Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday thanked the countries who stayed away from participation in the G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar.
“I am also the Foreign Minister of Azad Kashmir and Occupied Kashmir along with Pakistan,” he stated while addressing a rally led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing the crowd, the minister affirmed his commitment to representing the entirety of Pakistan, not just a specific political party.
While acknowledging potential disagreements with various political factions within the country, Bilawal stressed that when representing Pakistan abroad, he advocated for the interests of all citizens including Kashmiris.
He stated that he raises the Kashmir issue before discussing matters pertaining to Pakistan when he meets global leaders.
“I salute to China, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and other countries who rejected the Indian invitation to participate in the G20 tourism meeting in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory,” he said.
He said the countries that were participating in the conference had also downgraded their participation which reflected that there was nothing normal in the conference.
Bilawal said how tourism could be promoted in an area where half of the local population was in jail and over 900,000 armed personnel were deployed to curb the voices of local people demanding their right to self-determination.
He said that Modi government was actually a big supporter of terrorist organizations in India which were involved in the terrorism activities against the Indian minorities including Muslims and Christians.
“When we speak for the human rights of the Kashmirs, they (Indian government) say we are representing terrorists”, he said adding “how they could call us terrorists when we also had been the victims of the terrorism”.
“We want peace and represent the people affected by the terrorism”, he added.
Referring to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the foreign minister said when he called a butcher, a butcher or a murderer, they started crying.
He questioned either the real terrorists were those who had placed the head money for the foreign minister of a country or those who themselves were the victims of terrorism.
