Pakistan denounces fresh round of curbs on Kashmiri political parties

ISLAMABAD, March 19 (APP): Pakistan on Tuesday denounced the Indian authorities’ decision to declare the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League and four factions of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League as “unlawful associations”. It also denounced the decision to extend the ban on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Mohd. Yasin Malik faction) for five more years, Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a press statement.

India’s ongoing campaign to crush dissent in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) contravened the international human rights and humanitarian law as well as democratic norms, the spokesperson further said. “The Government of India is urged to lift the curbs on the banned Kashmiri parties; release all the political prisoners, including Yasin Malik; and implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir,” it was reiterated. With the fresh notifications, a total of 14 Kashmiri political parties have become outlawed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The affiliates of these parties are also facing persecution. Most notably, a death penalty has been sought for Yasin Malik, who was awarded life sentence in 2022. “However, such oppressive tactics cannot suppress the Kashmiri people’s aspirations for realization of their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions,” it was stressed.