India’s excesses: Jilani hands dossier on Kashmir to Olson

Pakistan’s envoy to New Delhi says drawing wrong conclusions not in the interest of both countries

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Sates Jalil Abbas Jilani handed over the dossier containing information on the human rights violations carried out by Indian security forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir to Richard Olson.

In a meeting with the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Jilani emphasised that the international community, especially US, should take note of the inhuman and degrading treatment being meted out to the Kashmiris.

He said that being a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the US should impress upon India to immediately end state-sponsored terrorism against innocent civilians who have been indiscriminately targeted by the Indian forces.

It was also emphasised that the right to self-determination was granted to the people of Kashmir by the UN which could not be unilaterally denied by India.



Ambassador Jilani also underscored that the international community ought to ensure that India as a UN member, should give access to international human rights and humanitarian organisations to assess the factual situation in the held valley.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had earlier tasked special envoys to highlight the Kashmir cause in a number of world capitals.

‘Result-oriented engagement’ with India

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit in the meantime called for ‘serious and sustained diplomacy and result-oriented engagement’ with India to pave the way to establish durable peace and prosperity that would help eliminate poverty from the two countries.

In an interview with Indian Express, Basit said Pakistan did not see dialogue as a concession or favour by one country to another.

“Dialogue is in our mutual interest. If India is ready, Pakistan will be willing, if India is not ready then we can always wait for India to make up its mind,” he said.

The high commissioner said both the countries needed to work for peace and prosperity, and recalled that the Indian premier had rightly said in his address in Kerala that we needed to fight against poverty.

In response to a question, Basit said Jammu and Kashmir continues to be the core dispute between the two countries and Pakistan strongly believes that it can only be resolved through serious and sustained diplomacy.

“You ask me as to why Pakistan is denying [the surgical attacks]. Firstly, this is for the first time that India has publicly acknowledged to have breached the 2003 ceasefire understanding, so this is quite significant,” he said adding that India had modulated the commonly acceptable definition of surgical strike.

“The official statement issued by India, your (Indian) DGMO, very clearly suggests that the action took place along the Line of Control, not across. Now, as far as Pakistan is concerned, we haven’t seen any activity on September 29, other than usual cross-LoC firing,” he maintained.

The envoy said that Pakistan had taken media persons to the LoC but no activity was recorded there.

He further said that drawing wrong conclusions and raising false expectations was not in the mutual interest of both the countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.