Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Photo: Li Hao/GT

Pakistan on Monday urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to pressure India over the long-smoldering dispute on India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

"Eight million Kashmiris continued to face lockdown, military siege, communications blockade and unprecedented restrictions" for more than 10 months, following India's "illegal and unilateral steps" since August 5 last year, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

The foreign minister was referring to India's scrapping of the decades-long special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August.

"Indian occupation forces were operating brutally with complete impunity to suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiris for their inalienable right to self-determination," said Qureshi when attending an emergency meeting of the OIC's Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir via a video conference. 

There are repeated instances of extrajudicial killings in fake "encounters," "cordon-and-search" operations, indiscriminate use of pellet guns and "collective punishment," Qureshi said. 

He also deplored the fact that under the garb of the COVID-19 crisis, India was imposing an even more stringent lockdown in the occupied territory.  

A Ministerial Communiqué by the Contact Group was adopted, highlighting the OIC's commitment to the Kashmir cause.

It demands that India rescind its unilateral and illegal actions, and allow the Kashmiri people to freely exercise their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.