Web Report
TEHRAN — Expressing utmost concern Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to adopt a fair policy towards the people of India-administered Kashmir and stop suppressing its Muslims.
“We have good relations with the government of India, but the Indian government is expected to adopt a fair policy towards the noble people of Kashmir, so that this region’s Muslim people would not be oppressed,” said Khamenei during a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members on Wednesday.
According to Iranian media, the Iranian top leader also described the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the disputes between Islamabad and New Delhi as a result of measures by the vicious British government before its pullout from the Indian Subcontinent.
“The British have intentionally inflicted this wound on that region for the continuation of clashes in Kashmir,” he added.
Tensions linger in the Himalayan region after the Indian government earlier this month had revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and rushed through a presidential decree in a bid to fully integrate its only Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country.
By repealing Article 370 of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in Kashmir and settle there permanently.
Kashmiris see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.
