ISLAMABAD: The Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs, Aziz Ahmed, tonight [July 10] reaffirmed Pakistan’s ‘full support’ to the Kashmiri people in their just struggle to achieve their right of self-determination. “It is not open to any political leader or political party in the State of Jammu and Kashmir to barter away that right,” he said in a statement. … Mr Aziz Ahmed was commenting on a Srinagar report that the Plebiscite Front in occupied Kashmir had abandoned its demand for a plebiscite and called for a settlement with India allowing the State “full control over its affairs except Defence, Communications and Foreign Affairs”. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Rawalpindi,] Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has disclosed that very recently there have been some ominous movements and deployment of Indian forces near Sialkot and in Kashmir and elsewhere which point to a “grand design.” In an interview to Mr James Clarity of “The New York Times” … the Prime Minister said he believed that the “grand design” is to … intimidate [Pakistan] and to make some unpleasant announcement relating to occupied Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2024