Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed his grief over the death of prominent Kashmiri leader Altaf Ahmad Shah who was the son-in law of deceased patriarch of Kashmiri freedom movement Syed Ali Geelani in the Indian custody. The prime minister castigated the Modi regime which denied him treatment despite knowing that he was a cancer patient, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Taking to his Twitter handle on Tuesday, PM Shehbaz said: “Deeply grieved at passing of prominent Kashmiri leader Altaf Shah, son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, while in Indian captivity. Modi regime denied him treatment despite knowing he was cancer patient. Custodial killings are norm in Modi's India. My condolences to the bereaved family.”

https://twitter.com/CMShehbaz/status/1579693287052804097

The demise of the Kashmiri pro-freedom fighter was announced by his family. His daughter Ruwa Shah tweeted today: “Abu breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner.

https://twitter.com/ShahRuwa/status/1579583671333720066

Altaf Shah was arrested by the Indian authorities in a ‘terror funding case’ in 2017. He was seriously ill and his daughter Ruwa tweeted on Sept 30 telling about her father’s serious condition regarding his renal cancer which was spreading fast in his body. 

https://twitter.com/ShahRuwa/status/1575891033728372737

https://twitter.com/ShahRuwa/status/1577293961299136514

Pakistan rejects Indian PM Modi’s remarks about Occupied Kashmir

Pakistan has categorically rejected the remarks made by the Indian Prime Minister about Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir during a public rally in Gujarat.

The Foreign Office, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the Indian Prime Minister’s farcical contention that he has, somehow, “resolved the Kashmir issue”, is not only false and misleading but also reflects how oblivious the Indian leadership has become of the ground realities in IIOJK.

It said Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, the resolution of which has been on the agenda of the United Nations since 1948. Despite clear UN resolutions that prescribe a free and impartial plebiscite for the final disposition of the dispute, India has not only illegally occupied the territory but is also guilty of egregious human rights violations employing over 900,000 brutal occupation force.

The Foreign Office said the fact remains that the people of IIOJK continue to brave India’s reprehensible occupation which it seeks to perpetuate through malicious demographic changes and strong-arm tactics. The craftily staged visits of the Indian leadership to the occupied territory and choreographed launches of so-called development projects in a bid to create a façade of ‘normalcy’ will neither dampen the spirit of the Kashmiris struggling to break free from the illegal Indian occupation nor would it deceive the world into believing India’s deception.

The statement said instead of making delusional statements about having resolved the dispute unilaterally, the Indian leadership must deliver on their commitments to the Kashmiris and to the world and ensure that the people of Kashmir are accorded their inalienable right to self-determination.

The Foreign Office further said that Pakistan has consistently called upon the international community to assume its role and responsibility with regards to IIOJK and the ongoing Indian atrocities in the occupied territory. India must also be held responsible for its nefarious scheme of altering the demography of IIOJK, as well as for its brutal repression of the innocent Kashmiris.

It said Pakistan reiterates its call on human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn India’s state-terrorism in IIOJK and demand an immediate reversal of the Indian government’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019.

The Foreign Office said the only solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute lies in ensuring that the Kashmiris are allowed to exercise their right of self-determination through the democratic method of holding a UN-mandated free and impartial plebiscite as espoused in the relevant UNSC resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.