ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the extrajudicial killing of a young Muslim man in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Mohammed Amin Malik was killed in an exchange of gunfire inside a counterinsurgency police camp in Tral town early Thursday, local police said, calling him a “terror operative.”
In a statement, police said Malik snatched an automatic rifle from an officer during his interrogation and fired at him, leaving the officer critically wounded late Wednesday. He later took position inside the interrogation room, the statement said.
Police said they brought Malik’s mother to the camp and tried to persuade him to surrender but he refused and intermittently fired at police throughout the night. The statement said police later engaged him in a gunfight and killed him.
Mughli, Malik’s mother who uses only one name, told reporters that police tortured her son during his detention.
“Strongly” condemning the incident in the “illegal custody” of Indian forces, the Foreign Office, in a statement, said: “Use of brutal force against innocent Kashmiris cannot suppress the struggle for their legitimate right to self-determination.”
“The Indian occupation army has killed over 50 Kashmiris since January 2021 in fake encounters in the name of so-called ‘security operations’ against the innocent Kashmiri civilians,” it said.
“Young men including minor children are murdered in broad daylight using brutal and indiscriminate force. Arbitrary detentions of Kashmiri youth also continue unabated. In addition, refusal to return the mortal remains of martyrs for proper burial demonstrates the moral bankruptcy of the Indian government.”
The Foreign Office further called on the international community to hold India accountable for the “grave and systematic” human rights violations in the held region, and work for peaceful resolution of the lingering dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and wishes of the people.
The Muslim-majority region is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety. The Muslim population of Kashmir support the goal that the territory be united either under Pakistan or as an independent country.
India says fighters are sponsored by Pakistan, but Islamabad denies the charge. Tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and government forces have been killed in the conflict since 1947.
