ISLAMABAD: Pakistan condemned India on Thursday for "persecuting" the people of Kashmir after Yasin Malik, a separatist leader, announced hunger strike to protest the decision of Indian administration to reopen "thirty-year-old cases" against him.
In an official statement, the foreign office maintained Malik was denied the right of personal appearance in his ongoing trials, saying it was "in complete contravention of legal and democratic norms."
Malik was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indian court in May this year after he was convicted of funding terrorism.
"Once again, India has employed judiciary as a tool to damage the morale of the Kashmiris by making their true leadership a target of flagrant prejudice," said the Pakistani statement. "Left with no legal recourse and faced with blatant denial of his rights, Mr. Malik has taken the desperate decision of going on a hunger strike unto death from 22 July 2022."
The foreign office described the cases against Malik as "fabricated," saying the struggle for self-determination in Kashmir would not be dampened by "strong-arm tactics of the Indian government."
"Pakistan ... calls on the international community to take cognizance of India’s inhuman and illegal detention and treatment of Yasin Malik and ensure that the Kashmiris are given the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination as espoused under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their own wishes," it added.
Pakistan and India have a territorial dispute over Kashmir since their independence in August 1947. The two nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars over the Himalayan region which they both govern in part but claim in full.
