ISLAMABAD – Pakistan suspects Indian forces are using ammunition containing chemical agents to kill Kashmiris and destroy their properties in the disputed region, a Foreign Office spokesperson said on Thursday.
“If use of chemicals in the ammunition is confirmed, then it would constitute a serious violation of international norms and India’s international obligations under Chemical Weapons Convention,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakariya told journalists during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
Zakariya also called upon the international community, particularly relevant international organisations to probe into such reports. “Charred bodies of Kashmiri youth were found in the debris of five houses destroyed by Indian forces at Bahmnoo and Kakpora in Pulwama,” he said, adding the bodies were extensively burnt and beyond visual recognition.
Welcoming the Monday’s statement of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in which he urged his country’s judiciary to extend support to the oppressed Muslims of Kashmir, Zakaria highlighted the whole Ummah’s concerns about the human rights violations in IOK by Indian forces. The secretary general of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has also denounced atrocities in held valley, he added.
The FO spokesperson termed the recent inclusion of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in the Global Terrorist Watchlist by the US government an ‘unjustified’ action.
