Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Friday while addressing a session of the National Assembly said that the Kashmir issue would only be resolved through indigenous movements within India-held Kashmir led by the younger generation.
Sartaj Aziz said that the Pakistan would not accept India’s paramountcy.
Aziz said Pakistan would continue extending political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri cause on international and bilateral forums.
“We have been taking our diplomatic campaign forward with zeal since Prime Minister Nawaz’s speech regarding the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly.
Further, the premier’s adviser foreign affairs announced that Pakistan was willing to hold talks with India, however, it would only do so if Kashmir was included in the agenda. Referring to the issue of Indian belligerence on the Line of Control (LoC) and gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, Aziz said, “Pakistan has never attacked civilians along the LoC.
He added that Pakistan “will respond in kind to any Indian violence as we have the capability to defend our borders.”
The adviser’s statements come days after Indian troops targeted a passenger bus and ambulance across the Line of Control, and killed three Pakistan Army soldiers and 10 civilians in various incidents of ‘unprovoked’ firing.
Tension between the two countries is again at a peak following an alleged Indian ‘surgical strike’, unrest in Kashmir and the Uri army base attack in September.
Since then there have been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing in Kashmir, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.
Modi stepped up a drive to isolate Pakistan diplomatically after the Uri army base attack in September in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed. Hours after the attack occurred, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Pakistan a ‘terrorist state’ and accused Pakistan of involvement.