ISLAMABAD(National Times): Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned the reported martyrdom of four young Kashmiris during a brutal campaign of extra-judicial killings in fake encounters, cordon and search operations by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“India’s desperate attempts to malign the just and indigenous struggle for self-determination of Kashmiris by whipping up the “terrorism” bogey will never succeed,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a statement.

He said having failed to address the indigenous freedom struggle, India was using unabated anti- Pakistan blame game as a smokescreen for diverting world attention from India’s state-terrorism and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK.

Pakistan has repeatedly drawn the attention of the international community to India’s sinister designs of staging “false flag” operations aimed at implicating Pakistan and Kashmiris, the spokesperson added.

He said while Pakistan was a peace-loving country, it would spare no effort in resolutely thwarting any aggressive designs, as was amply demonstrated by Pakistan’s response to India’s Balakot misadventure in 2019.

“Pakistan again calls upon India to halt its state-sponsored terrorism, stop human rights violations, lift the inhumane military siege and let the people of IIOJK exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he commented.