Pak opposes changes to India’s land ownership laws in J&K
The Pakistan foreign office termed changes to the law a “highly condemnable Indian action and yet another clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, and international law.”
Pakistan on Wednesday said it “categorically rejects” amendments to Indian laws that allow outsiders to buy non-farm land in Kashmir, calling them “illegal”.
In a gazette notification on Tuesday, the home ministry had omitted the phrase “permanent resident of the state” from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act that deals with the disposal of land in the Union Territory. The new rules allow outsiders to buy non-agricultural land in Jammu & Kashmir.
The Pakistan foreign office termed this a “highly condemnable Indian action and yet another clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, and international law.”
“India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and subsequent measures, particularly the domicile law and now the land ownership laws, are aimed at changing the demographic structure” to convert the Kashmiris into a minority in their own land, it claimed in a statement.
Changing the demographic structure “is a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and constitutes war crime,” it said.
All these measures and laws, “lacking legal and moral legitimacy are forced upon the oppressed people” through the barrel of the gun, it claimed.
The statement said such steps can neither change the disputed nature of Kashmir or “prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.”
It asked the United Nations and the international community to take immediate action to stop India from changing the demography and distinct identity Kashmir “and facilitate resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as per the relevant UNSC Resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”
