New Delhi: India on Tuesday described the so-called local body elections in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) a “complete farce,” asserting that such “hollow” exercises cannot hide the ground reality in the region.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) strongly criticised Pakistan’s crackdown on protesters in PoK and said the international community should see through the “flimsy veneer” of Islamabad’s “hypocritical lecturing” on human rights.
The PoK has been witnessing massive protests since last month over inflated living costs, alleged administrative apathy and political discrimination and atrocities against minorities.
“This so-called local election in PoK is a complete farce. The real happening is that of public protests and wanton killings by Pakistani forces. Such hollow exercises cannot hide reality,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a regular media briefing.
“Since June this year, at least 90 civilians have lost their lives in the continuing crackdown,” he said.
Jaiswal said the Pakistani establishment has “answered public discontent with bullets, black outs, intimidation and repression, and now seeks to manufacture legitimacy through a hollow electoral exercise”.
“It must be held accountable, and the world should see through the flimsy veneer of Pakistan’s hypocritical lecturing on human rights,” he said.
Jaiswal was responding to a question on elections in PoK.
The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) has been leading the protests amid local body elections in PoK.
Pakistani security forces used lethal force against the JAAC during its long march from Rawalakote to Muzaffarabad late last month and the crackdown reportedly resulted in the deaths of 40 civilians and left over 33 protesters injured.
The JAAC has officially appealed to United Nations Human Rights Council and international rights organisations for an immediate, independent investigation into what it described as “unlawful killings”.
Jaiswal also called upon Pakistan to take strong action against cross-border terrorism.
“We call upon countries to take strong action against cross-border terrorism and those promoting it. We call upon Pakistan to take strong action against cross-border terrorism and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure operating from its soil,” he said.
The MEA spokesperson also asserted that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will remain in abeyance till Pakistan stops supporting cross-border terrorism.
“The treaty is in abeyance and will remain so until Pakistan irrevocably and credibly abjures its support for cross-border terrorism,” he said.
India decided to put the IWT in abeyance as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures unveiled soon after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year that killed 26 civilians.
