistan would definitely raise all issues of its concern including Samjotha Express.
FO spokesman asserted that Kashmir remains the centre of Pakistan’s relations with India.
“Paksitan has a principle position on the issue of Kashmir, which is to continue extending moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris for their demand of implementation of UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.
The spokesman said presence of 800,000 Indian security personnel in Occupied Kashmir was a clear example of India controlling over the people of Kashmir against their wishes.
“India’s efforts to misguide international community and portraying of Kashmiris’ indigenous movement as an act of terrorism will never succeed,” he stressed.
Zakaria said killing of innocent Kashmiris could not be condoned under the guise of calling it terrorism and emphasised that international community needed to take notice of human rights violations in Kashmir.
“The people in Jammu and Kashmir have been struggling for last 68 years for their just right as Indian government is indulging in state-terrorism,” he said.
He mentioned that Kashmiri people were being denied of medical emergency facilities following their injuries received by shots of pellet guns.
The spokesman urged New Delhi to hold impartial plebiscite in Kashmir under UN supervision. He said Pakistan was raising the Kashmir issue at every international fora.
Diplomatic efforts
Nasfees Zakaria said Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in his letters written to UN President and Secretary General, Human Rights Commission in Geneva and Secretary General of Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), had highlighted the prevalent situation in Kashmir.
He said said Pakistan also condemned the continued detention of Hurriyat leaders in Indian-held Kashmir.
The spokesman said the world community and the UN should also call upon India to stop bloodshed and fulfil its obligations and commitments on Kashmir as per UN resolutions.
He said Pakistan was waiting for the international community’s condemnation.
To a question, he said Pakistan would take up the issue of Kashmir forcefully during next session of the UN General Assembly.
Govt to contact Facebook
The spokesman said Pakistan will contact the Facebook administration for censoring the Indian brutalities in held Kashmir.
The spokesman said Facebook should allow people to expose the Indian excesses in Kashmir as it was their basic right. Zakaria said Pakistan will present its reservations on the matter.
He said Facebook and other social media should be balanced and objective in dealing with internationally recognised dispute.
Facebook users have protested that their posts on Kashmir curfew had been deleted. Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbasi’s personal account was suspended for three days over a post praising Burhan Wani.
Afghanistan ties
Questioned over hostile statements from Kabul, the spokesman said blaming each other will not help solve problems facing the region.
“Hostile statements would only serve those who do not want peace in Afghanistan.”
Pakistan, he said, was committed to vision of peaceful neighbourhood and hopefully “our goodwill gestures would be reciprocated.”
About the recently held trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, Zakarya said the DGMOs discussed issues relating to security and border management. He said Pakistan had taken measures to counter and control the traffic across the border with Afghanistan.