OIC sides with Pakistan, asks India to rescind steps taken in Kashmir

Amid conflicting reports whether the Kash­mir issue was on the agenda of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s meeting in Niger, the foreign ministers of the OIC’s member states unanimously reaffirmed support for the Kashmir cause, reports Dawn.

In another landmark development, the OIC unanimously adopted a Pakistan-sponsored resolution urging the UN secretary general to initiate a global dialogue to counter rising Islamophobia and promote interfaith harmony.

On the bilateral level, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, led the Pakistan delegation at the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Niamey, Niger.

According to details of the Niamey meeting, released by Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Saturday, the CFM reaffirmed its strong support for the Kashmir cause.

The OIC categorically rejected illegal and unilateral actions taken by India on August 5 last year to change the internationally recognized disputed status of the “Indian Illegally Occupied Jam­mu and Kashmir” and demanded India rescind its illegal steps, said Dawn quoting the Foreign Office.

It asked India to cancel the issuance of domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris as well as other unilateral and illegal actions, including Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Order, 2020; Jammu & Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate Rules, 2020; Jammu and Kashmir Language, Bill 2020 and amendments to the landownership laws.

Also rejecting policies being pursued by the RSS-BJP regime, the 57 member countries of the OIC asked India to refrain from taking any steps to alter the demographic structure of the disputed territory.

The OIC foreign ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms human rights violations perpetrated by Indian occupation forces in held Kashmir and other such instances of terrorism that have been the source of unspeakable suffering for the innocent Kashmiri people.

The resolution condemned the “state-sponsored terrorism and crimes against humanity by Indian occupation forces against the Kashmiri people.”

It denounced extrajudicial killings during fake “encounters” and “search-and-cordon” operations and demolition of houses and private properties as a form of collective punishment.

The unanimous resolution condemned the renewed use of pellet guns by Indian occupation forces against innocent civilians, condemned the harassment of Kashmiri women by Indian troops and deplored that India had callously exploited the current Covid-19 crisis to intensify its military crackdown and further advance its unlawful occupation.

The conference welcomed the visit of OIC Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir from March 2-6, 2020.

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India was asked to adhere to its international human rights obligations and allow the OIC Special Representative on Jammu and Kashmir and the OIC Fact-finding Mission to visit occupied Kashmir and implement recommendations of the two reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Jammu & Kashmir.

The OIC asked the international community to review its engagements with India as it was violating and disregarding the international law, the international humanitarian law, and international resolutions.

It emphasised that the question of Kashmir was of utmost importance for the Ummah.

The OIC recognized that Jammu and Kashmir is the core dispute between Pakistan and India, and its resolution indispensable for realisation of the dream of peace in South Asia.

The CFM noted that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are the principal party to the dispute, and stressed that they should be included in any peace process for resolution of the dispute.

It affirmed that any political or electoral process held under foreign occupation cannot be a substitute to the exercise of the right to self-determination.