The Indian government on Friday said that Pakistan must be held accountable for its “horrific human rights violations” against the protesters in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

At least nine persons, including three police officers, have been killed in clashes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the past few days, The Indian Express reported. The protesters are demanding basic rights and an end to what has been described as systemic oppression, The Hindu reported.

During the weekly press briefing, India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that New Delhi had seen reports of the protests in several areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including “brutalities by Pakistani forces on innocent civilians”.

Jaiswal added: “We believe that it is a natural consequence of Pakistan’s oppressive approach and its systemic plundering of resources from these territories, which remain under its forcible and illegal occupation.”

He was responding to a reporter’s question about the protests.

The protests in the region are being led by the Joint Awami Action Committee, a civil society group of students, businesspersons and professionals, The Indian Express reported. They have listed 38 demands.

One of the demands is the abolition of 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for migrants from Jammu and Kashmir settled in Pakistan, according to the newspaper.

Protesters have claimed that the seats were used by the Pakistani government to destabilise the Assembly.

The committee also wants legal cases against previous demonstrators dropped, royalties from hydropower projects in the region, and has other demands pertaining to health, education and infrastructure.

The Joint Awami Action Committee had called for a shutdown to press for its demands from September 29, which had led to police action.

On Thursday, a delegation from the Pakistani government held its first round of talks with the protesters, The Indian Express reported.

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