UN: The OIC Contact Group on Kashmir on Wednesday reaffirmed its support for the “legitimate” struggle of the Kashmiri people for the right to self-determination and strongly rejected the “unjustified” claims made by Indian leaders regarding Azad Jammu & Jammu and Gilgit-Baltistan. A joint communique issued after the meeting also emphasized that elections to the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly in Indian Occupied Kashmir cannot serve as a substitute for granting the right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people. She emphasized that lasting peace and stability in South Asia continued to depend on the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. The meeting, which was attended by ministers and senior officials of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Niger, was chaired by OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha. was held on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif represented Pakistan in the contact group. Other participants included Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister ELnur Mammadov, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Haitham Al-Aalki and Niger’s Director of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hama Knsaye Souleymane. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of the World Forum for Kashmir Awareness, attended as a true representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. At the outset, Khawaja Asif briefed the members of the contact group on the worsening situation in Indian Kashmir and said that human rights violations are the order of the day. The communiqué called for the revocation of all illegal and unilateral measures taken on or after August 5, 2019, an end to gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations in Indian Kashmir, and a halt and reversal of illegal demographic changes in the disputed territory. , allowing unlimited access. UN special procedures, international media and independent observers to visit the region. Last December, an Indian Supreme Court judge rejected the status of Indian-occupied Kashmir, stressing that domestic legislation and court verdicts cannot be used to undermine Jammu and Kashmir’s internationally recognized disputed status.
