Islamabad: Pakistan has categorically rejected India's baseless remarks regarding the upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to Radio Pakistan, the Foreign Office stated that India's unfounded assertions about Gilgit-Baltistan cannot divert attention from the grave and systematic human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It accused India of propagating fake narratives and tendentious propaganda, dismissing India's claims as part of a familiar attempt to conflate fact with fiction.

The statement highlighted that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which remains the longest unresolved item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, originated from India's forcible and unlawful occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. The Foreign Office emphasized that the only just and durable settlement of the dispute lies in the implementation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, ensuring the Kashmiri people their right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.

The Foreign Office also remarked on the impunity enjoyed by Indian forces under draconian laws imposed in IIOJK, labeling it as another dimension of state terrorism perpetrated by India against unarmed Kashmiris. Pakistan called upon India to vacate all occupied territories, reverse all illegal and unilateral actions taken in IIOJK since 5 August 2019, repeal all draconian laws, and allow access to neutral observers and international human rights organizations to ascertain the situation on the ground.

The statement underlined that India must enable the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.