Staff Reporter Islamabad
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the Indian government was “losing the battle of hearts and minds” in occupied Kashmir.
Addressing a press conference alongside Special Envoy of the Organisation of Islamic Council on Jammu and Kashmir Yousef Aldobeay, who is on a six-day visit to Pakistan along with an OIC delega-tion, Qureshi added: “And you have witnessed in the neighbouring country to the west what happens when one loses the battle of hearts and minds.”
Replying to a question, the foreign minister said he was a seeing a change in the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir. The Indian government, he said, had created an impression that the situation was normal again in the valley.
“But the way they snatched [late Hurriyat leader] Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s body dispelled that impres-sion,” he said, adding that had the Indian authorities not imposed restrictions, “a sea of people” would have been witnessed at Gilani’s funeral. “It would have reflected the sentiments of the people, contrary to the Indian government’s narrative.”
And so, Qureshi added, the Indian government lacked the courage to let it happen. “They were worried.”
Giving the example of the Indian authorities slap-ping sedition charges on Kashmiri students after they celebrated Pakistan’s win in the T20 World Cup match against India, Qureshi said the incident showed that the “paths of the people and govern-ment of occupied Kashmir were different”.
Qureshi also announced that Pakistan would be hosting the upcoming session of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) summit in Islamabad in March 2022, where the Kashmir issue would come under discussion in light of a report prepared by the OIC delegation visiting Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
