Pakistan "categorically rejected" on Sunday Indian government's attempts to "portray normalcy in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir".
A press release issued by the Foreign Office today said that despite the Indian government's claims, occupied Kashmir was still under a lockdown while Kashmiri leaders remained under house arrest.
"Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir continues to be the largest prison in the world with the heaviest deployment of Indian occupation forces since the coercive, unilateral and illegal Indian actions of August 5, 2019 aimed at altering the internationally recognised disputed status of IOJ&K and changing its demographic structure to preempt the results of a UN plebiscite," the press release read.
The Foreign Office also termed Indian reports that portrayed two farmers, who had inadvertently crossed the border in August, as terrorists as a "farcical attempt".
"This was despite the fact that the incident was discussed during the weekly military hotline contact between both sides on August 27, 2019 when Indian authorities acknowledged that they were inadvertent crossers and informed Pakistan that routine formalities are taking place after which they will be returned."
On August 21, two farmers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, identified as Muhammad Nazeem, 21, and 30-year-old Khalil Ahmed, had unintentionally crossed the Line of Control near Hajipir while they were out for cutting grass.
Last month, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar had claimed that Pakistan was trying to create "an alarmist situation" after Indian media, citing unidentified Indian intelligence sources, said that Pakistan-trained commandos have allegedly entered Indian waters to attack port facilities in western Gujarat state. Pakistan Army spokesperson Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had rubbished the claims.
Yesterday, the military's media wing had also issued a press release on the matter and said that the Indian media's reports were "yet another attempt to fabricate facts".
The Foreign Office press release issued today highlighted that Islamabad had "sensitised the international community" about India's efforts to raise a false flag operation to divert attention from the situation in occupied Kashmir and blame Pakistan for "[India's] indefensible actions".
The statement also denounced "a false and fabricated story", where Indian authorities had "blamed deaths of some Kashmiris in [the occupied territory] on 'Pakistani militants'". The statement referred to a briefing by Indian army officials that was held on September 4.
'Kashmir issue is a dispute left from history'
A Chinese delegation led by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which came to Pakistan on a two-day visit, said that Beijing "opposes any unilateral actions that [would] complicate the situation" in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a press statement said on Sunday.
A joint press release issued by foreign ministries of Pakistan and China, said that the former briefed the Chinese delegation on the situation in India-occupied Kashmir — that has been under a strict lockdown for the past month — "including [Islamabad's] concerns, position, and urgent humanitarian issues".
The Chinese side assured Pakistan that it was paying "close attention" to the situation developing in the occupied territory, the press release said. Chinese delegation further said that the "Kashmir issue is a dispute left from history" and must be solved according to the United Nations resolutions.The Indian government revoked the special status accorded to Indian-administered Kashmir in its constitution, the most far-reaching political move on the disputed region in nearly 70 years.
A presidential decree issued on August 5 revoked Article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including the right to its own constitution and autonomy to make laws on all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.
In the lead-up to the move, India sent thousands of additional troops to the disputed region, imposed a crippling curfew, shut down telecommunications and internet, and arrested political leaders.
The move has worsened the already-heightened tensions with neighbouring Pakistan, which said it would downgrade its diplomatic relations with India.
India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory. A rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir has been ongoing for 30 years
India tightens lockdown over Muharram processions
Indian authorities have tightened the month-long security lockdown in the main city of Srinagar after breaking up the Muharram processions by mostly Shia Muslims who defied a ban.
Police drove around the city from early Sunday, asking the residents "not to venture out of their homes". AFP news agency said it saw at least two processions with eight to 10 mourners, who were detained and taken away by police, who were also seen hitting the mourners with bamboo sticks.
Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar - which started on September 1 this year - marks the anniversary of the death of a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. Most such processions have been banned in Indian-administered Kashmir since an armed rebellion against New Delhi's rule began in 1989.
India: Lifting of Kashmir curbs 'depends on Pakistan'
The lifting of communications restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir depends on Pakistan stopping deploying "terrorists" and fomenting unrest there, India's national security adviser (NSA) has said.
NSA Ajit Doval said that "100 percent" of landlines are now working but that a further easing depends on Pakistan, which he said has sent 230 armed fighters into the region.
"Lifting the [restrictions on] communications depends on how Pakistan behaves," Doval told reporters. "We are determined to protect the lives of Kashmiris from Pakistani terrorists even if we have to impose restrictions."
India president's request to use Pakistani airspace denied
Pakistan says it has refused a request by India's President Ram Nath Kovind to fly through its airspace due to New Delhi's recent "behaviour".
"The Indian president had sought permission to use Pakistan's airspace to travel to Iceland but we decided not to permit him," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement, without giving further details. There was no immediate comment by India
Landline phones back, but calls 'don't go through'
The administration in Indian-administered Kashmir said landline telephone service has been restored. But people lined up at offices or homes that have landline telephones to try to contact family and friends after the long wait, but many were unable to get through after repeated attempts.
"Our landlines have been restored but we are still unable to talk to people. It is frustrating. I have been trying to call people since morning, but I am not getting through," said Syed Musahid in Srinagar.
Many Kashmiris living outside the region also said they were having trouble getting in touch with their families in Kashmir. "I kept trying a hundred times to reach my family in Kashmir, and only then did my call go through," said Bint-e-Ali, a Kashmiri in the Indian city of Bengaluru.
06 Sep, 2019
Statement on FIR against me filed by the Special Cell of Delhi Police
I have learnt from media reports that the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has filed an FIR against me for speaking out on the clampdown in Kashmir and the denial of basic rights to Kashmiris.
