TEHRAN - Pakistan on Tuesday observed Kashmir Solidarity Day, with top political and military leaders extending support to the people in Indian-controlled-Kashmir and calling for resolution of the long-standing territorial dispute.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi in his address in legislative assembly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir underlined the significance of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ and urged the Indian authorities to uphold the rights of people in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

He reiterated Pakistan’s “unflinching solidarity” with the people of Kashmir, Radio Pakistan reported.

“We reassure our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that we will remain consistent in our principled position on Kashmir. The entire Pakistani nation stands with its Kashmiri brethren in their valiant struggle to achieve the legitimate right to self-determination,” Alvi said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan criticized India for its alleged atrocities in Kashmir. In a tweet on Tuesday, Khan said “the brutality of Indian security forces in Kashmir has rallied all Kashmiris together in their demand for freedom from Indian occupation,” urging all ‘freedom loving people’ of stand with Kashmiris.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a message from London where he was attending a conference, reaffirmed Islamabad’s “unflinching support” to the people of Kashmiri “in their just and legitimate struggle for self-determination against wrongful Indian occupation.”

He said the UN Security Council recognizing India’s consistent denial of self-determination right is an example of the impunity. “The human rights violations in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir are a blot on the conscience of humanity and demand immediate corrective action by the international community.”

“The reports of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Jammu and Kashmir and the UK’s All Parties Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG) have lifted the veil off decades of obfuscation by India of massive human rights violations and unspeakable crimes against humanity in the held valley,” he stressed.

Kashmir Solidarity Day, observed on February 5 every year, is a national holiday in Pakistan. The day is marked by political functions and rallies across the country and in all diplomatic missions of Pakistan across the world.

A function was held in Tehran also to mark the day, which saw participation of officials from the Pakistan embassy and Pakistani student community in Tehran.

The occasion provides a platform for the expression of support with Kashmiri people living in one of the heaviest militarized zones across the world, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan. The two countries have fought two major wars over the disputed territory.

India has maintained that Kashmir is its integral part and Pakistan has no business to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

According to human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989, most of them local Kashmiris.

The decade of 1990s was the deadliest and after some years of relative calm in the following decade, the insurgency resurfaced in 2010 and has peaked in last three years, especially since the killing of popular military commander Burhan Wani.

Last year, United Nations released its first ever report detailing the human rights violations in Kashmir, across the Line of Control (LoC), highlighting a situation of chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces.

The exhaustive report urged all the parties to end the cycles of violence and ensure accountability for the past and present abuses. Indian government rejected the report, terming it “fallacious”.