ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi reacted sharply to the recent killings in the Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir after a handful of civilians were killed and several others injured on Saturday.

On Sunday, Qureshi urged the “champions of human rights” to prevail upon the administration in New Delhi to “put an immediate halt to the Kashmiri genocide".

According to media reports, seven people were killed and dozens injured on Saturday when Indian forces opened fire at protestors in the valley. 

The incident also prompted Kashmiri leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to call for another demonstration on Monday. He said that the protest would give Indian troops yet another opportunity to “kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily.”

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement wherein it said that “despite hollow Indian claims, Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally-recognized dispute, pending on the agenda of the UN Security Council.” 

"The mindless killing spree carried out by the Indian occupation forces on Saturday is yet another example of the Indian atrocities against the innocent Kashmiris. India continues to kill and maim, under the garb of ‘combating terror’. In Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, every man, woman or a child who protests against India’s illegal occupation and brutalities against innocent and hapless Kashmiris, is a ‘terrorist’," the statement added.

The foreign ministry reiterated Qureshi’s demand that “India has to allow investigations by an independent fact-finding commission of the OCHCR, OIC, and IPHRC into the ongoing gross human rights violations in IoK and to fulfill its obligations under the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.”