International Desk: Pakistan has strongly rejected India’s baseless and absurd statements regarding the upcoming elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the Foreign Office spokesperson in a statement said that the claims made by India are contrary to facts and part of misleading propaganda.

He said Pakistan has made it clear that it completely rejects the Indian statements and does not consider them to be of any significance. Pakistan has reiterated its position that India is illegally occupying the internationally recognized disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, he added.

Kashmir, he said, is the oldest unresolved dispute on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, which began with India’s forcible and illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.

The spokesperson said the only way to a just and lasting solution to this lingering dispute is through the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, according to which the Kashmiri people should be given the right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the supervision of the United Nations.

He said India’s baseless claims regarding Gilgit-Baltistan are an attempt to divert attention from the grave human rights violations committed by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The immunity enjoyed by Indian forces there under black laws is a form of state coercion, he added.

He said Pakistan demands that India vacate all illegally occupied territories, withdraw unilateral and illegal measures taken after August 5, 2019, and allow independent observers, human rights organizations and international media access to the situation on the ground.

The spokesperson said that India should provide the Kashmiri people with the right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite.