Pakistan condemns India’s illegal step in held Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday condemned India’s move to abolish occupied Kashmir’s special status as illegal, stressing it was an internationally recognised disputed territory.“No unilateral step by the government of India can change this disputed status... As the party to this international dispute, Pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.It added the move, which Islamabad “strongly rejects and condemns”, would not “ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan”. “Pakistan reaffirms its abiding commitment to the Kashmir cause and its political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir for realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination,” the statement said.While Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan was considering approaching US President Donald Trump after India’s “unconstitutional” move to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.“Pakistan wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute through mutual negotiations, however, India has further complicated the issue,” the foreign minister said while speaking to a television channel.President Trump had recently offered Pakistan and India to mediate on the issue of Kashmir during his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in Washington last month.Foreign Minister Qureshi said special instructions had been given to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi to meet with authorities in New York to convey the country’s reaction.Terming India’s move as “absurd”, he said changing the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir would neither help resolve the dispute, nor end the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.He said the step had exposed India’s malicious designs against the Muslim population of occupied Kashmir. He urged the international Islamic community to take notice of the situation.The foreign minister said opposition in India had strongly resisted the unjustified step by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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