Kashmir | Pakistan

Pakistan on Wednesday reiterated at the United Nations Human Rights Council that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed territory, stating that no unilateral action can alter its legal status.

A panel at the University of Jammu in India-occupied Kashmir has recommended removing topics related to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, and Muslim educationist and reformer Syed Ahmad Khan from its MA Political Science syllabus, Indian news website Scroll reported on Tuesday, citing The Indian Express. The decision follows protests held by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on the university campus on Friday against the inclusion of a chapter on Jinnah’s political thought in the syllabus, according to The Times of India. The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Scroll added. The committee, headed by Professor Naresh Padha of the university’s physics department, forwarded the recommendation to the Board of Studies, which will meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter, it cited The Indian Express as saying. ABVP’s state secretary of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Sannak Shrivats — who led F...

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday that Pakistan strongly condemned the continued closure of the historic Jama Masjid in occupied Kashmir’s Srinagar on the last Friday of Ramazan, calling on the international community to take notice. In a statement, the FO said, “Pakistan strongly condemns the continued closure of the historic Jama Masjid in Srinagar on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan. “Preventing worshippers from offering congregational prayers at one of the most revered mosques in the valley constitutes a serious violation of religious freedom and fundamental human rights in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” it said. The FO said that for the seventh consecutive year since India had revoked the region’s special autonomy, occupation authorities had “sealed the mosque and barred Kashmiri Muslims from gathering for prayers on this spiritually significant day”. “Such restrictions on religious practice, particularly during the sacred month of Ramzan, are deeply concerning,” it stated...

A balloon in the shape of an airplane has caused a stir on Indian media. According to several media outlets, the balloon has been taken into police custody. Indian news agency ANI posted on X that an “aircraft-shaped balloon” with “PIA” written on its was found in Rajouri in occupied Kashmir. “The police team took the object into possession. No electrical or electronic components were found affixed,” the post said, citing police. The images shared with the post showed a deflated balloon in the shape of a plane and with the words PIA on the sides, ostensibly a reference to Pakistan International Airlines. The development was also reported by the Hindustan Times, Times of India. Meanwhile, NDTV also shared the the same on its X account. “Further proceedings underway to determine its origin,” it said. In 2021, a similar incident had occurred, with authorities in occupied Kashmir seizing a plane-shaped balloon bearing the name of the Pakistan International Airlines. According to the report, the balloon featuring ...

TIES between Pakistan and India are perhaps at their lowest point since Partition. Bilateral interaction is close to zero, while Pakistan has strong reasons to believe that its eastern neighbour is playing a key role in fomenting terrorism within its borders. This is unsustainable in the long run, as the threat of conflict is never far away when such a massive gulf of mistrust exists. And while India keeps harping on about the main obstacle to better ties being ‘terrorism’, which it alleges emanates from Pakistan, it is India which is bringing terrorism to this country. Meanwhile, the main flashpoint in South Asia remains the unresolved question of Kashmir. Though New Delhi would like to believe its own fiction that the Kashmir dispute has been ‘resolved’ by the scrapping of the occupied territory’s limited autonomy in 2019, the fact remains that internationally, Kashmir remains a disputed region. The lack of resolution of the Kashmir question results in a state of permanent insecurity in the subcontinent. We...

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar has said that Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has consistently highlighted the Kashmir issue at every international forum.

Former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf leads massive ‘Kashmir will become Pakistan’ rally from Nasir Bagh to Charing Cross

• Diplomats, press divided over New Delhi’s perceived reluctance to join Trump-led body • Given his propensity to paint himself as a global peacemaker, The Hindu warns US president may offer to mediate Kashmir dispute DESPITE being invited to join the ‘Board of Peace’ by President Donald Trump, India has yet to formally get involved in the process. Conspicuous by its absence from the Davos ceremony where 20 world leaders — including Trump and Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif — signed the board’s charter, some in India are viewing New Delhi’s reluctance through the lens of the Kashmir dispute. President Trump says the board’s goal is to make the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza permanent and oversee an interim government in the Palestinian territory. “This is not just for America, but for the whole world. I think we can spread it to other places. Like we did successfully in Gaza,” he had said at the time. But there seems to be concern among some circles that if India signs up for the board — which Trump ...

