ANKARA – Turkey has raised the Kashmir dispute at the United Nations Human Rights Council, with a call for resolving the decades-old dispute on the basis of UN resolutions and legitimate expectations of Kashmiri people struggling for their right of self-determination.
Turkey on Monday raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Human Rights Council, with a call for resolving the decades-old dispute on the basis of UN resolutions and the “legitimate” expectations of Kashmiri people who are struggling for their right of self-determination.
“We reiterate our call to the Government of India to ease current restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the 47-member Council in Geneva.
“We wish for the resolution of the issue through peaceful means on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions and the legitimate expectations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Turkish foreign added.
The Council on Monday began its month-long, 46th session, which is being held almost entirely remotely to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Iran, another big Muslim nation, has also asked India to respect the rights of Kashmiris in determining their own destiny.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in an interview to Press TV this week, said “we have been in constant dialogue with our friends in India and Pakistan about how we can play a constructive role in bringing this conflict to an end, in the interests of the people of Kashmir.”
Zarif said Iran has always insisted on the need to respect the rights of the Kashmiri people and that continues to be our policy. Iran’s Foreign Ministry in September 2020 had expressed concerns over the tear-gassing and pellet firing on a Muharram procession in Kashmir’s Srinagar and Budgam districts.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said India was employing rape, torture, degrading treatment and killings of Kashmiri women as ‘instruments of state-terrorism’ in the occupied territory.
“These state-sanctioned heinous crimes have further intensified since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5th August 2019,” an FO statement said on Tuesday.
The statement came in remembrance of the horrific incident of mass rape of Kashmiri women in Kunan and Poshpora villages of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir
(IIOJK) on 23 February 1991.
“The fateful day continues to remain a scar on collective memory of the international community,” the FO statement added.
