ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the United Nations on Thursday to investigate Indian atrocities in held Kashmir and play its role in stopping them.

`Prime Minister Imran Khan called UN Secretary General António Guterres to express deep shock and concern at the grave human rights violations by Indian occupation forces in IOK and underscored UN`s role to end these violations,` the PM Office said in a statement on the conversation.

Mr Khan`s conversation with Secretary General Guterres was in the wake of last Saturday`s massacre in which around 15 Kashmiris lost their lives and dozens were injured when Indian troops fired on a protest rally in Kharpora Sirnoo village of Pulwama district. The killings led to widespread protests across India-held Kashmir and curfew was imposed in Pulwama town and surrounding areas.

PM Khan reminded Mr Guterres that the UN had aresponsibility towards Kashmir and it should act accordingly.

He asked the secretary general to implement the recommendations of the then high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra`ad Al Hussein, who after launching the first-ever United Nations report on the human rights situation in held Kashmir in June, had asked the Human Rights Council to consider establishing a commission of inquiry on rights violations in the occupied valley. A `commission of inquiry` is the UN`s highest-level probe.

It should be recalled that the secretarygeneralhasin the past voiced his support for the Kashmir report that pointed to impunity for rights abuses and lack of access to justice in Indiaheld Kashmir. `As you can imagine, all action of the Human Rights High Commissioner is an action that represents the voice of the UN in relation to that issue,` Mr Guterres said in July.

Mr Khan, according to the PM Office, asked the UN to urgently dispatch the Commission of Inquiry to India-held Kashmir for probing the aggravating situation there. He further called for appointment of a special UN representative for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has also written a letter to the UNsecretary general.

The federal cabinet in its meeting expressed concern over massive human rights abuses in India-held Kashmir and the Pulwama massacre in particular.

`Vicious tactics` Speaking at a weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal denounced Indian actions in held Kashmir and said that `vicious tactics` were being employed by the Indian forces to `intimidate, disrespect and silence the Kashmiris and their struggle to achieve the just right to self-determination`.

India, he underscored, was disregarding international demands, including those by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the UK Parliament`s All Parties Parliamentary Group on Kashmir, for an independent probe into `gross and systematic human rights violations, including use of pellet guns, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and detentions, as well as continued sexual violence` by the Indian troops in held Kashmir.

`Pakistan calls upon the international community to call upon India to put an immediate end to the bloodshed in IOK and to be cognisant of its responsibilities in the matter. India has to allow investigations by an independent fact-finding Commission of OHCHCR, OIC and IPHRC into the ongoing gross human rights violations in IOK and to fulfil its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir,` Dr Faisal maintained.

He said the `brutal genocide` of Kashmiris was being done under the pretext of `combating terror`.

In India`s lexicon, he added, `every man, woman or a child who protests against India`s illegal occupation and brutalities against innocent and hapless Kashmiris is a terrorist`.

The FO spokesman said that a meeting of the Contact Group of OIC on Jammu and Kashmir wasalso being planned. The Contact Group members include Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Niger and Azerbaijan. `We are actively pursuing the matter with the OIC and the member countries of the Contact Group and will update you soon,` he added.

Jinnah House The FO spokesman reiterated Pakistan`s claim on Jinnah House and urged India to respect the same.

`We have a long-standing claim on Jinnah House which has been accepted by India at the highest level.

We have documentary evidence to that extent. India has to honour its commitment.

He gave these remarks in response to a statement by Indian External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj that the ownership of the property was being transferred to her ministry.

Ms Swaraj had in a letter to Bharatyia Janata Party legislator Mangal Prabhat Lodha said Jinnah House would be renovated like Hyderabad House in Delhi.

`Prime Minister`s Office (PMO) has instructed us to renovate and refurbish Jinnah House to develop it on the pattern of facilities available in Hyderabad HouseinDelhi.Accordingly, approval of the PMO was sought for transfer of the property from ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) to our ministry.

PMO has now accorded necessary approvals,` Ms Swaraj said in her letter to Mr Lodha, according to Indian media.