On the solemn occasion of Kashmir Black Day, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, issued a message recalling the dark events of October 27, 1947, when Indian troops landed in Srinagar to enforce India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in the last seventy-eight years, the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have suffered a systematic and relentless campaign of tyranny, oppression, and subjugation at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
The UN Security Council, in a series of landmark resolutions, had unequivocally affirmed that the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir would be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. However, India has blatantly defied these binding resolutions, choosing instead to tighten its grip on the occupied territory through sheer force and repression.
Pakistan has always remained committed to the sanctity and centrality of UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir. The country has consistently recognized and emphasized the critical role of the international community in securing a just and lasting solution to this long-festering dispute in the region.
The human tragedy in IIOJK has worsened in the last six years following India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019. The revocation of the special status of IIOJK, followed by the imposition of draconian laws, demographic changes triggered by the issuance of domiciles to non-residents, and the imprisonment of the legitimate Kashmiri leadership have become the defining features of the Indian occupation.
These measures are a manifestation of India’s utter disregard of the UN Charter, the UN Security Council resolutions, and the 4th Geneva Convention. The recent hostilities between Pakistan and India have demonstrated how Indian intransigence on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute poses a grave threat to peace and stability in South Asia.
On this day, Pakistan calls upon the international community to play its due role in bringing an end to the suffering of the people in IIOJK. Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering political, moral, and diplomatic support to the just struggle of the Kashmiri people and will continue to raise its voice at every international forum until the realization of Kashmiris’ legitimate right to self-determination.
