UN General Assembly president handed dossier on Kashmir rights abuses

PM’s envoys brief Peter Thomson on Indian forces’ reign of terror in disputed region

ISLAMABAD: The UN General Assembly president has voiced concerns over the current unrest in disputed Kashmir region after Pakistan handed him what it called a dossier cataloguing flagrant human rights abuses in the Himalayan territory.

The dossier was presented to Peter Thomson by Prime Minister’s Special Envoys Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Dr Shezra Mansab Ali, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr Maliha Lodhi accompanied the special envoys.

They briefed Thomson about the grave threat to peace and security posed by the deteriorating human rights situation in Jammu & Kashmir as a result of India’s suppression of a Kashmiri freedom movement.

Dr Ali detailed the killings of innocent and peaceful Kashmiri demonstrators and injuries caused by the use of brute force by Indian occupation forces. She also told Thomson that the use of pellet guns, blinding hundreds, including children, women and men, was a particularly barbaric manifestation of the use of force.



Senator Mushahid briefed Thomson about the war hysteria stoked by India to distract global attention from its brutal action to suppress the legitimate demand of the Kashmiri people for right to self-determination.

He stressed that the ongoing movement was indigenous and was sparked by the extrajudicial killing of youth leader and icon Burhan Wani.

He also said that India closed all doors to bilateral dialogue, scuttled a regional summit and at the international level, refused to implement UN Security Council resolutions. All this, Senator Mushahid said, posed an imminent threat to peace and security in the region.

The UN General Assembly president expressed concern at the situation and assured the visiting envoys that he would do everything possible to ‘foster peace’.  He also said that he would get an update on the current situation from the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Senator Mushahid told Thomson that one-fifth of humanity resides in South Asia; therefore, peace and security and the future of the region should concern the international community.  He also told him that India has raised the temperature on the Line of Control and this escalation confronted the region with an increasing danger to peace.

The two Special Envoys also briefed the officials of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on accelerating tensions along the LoC. They reiterated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s proposal to expand operations of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to avoid such situations.

The Department for Peacekeeping Operations officials briefed the special envoys on continued non-cooperation by the Indian side, hampering the mandated work of the UN mission. They were greatly appreciative of Pakistan’s cooperation with the Mission, and its role as one of the world’s top troop contributors to UN Peacekeeping Missions.

The two parliamentarians earlier had an interactive session with representatives of the Kashmiri diaspora. Senator Mushahid assured them of Pakistan’s continued moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri cause in their quest for their right to self-determination.

He said Premier Sharif had sent special envoys to major capitals of the world to apprise the international community of the deplorable human rights situation in Indian occupied Kashmir and to garner support for the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2016.