Pakistan has strongly condemned the brutal and indiscriminate use of force by occupying Indian forces that resulted in the martyrdom of three innocent civilians and injuries to several others in the Ganowpora village of Shopian district in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) on Saturday, according to a press release.
The Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad issued an official statement to the media in this regard, saying that countering peaceful, unarmed protesters with lethal weapons and direct bullets is another manifestation of the state-terrorism being perpetrated by India against the Kashmiris on a daily basis.
“It is clear that the Kashmiri youth is being systematically targeted in order to break the will of the people. But these cowardly tactics will not succeed,” the release reads.
According to the FO spokesperson, the valiant people of Kashmir have proved, time and again, that no amount of incarcerations, torture and indiscriminate killings could dissuade them from pursuing their legitimate and inalienable right to self-determination.
Earlier, two youths were killed and one critically injured when occupying Indian army personnel opened fire on unarmed protesters in Shopian district of IoK, police said on Saturday.
While police have registered a case of murder against the soldiers involved in the incident, the state government has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident.
IoK Chief Minister (CM) Mehbooba Mufti called up Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to express anguish over the killings.
“Every civilian killing… impairs the political process in the state, which has been put on track after hard work by all political parties,” the state government quoted her as telling Sitharaman.
Islamabad has further urged the international community to take cognisance of the gross and systematic violations of human rights taking place in IoK and use its influence with India to bring an end to the shameful culture of impunity that has been fostered there for several decades.
“The world community must also play its rightful role in facilitating a just and lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” the FO spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued to the press.