Chaos and crisis in Kashmir hospitals
For the past two weeks, Mohamad Shafi has been at the bedside of his 13-year-old son Rafi, who has been admitted to the nephrology ward of a state-run hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar.
Shafi is tired and has hardly had much sleep, but the 54-year-old is prepared to stay at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences hospital for as long as it takes.
India throttling Kashmir media, report says
India's government is muzzling Kashmir's media as part of the lockdown it imposed on the disputed region a month ago, according to a new report by the Network of Women in Media, India and the Free Speech Collective.
The study said reporters were being subjected to surveillance, informal investigations and harassment for publishing reports considered adverse to the government or security forces.
Titled "News Behind The Barbed Wire", its findings reveal "a grim and despairing picture of the media in Kashmir, fighting for survival against the most incredible of odds".
Pakistan army accuses India of 'state terrorism'
Pakistan's army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has accused India of being responsible for "state terrorism" in Indian-administered Kashmir.
He said the Pakistani military is ready for "every sacrifice" and "will never abandon" the people of Kashmir in their struggle for self-determination in line with UN resolutions.
Bajwa spoke as Pakistan marked the 54th anniversary of the start of the second of the two wars it has fought with India over Kashmir
Anger, defiance mark a month of Kashmir siege
Haleema had to begin her journey at dawn, travelling through deserted roads from her home in southern Kashmir's Shopian district to wait at a park outside the central jail in Srinagar, the main city in the Muslim-majority region.
Two hours past noon, Haleema was still waiting and uncertain if she would be allowed to meet her husband, Bashir Ahmad. "He was picked 20 days ago," she said, "like they pick everyone else."
Kashmiri teen dies of pellet, tear gas shell wounds
When the body of 16-year-old Asrar Khan reached his home in Indian-administered Kashmir at about 2:30am on Wednesday (2100 GMT on Tuesday), wails of his grieving parents shattered the tense silence of the night.
Khan, a student of Class 11, was injured in the head by a tear gas shell and pellets on August 6 outside his home in the main city of Srinagar's Ellahi Bagh area, according to his family and medical records.
Amnesty launches campaign to end Kashmir blackout
The draconian communications blackout in Kashmir is an outrageous protracted assault on the civil liberties of the people of Kashmir, Amnesty International India said, as it launched a global campaign today in a bid to highlight the human cost of the lockdown.
"The blackout has now been a month old and cannot be prolonged any further by the Indian Government as it has grossly impacted the daily lives of Kashmiri people, their emotional and mental wellbeing, medical care, as well as their access to basic necessities and emergency services. It is tearing families apart," said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India
Victims of torture, arbitrary arrests recount ordeal
In a village in southern Kashmir, a 22-year-old man said he was picked up in a midnight raid and tortured for more than an hour along with a dozen other Kashmiris.
"I was beaten with sticks, rifle butts and they kept asking me why I went for a protest march. I kept telling them that I didn't, but they didn't stop. After I fainted, they used electric shocks to revive me," he told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity.
Saudi, UAE diplomats in Pakistan to discuss Kashmir
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have sent their top diplomats to Pakistan to help Islamabad defuse tensions with India over the disputed Kashmir region. Gulf Arab countries have kept mostly silent on the issue, underpinned by more than $100bn in annual trade with India that makes it one of the Arabian Peninsula's most prized economic partners.
In a rare move, a single aircraft carried the two Arab diplomats - Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir and UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan - to Islamabad in what Pakistani authorities said was a symbolic show of unity. The two diplomats held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
India names leaders of Pakistan-based groups 'terrorists'
India has officially declared Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as "terrorists" under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act.
Azhar's name has already been placed by the United Nations on a sanctions blacklist after his group claimed responsibility for a February suicide attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought India and Pakistan close to war. The UN in May imposed a travel ban and freeze on Azhar's assets as well as an arms embargo.
Saeed, an anti-India scholar, runs a charity in Pakistan known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The charity is widely believed to serve as a front for LeT, the group blamed for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.
India sowing seeds of war: Pakistan army
The Pakistani army has warned that India is sowing the seeds of war with its action in the Kashmir region.
"The situation in Kashmir has become a big danger in the region ... The Indian action in Kashmir is sowing seeds of war," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a news conference in Islamabad.
PM Khan: Will not initiate military conflict with India
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has asserted that his country would not initiate a military conflict with India, warning of the risk to the world of nuclear war breaking out between the South Asian neighbours, as tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir remain high.
"We are two nuclear-armed countries, if tensions rise then there is a danger to the world from this," Khan said at the International Sikh Convention in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday
Thousands take part in anti-India rally in Karachi
Thousands of Pakistani protesters took part in an anti-India rally for a fourth consecutive week following India's move in downgrading Muslim-majority Kashmir's autonomy. Protesters held signs, chanted slogans and displayed a large Kashmiri flag during the rally in Karachi, organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
"We demand that the peace mission of the United Nations should visit Srinagar, like how they go to Uganda, East Timor, Djibouti and other countries of Africa," said Siraj ul Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami party chief, calling on other nations to "take active measures to give Kashmiris the right to freedom".
Reporting Kashmir amid lockdown, harassment
As the crippling lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir nears a month, journalists in the region complain of harassment by authorities, with many accusing security forces of deleting their camera footage and a pressure to report "normalcy".
"This is a unique situation. None of us had seen anything like this in the past. Even in the worst of times in Kashmir, we were able to file our stories," said Muzaffar Raina as he waited to access his email at a media centre in the main city of Srinagar.
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