HOTO: INP
ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar on Saturday called for constituting an international commission to conduct a comprehensive and independent inquiry into the human rights violations committed by soldiers in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
They also demanded a repeal of draconian laws and halt of the use of pellet guns on peaceful protesters in the disputed Himalayan territory.
They expressed these views while welcoming the recent reports on Jammu and Kashmir, launched by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the British parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group in the seminar organised by the Kashmir Media Service in the federal capital on Saturday.
Chairing the conference, Leader of the House in the Senate Senator Raja Zafarul Haq emphasised the need for raising a voice against the gross human rights violations against innocent people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) at every relevant forum.
He pointed out that more than two dozen United Nations (UN) and OIC resolutions have been passed on the long-standing dispute and that no country in the world has ever opposed the resolution calling for self-determination of Kashmiris.
“Kashmir has never been a part of India and nor will it ever be,” he said, adding that India’s continued military occupation of the Himalayan territory was a clear and open violation of international laws. With regard to Pakistan, he said that all political parties, institutions and the public were on the same page on Kashmir issue.
Toronto Islamic Society Director Dr Zafar Bangash said that they had been working on the Kashmir issue for the past 30 years. “We should collectively play our role in exposing the atrocities committed by the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir at the international level," Dr Bangash said.
He stressed the need to use social media in this regard and sensitise the youth about the Kashmir issue at the university level.
Foreign Affairs on Kashmir Director Sheraz Asif said that for the first time, their voices were being raised at an international forum on the Kashmir issue.
We should together raise the Kashmir issue in front of the whole world, Asif urged, adding that India was openly violating human rights laws in Jammu and Kashmir.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2018.
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