Pakistan asks OIC to act in solidarity with Kashmir

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan on Tuesday requested the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) act in solidarity with the Kashmiri people.

"Pakistan asks the OIC to show solidarity through action with the people of IoK [Indian occupied Kashmir] by recognizing that this unilateral step by India was against the very status of IoK as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] resolutions," Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, said on Twitter after an emergency meeting of the OIC contact group on Jammu and Kashmir in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was convened upon the request of Islamabad to discuss the current situation in Kashmir.

According to Pakistani Foreign Ministry, representatives from Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and other OIC member countries attended the meeting.

Qureshi, currently in Saudi Arabia, led the Pakistan delegation in the meeting.

"OIC recognizes that this aggression puts more than 1.5 billion people of South Asia at risk. I reiterated Pakistan’s stance on the peaceful resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute and that India’s hostility doesn’t give me much hope for a covenant for peace," Qureshi added on Twitter.

Earlier, Qureshi also sought an immediate intervention by the United Nations over India's revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status that "entails grave dangers to regional peace and security in South Asia".

In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, Qureshi urged the UN to "immediately take note of the serious situation and urge India to stall state oppression and stop human rights abuses, refrain from unprovoked firing across the Line of Control [LoC] and halt any actions that could bring about a material change in the situation on ground, in violation of Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir".

India on Monday scrapped the special status granted to the country’s only Muslim-majority state which allowed it autonomy in exchange of joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.

The provision allowed Jammu and Kashmir to enact its own laws and disallowed outsiders to settle and own land in the territory.

The Himalayan region is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.

Since they were partitioned, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.