ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has opted not to participate in the 44th Chess Olympiad, which is being hosted in India, in protest of India’s “mischievous attempt” to blend politics with sports, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Thursday.
“Pakistan will also address the matter at the highest level with the International Chess Federation,” the spokesman to FO added. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) invited Pakistan to compete in the 44th Chess Olympiad, which will be held in Chennai, India, from July 28 to August 10. A Pakistani contingent has already begun preparations for this event.
“Regrettably, India has chosen to politicize this famous international athletic event by passing the torch relay through the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” the Foreign Office stated. On June 21, the torch relay traveled through Srinagar.
The FO stated that by carrying the torch relay through IIOJK in complete violation of the territory’s universally accepted “disputed” status, India had committed a travesty that the international community could not tolerate under any circumstances.
“India must understand that through such aggressive and indefensible measures, it cannot seek or claim international legitimacy for its unjustified, unlawful, and dictatorial occupation of IIOJK, which has lasted over seven decades,” it stated.
“Pakistan also strongly encourages the international community to call on India to halt its egregious and systematic abuses of human rights in IIOJK, rescind its unlawful and unilateral acts of August 5, 2019, and liberate all political detainees, including the authentic Kashmiri leaders,” the FO stated.
Jammu and Kashmir is a “disputed” area between Pakistan and India that is globally recognized.
Since 1947, India has occupied the IIOJK forcibly and illegally, and this conflict has been on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council for more nearly seven decades. India is to blame in IIOJK for massive atrocities and serious human rights abuses.
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