Pakistan rejects India’s remarks on Gilgit-Baltistan elections

Islamabad: Pakistan has categorically rejected India's baseless remarks regarding the upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said India's unfounded assertions regarding Gilgit-Baltistan cannot divert attention from the grave and systematic human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

It said that, as a global leader in propagating fake narratives and tendentious propaganda, India's outlandish claims are part of a familiar and carefully choreographed attempt to conflate fact with fiction. The Foreign Office unequivocally rejected this latest Indian rhetoric with the contempt it deserves.

It said the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which remains the longest unresolved item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, originated from India's forcible and unlawful occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.

It said the only just and durable settlement of the dispute lies in the faithful implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, which guarantee the Kashmiri people their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.

The Foreign Office said the continued impunity enjoyed by Indian forces under draconian laws imposed in IIOJK is another dimension of the state terrorism being perpetrated by India against unarmed Kashmiris.

The Foreign Office said Pakistan calls upon India to vacate all occupied territories, reverse all illegal and unilateral actions taken in IIOJK, particularly since 5 August 2019, repeal all draconian laws, and allow access to neutral observers, international human rights and humanitarian organisations, and the international media to ascertain the situation on the ground.

It said India must also enable the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.