ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday said Kashmiris must be active participants of any dialogue with India if New Delhi reverses the illegal steps in Kashmir and stops bloodshed.

Speaking at a weekly news briefing here, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said meaningful dialogue with India was impossible unless the situation normalises in occupied Kashmir.He said India had created an atmosphere where talks were useless. "No meaningful engagement is possible with India unless it creates an enabling environment for the purpose. The talks must be result-oriented," he added, citing the recent interview of Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf with an Indian journalist.

Dr Yusuf, in the interview with journalist Karan Thapar, had said that “Pakistan would agree to hold dialogue with India provided Jammu and Kashmir was made a third party” and also talked about involvement of India’s Research and Analysis Wing in the massacre of Army Public School Peshawar. Asked how the involvement of a third party would fit into a bilateral engagement, Chaudhri said, “Pakistan believes that Kashmiris must remain associated with the matter, relating to their future.”

He said Pakistan had a credible and verified evidence about RAW’s connection with APS tragedy, which had also been shared with international community.

Chaudhri said India will have to stop its ongoing human rights violations, extra-judicial killings in fake encounters and so-called search and cordon operations, incarceration of Kashmiri leadership and youth in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said destruction of Kashmiris' houses, military siege and attempts to change demography of IIOJK need to be immediately reversed. 

The spokesperson also rejected and condemned irresponsible and unwarranted statements by senior Indian leadership.

"The statements demonstrate an inexcusable lack of self-awareness of RSS-BJP regime's self-serving narrative. It is also another manifestation of the Indian government's incurable obsession with Pakistan," he said.

Rather than jeopardizing peace and stability of the region, he said, India should seriously consider course correction by giving up its aggressive agenda and peacefully resolving disputes with neighbours.

The spokesperson said India must be held accountable for egregious human rights violations and war crimes in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He urged the world community to work for peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people for durable peace and stability of the region.

To a question about the construction of a bridge on River Ravi near the Kartarpur Corridor, Chaudhri said Pakistan had initiated construction work on its side of the bridge.

He, however, said India has not yet provided engineering design of its side of the bridge.

He said 551 birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak is scheduled to be celebrated from November 28 to 30.

The spokesperson said the Indian government was using dilatory tactics to deny Sikh pilgrims the opportunity to be part of the birth anniversary celebrations.

He said Kartarpur Corridor was a true symbol of peace and religious harmony. He said the corridor was temporarily closed on March 16 this year due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Chaudhri said that Pakistan reopened the Corridor on 29th July this year, but India has not yet opened its side of the corridor despite our repeated reminders.

He expressed the hope that India will review its decision in view of upcoming 551th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev.

Chaudhri also condemned the malicious Indian propaganda against the longstanding, close Pakistan-China friendship. He said it is preposterous for a country that is compulsively expansionist and a brazen practitioner of state-terrorism, to level charges against others.

The spokesperson said Pakistan's re-election to UN Human Rights Council was recognition by the international community of our contribution to the national and global human rights agenda and strong credentials as a consensus builder in the Council.

He said Pakistan will remain actively engaged with the Council as well as its related processes to continue highlighting the plight of the Kashmiris and other oppressed people all over the world.