Pakistan rejects India's objections to G-B polls

FO terms Indian remarks baseless and politically motivated

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Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi speaking at the FO weekly press briefing. SCREENGRAB

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ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Friday "categorically rejected" India's remarks regarding the upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), terming them "baseless" and part of a "carefully choreographed attempt to conflate fact with fiction".

In a statement, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andarabi said India remained in "illegal occupation of the internationally recognised disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir" and accused New Delhi of being a "global leader in propagating fake narratives and tendentious propaganda".

"We unequivocally reject this latest Indian rhetoric with the contempt it deserves," the statement said.

The response came after India's foreign ministry, in a statement issued earlier on Friday, objected to the upcoming elections in G-B and claimed that "the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the so-called 'Gilgit-Baltistan', are integral and inalienable parts of India".

Reiterating Pakistan's longstanding position, the FO said the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remained the longest unresolved issue on the United Nations Security Council agenda and originated from India's forcible and unlawful occupation of the state in 1947.

It added that the only just and durable settlement of the dispute lay in the implementation of relevant UNSC resolutions, which guarantee the Kashmiri people their "inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices".

The FO further stated that India's "unfounded assertions" regarding G-B could not divert attention from "grave and systematic human rights violations" in India-occupied Kashmir.

The statement said Indian forces continued to enjoy impunity under "draconian laws" and characterised the situation as "state terrorism" against unarmed Kashmiris.

Pakistan also called on India to vacate all occupied territories, reverse "all illegal and unilateral actions" taken in occupied Kashmir since August 5, 2019, and repeal draconian laws.

Islamabad further urged New Delhi to allow access to neutral observers, international human rights and humanitarian organisations, as well as the international media, to independently assess the situation on the ground.

"India must also enable the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions," the statement read.

Earlier this year, a minister in the caretaker setup of the region, Ghulam Abbas, rejected Indian propaganda, saying the people of G-B had always remained loyal to Pakistan and consistently struggled to become a formal part of the country.

Speaking at a 'Meet the Press' programme at the National Press Club, he said Gilgit-Baltistan had separated from India without major violence and that the people of the region had voluntarily chosen to hoist the Pakistani flag.

"The Indian propaganda and the statements of Narendra Modi claiming that the people of G-B are protesting against Pakistan to join India have become a laughing stock in the region," Abbas said, adding that "this narrative is not even being accepted by the international community".