No talks with India until Kashmir 'annexation' reversed – Pakistan

Pakistan PM Imran Khan rules out talks with India unless New Delhi reverses its actions on disputed Kashmir where a military siege and harsh communication blackout entered its 46th day on Thursday.

A Kashmiri girl holds a placard as she shouts pro-independence slogans at a protest site after Friday prayers, in Srinagar, September 13, 2019.
Reuters

A Kashmiri girl holds a placard as she shouts pro-independence slogans at a protest site after Friday prayers, in Srinagar, September 13, 2019.

Pakistan's prime minister announced on Wednesday that his government will not hold any talks with India until New Delhi reverses its actions on Kashmir including what Islamabad has called "illegal annexation" of the disputed territory. 

Addressing journalists at the inauguration of the key Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Khan said there is no chance to hold talks with India while the crisis in the disputed region prevails.

"India has been occupied by extremists and the racist class of Hindus who are … spreading hatred against the Muslims and Pakistan," said Khan.

Pakistan denies airspace to Modi

New Delhi moved to strip the portion of Kashmir it controls of its limited autonomy on August 5. Authorities imposed a sweeping military curfew that's still in place and cut off residents from all communication and the internet. Mobile phone services have yet to be restored.

The move allows outsiders to buy properties in Kashmir and take jobs there, a decision Kashmiris and Pakistan says is aimed to alter the demography of the disputed region and undermine a future UN-brokered plebiscite. 

In a further sign of growing tension, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won't be allowed to fly through Pakistani airspace next week on his way to UNGA in New York.

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"Keeping in mind the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir and India's behaviour and the cruelty and barbarism, the violation of rights being done there, it has been decided that the Indian PM will not be allowed," to use Pakistan's airspace, Qureshi said in a video statement posted on social media.

Qureshi said Modi had requested to use Pakistani airspace on September 20 and 28 for a trip to and from Germany.

New Delhi regretted the decision, Raveesh Kumar, a spokesman for the Indian government, said.

Pakistanis warned against fighting in Kashmir

Khan also warned citizens on Wednesday that anyone who goes to fight in Kashmir will hurt the territory's cause, saying Indian authorities are waiting for "any excuse" to crack down in the Himalayan region.

"If someone from Pakistan goes to India to fight... he will be the first to do an injustice to Kashmiris, he will be the enemy of Kashmiris," Khan said.

"They need an excuse," he said of Indian troops. "It will provide them an excuse for torture and barbarism."

Focus on UNGA meet

Tensions have spiralled since New Delhi's move on its side of the de facto border –– the Line of Control –– to change the status of the Himalayan territory, with Pakistan repeatedly likening Modi to Hitler and calling for international intervention.

Khan has held demonstrations across the country to protest against the move and will highlight the issue on September 27 at the UNGA in New York.

Both nuclear-armed India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety, but each controls only part of it.

Pakistan says the Kashmir dispute should be solved in line with the aspirations of the Kashmiris and United Nations Security Council resolutions.

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