FM Qureshi informs Icelandic counterpart about situation emerging after curfew in IOK

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday phoned Iceland counterpart Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson and informed him about the situation emerging after the Indian steps and curfew in Occupied Kashmir. Shah Mahmood Qureshi told him that the violations of human rights are at peak in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “Unarmed Kashmiris are facing the worst curfew for the last four weeks. They are not being provided food and medicines. The international media and human rights organizations are exposing the Indian atrocities,” he said. The foreign minister said that Indian unilateral steps are violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and international laws. The Icelandic foreign minister expressed his concern over violations of human rights in Occupied Kashmir. He stressed the need for resolving the Kashmir dispute through dialogues. On Monday, the curfew in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) entered the 29th day. The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the rest of the world since August 5 due to continued blockade and suspension of internet, mobile and landline services and closure of TV channels. Publication of local newspapers remains suspended. People are facing acute shortage of life-saving medicines, essential commodities including baby food as nine million Kashmiris are besieged while Jammu and Kashmir has become a big jail for its inhabitants. The shops and business establishments continue to remain shut and schools, too, remain empty of students amid the authorities’ claims that they had opened the primary, middle and high schools in the territory. Indian forces are using drones equipped with hi-resolution cameras and night vision devices for the surveillance of protests and other pro-freedom activities in restive Kashmir, a senior police official confirmed to the media in Srinagar. During the lockdown, a report by Kashmir police confirmed that more than 300 incidents of protests took place over the past three weeks, with Srinagar topping the list with over 160 such incidents reported from the area. The incidents occurred between August 5 and August 7 after the abrogation of the provisions in Article 370 and the bifurcation.