Pakistan has rejected the Indian external affairs ministry’s “irresponsible” statement on the unanimously adopted resolutions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, which was held in Islamabad from March 22-23.
The two-day meeting of the 48th Session of OIC-CFM ended on Wednesday with an affirmation of support for Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir disputes. A wide-ranging Islamabad Declaration containing as many as 70 points was adopted at the meeting by the conference. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while speaking at a press conference, had said the OIC Contact Group on Occupied Kashmir decided that its members would meet more frequently to coordinate their positions on the dispute and monitor human rights violations.
However, India on Thursday alleged link references made to it during the meeting in Islamabad were based on falsehoods and misrepresentation. “Nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation,” Indian ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said in a statement.
“The OIC is the collective voice of the Muslim Ummah and the second-largest international organisation after the United Nations with 57 members and six observer states,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on Friday.
The Foreign Office added that the OIC has a long-standing principled position in support of the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination granted to them by the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council. “While refusing to implement the UNSC resolutions, India has for decades tried to suppress the voice of the Kashmiris through brutal and indiscriminate use of force and gross and systematic violations of human rights in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
Besides, it added the BJP-RSS inspired “Hindutva” ideology has “restricted” the space for minorities, especially Muslims, whose “persecution” under state patronage has become a “norm” in India.