LONDON (Kashmir English): PPP UK’s Riaz Komervi rejected the Indian foreign minister’s statement yesterday, calling for India to end its occupation of Kashmir, withdraw its army, and resolve the Kashmir issue as per UN resolutions.
Vice President of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) UK, Riaz Komervi, has strongly dismissed the recent remarks made by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. In his response, Komervi stated that India will eventually have to withdraw its forces from occupied Kashmir, urging the country to put an end to what he described as its illegal and oppressive occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
He accused India of attempting to mislead the international community but asserted that such efforts would ultimately be unsuccessful. “Kashmiris have completely rejected India’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status,” he said.
Komervi also condemned the Indian army for its role in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, which he claimed had transformed occupied Jammu and Kashmir into a place of constant danger where no one is truly safe.
Drawing a comparison between Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Indian-occupied Kashmir, he stated that people in Azad Kashmir enjoy full civil liberties, with unrestricted access to fundamental rights. He further asserted that the Pakistan Army acts as a protector of Kashmiris, whereas the Indian Army is their oppressor and executioner.
He also challenged Jaishankar to acknowledge the atrocities committed by the Indian army in Kunan Poshpora, reminding him that such horrific incidents remain deeply ingrained in the collective memory of Kashmiris and cannot simply be erased.
Recently, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) dismissed recent statements made by India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar regarding Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), labelling them as “baseless claims” and calling on India to withdraw from the territories it has occupied for decades.
The response came after Jaishankar, while speaking at the Chatham House think tank in London on Wednesday, asserted that the Kashmir dispute would be resolved only once the “stolen part of Kashmir” under “illegal Pakistani occupation” was returned to India.
Jaishankar made the remarks in response to a journalist’s question, which accused India of illegally occupying Kashmir, and inquired whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would seek the involvement of former US President Donald Trump to mediate the dispute.
“We believe we have already resolved most of the issue,” Jaishankar claimed, referring to India’s 2019 abrogation of Article 370 and the elections held in the region in October 2024 as part of that process. He further stated that economic development and social justice were also key steps in India’s approach to addressing the Kashmir situation.
Emphasising the importance of a peaceful resolution, Komervi stated that the Kashmir issue should only be settled by the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and in line with United Nations (UN) resolutions. He stressed that this is the only viable path to lasting peace in South Asia.