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon has called on the international community to take notice of what he described as blatant human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik’s wife, Mushaal Mullick, has called for the establishment of a special Board of Peace for Kashmir, similar to initiatives being discussed for Gaza, saying the decades-long dispute must be placed at the center of global peace efforts.

Beijing has rejected New Delhi’s claim over the Shaksgam valley in Kashmir and said that the territory “belongs to China”. At a press conference on Monday, when asked by the Press Trust of India (PTI) for comment on the Indian criticism of China’s infrastructure development projects in the Shaksgam valley, China‘s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that it was “fully justified” for China to conduct infrastructure construction “on its own territory”. “The territory you mentioned belongs to China,” she said. India’s foreign ministry spokesperson had on Friday said that it reserved the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests as the Shaksgam valley was “an Indian territory”. “We have never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement that happened in 1963. We have consistently maintained that the agreement is illegal and invalid,” he said at a press conference in response to a question from India’s state-owned public television broadcaster Doordashan. The Indian spokespe...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said the world must recognize that a just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was the only way to achieve durable peace in South Asia.

Pakistan on Tuesday strongly rejected India’s claims over Jammu and Kashmir, reiterating that the disputed region has never been — and will never be — a part of India.

• Highlight ‘urgent’ crisis following India’s revocation of disputed region’s special status; call for self-determination vote as per UN’s 1948 resolution • Hamish Falconer insists lasting resolution rests solely with India and Pakistan LONDON: British lawmakers on Wednesday urged their government to support self-determination for the disputed region of Ja­m­­mu and Kashmir, and called on it to press India on human rights. However, a minister reaffirmed the UK’s long-standing policy on the decades-old dispute during a parliamentary debate by saying “we believe in diplomacy”, with a renewed push for bilateral talks between India and Pakistan. The debate “Kashmir: Self-determination”, in Westminster Hall, saw several members of parliament calling for a more active British role, citing concerns from their large British-Kashmiri constituencies. The session was led by Labour MP Imran Hussain, who described the situation as an urgent human rights issue. For the people of [India-held] Kashmir, this is not a distant ...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday expressed “grave concern” over a United Nations (UN) report that observed systemic human rights violations in India-occupied Kashmir. UN experts on Monday raised the alarm over “serious human rights violations” in Indian-occupied Kashmir by the government of India in the aftermath of a terror attack in Pahalgam in April this year, for which Delhi blamed Islamabad without any evidence. A press release issued by the FO today said, “Pakistan notes with grave concern the latest findings by the United Nations Special Procedures experts regarding India’s illegal measures in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).” It said that the report “once again underscores the severe and systematic human rights violations endured by the Kashmiri people under Indian occupation”. It noted “with alarm” the UN experts’ observations that India’s actions had resulted in the “extensive arbitrary arrest and detention of nearly 2,800 individuals, including journalists, students, and...

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said his party was in a strong position to form and lead the government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, stressing that it is in the shared interest of all regional states and the international community to end.

Peshawar - Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Sohail Afridi on Sunday expressed strong solidarity with the people of Kashmir, stating that October 27, 1947, marks the darkest day in the history of Kashmir when Indian forces invaded Srinagar to illegally occupy Jammu and Kashmir, unleashing a wave of oppression and tyranny.

Pakistan has strongly condemned India’s “lies and recycled distortions” over Jammu and Kashmir, calling on the United Nations to take decisive action to resolve the long-standing dispute in line with Security Council resolutions.

Pakistan has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to “actively” pursue a just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in line with its resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, warning that lasting peace in South Asia will remain elusive without resolving this decades-old issue.