India on Tuesday urged the international community to hold Pakistan accountable for its misdeeds and abuses in the wake of Islamabad's crackdown on protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over the weekend that has left at least 20 people dead and many injured.
The external affairs ministry's call to the international community came in response to a question at the weekly briefing on India’s stand on the developments in PoK and allegations by Pakistan of an Indian hand in stoking trouble in the occupied territory
"We hope the international community will hold Pakistan accountable for its misdeeds and its abuses," external affairs ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said.
Earlier, Jaiswal had said: "We continue to see in this context a pattern of fake news and videos emanating from Pakistan. It is a desperate attempt by Pakistan to cover up its own failings and deflect attention away from its human rights abuses. There are reports of police brutality in PoK in which several people have been killed. There are several more who have been injured."
On Monday, Reuters had reported that "clashes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir ahead of a protest called for Tuesday killed 11 people and injured more than 70 as police and paramilitary forces sought to scatter a group of protesters from a banned alliance of civil society groups.
"Police said the protesters of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), which seeks to uphold economic and political rights, had gathered outside a hospital morgue where the body of another group member was taken after his death in firing by police."
A coalition of traders, lawyers, students, civil society activists and local rights groups, the JAAC had called for reforms to the region’s political system, including the abolition of 12 reserved refugee seats in the Assembly that they felt allowed Pakistan-based political parties to influence local governance and government formation.
According to Pakistani media reports, the government of PoK responded to the JAAC’s protest call by banning the organisation that paved the way for the crackdown.
