The Pakistan government made it clear it was stepping up efforts to ‘internationalise’ the Kashmir issue, with a warning issued by Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz.
In a statement to the Senate, Mr. Aziz said: “Indian troops are responsible for human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, and Pakistan will launch a campaign to highlight these abuses at the international level.”
The statement comes a day after the Pakistani Assembly passed a resolution criticising “unprovoked and indiscriminate” ceasefire violations by India and asked the government to seek U.N. intervention to resolve the Kashmir issue.
India has maintained that all firing from it has been in response to Pakistani ceasefire violations.
On October 26, Pakistan-affiliated Kashmiri groups plan to take out a “million man march” in London, to be led by the former Prime Minister of PoK, Sultan Muhammad Chaudhury. During External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s recent meeting with British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Ms. Swaraj had raised concerns over the march, being organised to mark the day of Kashmir’s accession to India.
To a question whether the U.K. had disregarded India’s concerns, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Friday that the U.K. government agreed with India that all issues between India and Pakistan must be resolved bilaterally. “With that reassurance, we are quite comfortable with any march being organised,” said Mr. Akbaruddin. “We are a country of a billion. A million will not overawe us, even millions won’t.”To a question whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have a dialogue with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, when they are in Kathmandu for the SAARC summit on November 26, the spokesperson said: “It is for Pakistan to enter into a situation where we can have an atmosphere conducive for talks.”
