Situation on LoC, working boundary with India rapidly deteriorating: Pak FM

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif today said that the situation on the Line of Control and Working Boundary with India has been rapidly deteriorating since 2017.

Responding to a query in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, he alleged India has committed more than 400 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary since January in which 18 civilians have been killed.

"Heavy weapons, including moderates are frequently being used by the Indian forces on the civilian population on the Pakistani side of the LoC and the Working Boundary," he said.

Asif said the LoC violations were an attempt to divert the attention from the "deteriorating" humanitarian situation in the Valley.
 

He said that the role of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) was crucial to ensure peace at the LoC.

The minister alleged that Pakistan always extended full cooperation to the UNMOGIP but India was not cooperating with the world body representatives.

India maintains that the UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control (LoC).

Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office today said it had raised the issue of alleged human rights violations in Kashmir during the 37th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, which is being held in Geneva.

Speaking at the UNHRC, Pakistan's Deputy Permanent Representative Tahir Andrabi accused India of denying access to the UN Fact Finding Team in the Valley, saying it is a desperate attempt to hide its atrocities in the most militarised zone of the world.

The FO said that Andrabi termed the Indian illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as root of the problem and Pakistan demanded the UN to continue documenting human rights abuses by India in the Valley.

Stressing that Pakistan would continue to give its moral and political support to the people of the Jammu and Kashmir in realisation of their inalienable right to self determination, the FO said struggle of Kashmiris for right to self-determination cannot be subsumed under the label of terrorism.