ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Azerbaijan on Tuesday agreed to expand their bilateral ties in diverse fields especially in defence production.

The understanding of increased collaboration reached between the two countries during a meeting held between Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, said a press release issued here.

The minister who is on an official visit to Baku to attend the ADEX-2016, a defence exhibition, along with Pakistan Ordnance Factory Chairman Lt Gen Omar Mehmood Hayat and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Air Marshal Arshad Malik.

Rana Tanveer said that Pakistan attached great importance to its brotherly relations with Azerbaijan. He said that Pakistan would always support Azerbaijan in every field. He apprised Azerbaijan president about the massive human rights violations being committed by brutal Indian forces in Indian-held Kashmir.

He said that innocent people of Kashmir were facing mass killings, forced disappearances, torture and rape by the Indian forces to suppress their indigenous movement they launched for legitimate right to self-determination.

Indian forces injured hundreds of innocent Kashmiris protesting against the brutality they were meting out, he said. He urged the international community to stop India from human rights violations committing in the occupied territory.

Sharing miseries of the people of Kashmir, he said entire population was barricaded inside their homes, denying any access to mobile phones and internet connectivity. “Journalists are attacked and harassed on daily basis. Families are in intense distress as they have no information about their loved ones,” he said.

The occupant forces attacked hospitals and ambulances carrying patients and expectant mothers, adding that supplies of essential items had been blocked and media operations were banned. “Without timely international intervention the consequences are bound to be ghastly,” the minister said.