ISLAMABAD: Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Attique Saturday said the G-20 countries’ meeting, convened by India in Srinagar was a sheer violation of the United Nations (UN) charter and an attempt to divert the world’s attention from its brutalities and genocide being committed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) for more than seven decades.
In a press statement received here, he urged the G-20 member states to distance themselves from the event and put diplomatic and moral pressure on India, which claimed to be a so-called secular state, to immediately stop the massive human rights violations in IIOJ&K.
He said the four-day G-20 meeting, hosted by India in Srinagar, was a glaring violation of the UN charter that guaranteed due respect to the UN member countries.
The IIOJ&K is a declared internationally disputed territory where no member of the UN can hold unilateral meetings, he added.
“India’s intention behind organizing meetings of G-20 in Srinagar was to make the Group a shield to show the position on the ground as normal, besides hiding inhuman and brutal acts of its occupied forces in that area”, he remarked.
In an appeal to member countries in the G-20 Group, Sardar Attique urged them not to become part of Indian nefarious designs to camouflage the fact of the longstanding Kashmir dispute.
He said the presence of G-20 countries’ representatives in Srinagar would adversely affect the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir, for which the UN Security Council passed more than a dozen resolutions for giving the people of IIOJ&K their legitimate right of self-determination.
“Therefore I appeal to all participants not to compromise their international position because India the occupant of Kashmir wants them to use for her ill designs,” he added.
Attique also hailed the decision of the People’s Republic of China not to attend the G-20 moot because of the disputed nature of Kashmir.
He urged other members to boycott the moot, scheduled to be held from May 22 to 24, 2023 in Srinagar.
On May 22, he said the people of Kashmir across the Line of Control and in parts of the world would hold protests to condemn the illegal and immoral activity, meant to cause a serious dent to the Kashmir cause.