ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly opposed the Indian government’s reported plan to hold the G20 Summit in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) next year.

According to Indian media, the Indian government has decided to host the G20 meetings in the disputed region in 2023 and formed a five-member committee to coordinate the event.

This would be the first major international summit to be held in occupied Kashmir after the Indian government revoked its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Foreign Office took exception to the news items over the planned G20-related meetings saying Pakistan completely rejects any such attempt by India.

It stated that holding any G20 related meeting/event in IIOJK is in utter disregard of the globally acknowledged “disputed” status of the territory, and a travesty that the international community cannot accept under any circumstances.

It added that in case of any such controversial proposal from India, which would be designed to seek international legitimacy for illegal and tyrannical occupation, the G20 members will be fully cognizant of the imperatives of law and justice and would reject it out right.

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The Foreign Office spokesperson reminded that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognized “disputed” territory between Pakistan and India under forcible and illegal occupation of India since 1947 and has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for over seven decades.

The spokesperson said India is responsible for widespread atrocities and egregious human rights violations in IIOJK. Since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, Indian occupation forces have killed 639 innocent Kashmiris in extra-judicial murders.

The spokesperson said India has been seeking to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory in flagrant violation of relevant UNSC resolutions, international law, and the 4th Geneva Convention.

Pakistan also strongly urges the international community to call upon India to end its gross and systematic violations of human rights in IIOJK, revoke its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and free all political prisoners including the true Kashmiri leaders.

The spokesperson said the only way to lasting peace in South Asia is by granting the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir their inalienable right to self-determination as pledged to them in the relevant UNSC resolutions.