By Sardar Khan Niazi
Pakistan has once again urged the UN, its human rights machinery as well as States to counsel India to rescind its illegal and unilateral actions taken since August 5, 2019, and end forthwith its gross human rights violations of the Kashmiri people.
The unabated wanton state-terrorism by the Indian occupation forces resulted in the martyrdom of three more young Kashmiris in fake encounters in the Shopian and Islamabad districts of IIOJK. This brings extra judicial killings from August 5, 2019, to 670 and from 1st January 2022 to 150.
The Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is the world’s most heavily militarized zone, which has been turned into the world’s largest prison, where people are not allowed to speak freely; APHC leadership, youth, journalists, civil society, and human rights defenders are jailed and silenced. This is an unacceptable and condemnable situation.
A just, peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people is indispensable for lasting peace in the region.
The recent Amnesty International report echoes the grave and intensifying human rights abuses in occupied Jammu and Kashmir by India since August 5, 2019.
The Organization previously documented these egregious violations in its three reports published in as many years. The growing Indian repression and suppression of fundamental rights in IIOJK monitored and documented by the UN Human Rights machinery, and independent civil society organizations and global media testify to the Indian evil designs.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also issued two reports in 2018 and 2019. The High Commissioner and lots of other organizations have consistently raised deep concerns in several sessions of the Human Rights Council over the wide range of human rights crimes committed by India in the internationally recognized disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson has strongly urged the international community to call upon India to end its gross and systematic violations of human rights in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
It also pressed for asking India to revoke its illegal and unilateral actions since 5th August 2019, and free all political prisoners including the Kashmiri leaders.
The situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is a huge injustice in history. The egregious violations of human rights in the IIOJK have assumed alarming proportions during the last two years.
The hardships and sufferings being endured by the people of occupied territory, especially since 5th August 2019 when India took illegal and unilateral measures in the IIOJK, have just become just unbearable.
The people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) demanding their inalienable right to self-determination promised to them under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions are being brazenly brutalized, extra-judicially killed, injured, maimed, tortured, and arbitrarily detained.
The indiscriminate use of pallet guns has resulted in the mass blinding of the Kashmiri youth. However, despite using every single tool of oppression, India has failed to break the will of the Kashmiri people.
The Muslims in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are being denied their fundamental right to self-determination as well as freedom of religion or belief. India’s gross, systematic and widespread human rights abuses in the IIOJK are condemnable.
The Kashmiri Muslims risk losing their majority and distinct identity due to the demographic changes being effected in the occupied territory, which is in complete violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and tantamount to war crimes.
There is an urgent need for the reversal of all illegal and unilateral steps taken by India on and after August 5, 2019, along with an immediate end to the human rights violations in the IIOJK.