By Imran Nasir

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark about Kashmir and termed it false and misleading.

In a statement, Pakistan Foreign Ministry said Islamabad categorically rejects the remarks made by the Indian Prime Minister about Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) during a public rally in Gujarat.

"The Indian Prime Minister’s farcical contention that he has, somehow, “resolved the Kashmir issue”, is not only false and misleading but also reflects how oblivious the Indian leadership has become of the ground realities in IIOJK," said the ministry.

On Monday, Modi said he resolved the Kashmir issue apparently referring his illegal actions in August 2019, when he scapped the autonomouse status of the disputed region. 

"Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, the resolution of which has been on the agenda of the United Nationssince 1948. Despite clear UN resolutions that prescribe a free and impartial plebiscite for the final disposition of the dispute, India has not only illegally occupied the territory but is also guilty of egregious human rights violations employing over 900,000 brutal occupation force," said Pakistan Foreign Ministry.

"The fact remains that the people of IIOJK continue to brave India’s reprehensible occupation which it seeks to perpetuate through malicious demographic changes and strong-arm tactics. The craftily staged visits of the Indian leadership to the occupied territory and choreographed launches of so-called development projects in a bid to create a façade of ‘normalcy’ will neither dampen the spirit of the Kashmiris struggling to break free from the illegal Indian occupation nor would it deceive the world into believing India’s deception.

"Instead of making delusional statements about having resolved the dispute unilaterally, the Indian leadership must deliver on their commitments to the Kashmiris and to the world and ensure that the people of Kashmir are accorded their inalienable right to self-determination," its added. 

The ministry said that Pakistan has consistently called upon the international community to assume its role and responsibility with regards to IIOJK and the ongoing Indian atrocities in the occupied territory.

"India must also be held responsible for its nefarious scheme of altering the demography of IIOJK, as well as for its brutal repression of the innocent Kashmiris."

Pakistan reiterates its call on human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn India’s state-terrorism in IIOJK and demand an immediate reversal of the Indian government’s illegaland unilateral actions of 5 August 2019.

Islamabad said that the only solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lies in ensuring that the Kashmiris are allowed to exercise their right of self-determination through the democratic method of holding aUN-mandated free and impartial plebiscite as espoused in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.