ANKARA: Pakistan’s Ambassador to Türkiye, Yousaf Junaid, said that India’s policies in the Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region are designed to alter the region’s demographics.
Ambassador Junaid made these remarks during an event at Pakistan’s Embassy in Ankara, which was organized in connection with Kashmir Black Day.
He expressed his gratitude to the attendees and highlighted that India had “illegally occupied” the Jammu and Kashmir region through military force.
The event was attended by the Chairman of the Turkish Parliament Human Rights Inquiry Commission and Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmaker Derya Yanik, AK Party lawmaker Burhan Kayaturk, and Strategic Thinking Institute (SDE) Defense and Security Council Chairman Guray Alpar, among other distinguished guests.
Ambassador Junaid emphasized that the Kashmir issue is one of the oldest unresolved problems on the UN Security Council’s agenda. He pointed out that there are more than 900,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces stationed in the occupied region, and many Kashmiris have lost their lives and been detained by Indian security forces since 1989.
Highlighting that India’s actions violate international law, the ambassador stated that India’s strategies in the region are intended to change the population composition, drawing a parallel with the situation in Palestine.
He commended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Türkiye’s stance on the Kashmir issue and concluded his speech by saying, “May the Turkish-Pakistani brotherhood thrive.”
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, is held in parts by India and Pakistan and is claimed by both in full. A small portion of Kashmir is also under Chinese control.
Since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the two countries have engaged in three wars, in 1948, 1965, and 1971, with two of them being related to Kashmir.
