OIC's Kashmir group meets in New York to discuss 'worsening' rights situation

A man walks past policemen guarding an area near the site of a gun battle between suspected militants and government forces in downtown Srinagar on May 19, 2020. (AFP)

• Human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir prime focus of the gathering 
• Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan among attendees at UN event which was requested for by Pakistan FM 

ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir met in New York on Sunday to discuss the “worsening human rights situation in Indian-administered Kashmir” and draw attention to New Delhi’s “military aggression,” Pakistan’s Mission to the UN said in a statement on Monday.
“Members of the Contact Group reviewed recent developments relating to Jammu and Kashmir, including the grave human rights and humanitarian situation in IOJK (Indian-occupied Kashmir) and the tensions along the LoC (Line of Control),” the statement said.
The meeting, based on a request by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was attended by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, and the OIC’s Permanent Representatives, namely Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan.
Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, the Permanent Representative of the OIC Observer Mission to the UN, attended the event in place of OIC Secretary-General Yousef Bin Ahmad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Othaimeen.
Conveying FM Qureshi’s message on the occasion, Ambassador Akram said that the “issuance of 1.6 million domicile certificates (since March) was meant to change the demography of IOJK from a Muslim majority into Hindu majority territory.”
“India had intensified its belligerent rhetoric against Pakistan, including threats of military aggression,” he added.
Meanwhile, reaffirming the OIC’s position on the issue, the group members expressed “deep concern at the continued violations by India” and “fully endorsed” Qureshi’s recommendations – based on ministerial communique on September 25, 2019, and June 22 this year – for “immediate de-escalation” in the disputed territory, the statement said.
A day earlier, on Saturday, the OIC had called for the establishment of a UN commission to investigate extrajudicial killings in Indian-administered Kashmir, after the Indian army admitted to killing three people in a staged encounter in Shopian district earlier this year.
The Indian army on Friday said that their troops had exceeded powers under the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the killing of three men in Amshipora village in Shopian, the southern part of Kashmir Valley in July.
In a Twitter post on Saturday, the OIC’s human rights body, the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission urged the international community to establish a commission of inquiry under the UN “to investigate these extrajudicial killings and grave human rights violations and urge India to repeal AFSPA.”