Srinagar/ May,2: A top Pakistani official on Tuesday described the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as “a burning issue requiring urgent international attention”.
Sartaj Aziz, the Advisor on Foreign Affairs to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, also said India’s bid “to portray the indigenous uprising in Kashmir as terrorism has been rejected” globally.
The Foreign Office issued Aziz’s statement, which welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for a multilateral approach to settle the Kashmir dispute.
The Indian stand that it was ready for a dialogue with Pakistan was no longer credible because India had scuttled all such opportunities in the past two decades “to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN Security Council’s relevant Resolutions”.
“India’s contention that Kashmir issue is, primarily, an issue of cross-border terrorism, is a claim that no one in the world is prepared to accept today,” he added.
Aziz’s statement came amid worsening ties between India and Pakistan following New Delhi’s charge that the Pakistani military killed and “mutilated” the bodies of two of its soldiers on Monday.
Aziz accused India of committing “brutality” in Jammu and Kashmir “by indiscriminately killing over 100 young unarmed Kashmiri protestors” and blinding hundreds of Kashmiris last year.
“Nobody believes that thousands of young boys and girls, who have been agitating ceaselessly since July 2016, are terrorists.”
