Global community urged to help stop carnage in Occupied Kashmir

It is high time the international community pay attention to Kashmir and find a peaceful solution, says AJK president

ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has urged members of UK Parliament and supporters of Kashmir cause across the globe to help break the silence of influential governments including the British government on the callous atrocities being committed against the oppressed people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

“Our friends and well-wishers must activate governments whose uncanny silence in the face of damning evidence is responsible for the perpetuation of the suffering of the people of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” President Masood said while addressing an international virtual conference on "Dual Lockdown in Kashmir and the Global Response" on Monday.

Organised by Tehreek-e-Kashmir (TeK) UK chief Raja Faheem Kayani, the conference was also addressed by MPs from the Conservative Party, Labour Party and the Scottish National Party, including Rebecca Long-Bailey, Mike Wood, Chris Stephens, Lilian Greenwood MP, Kate Green, Tracy Barbin, Muhammad Yasin, Sarah Owen, Hilary Benn, Khalid Mahmood, Rachel Hopkins, Afzal Khan, Paul Bristow, while written statements were given by Jack Dromey MP, Jim McMohan MP and Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP.



Former Portuguese presidential candidate Polo Moris, Director Kuwait Bar Association, former Bahrain MP Jamal Bosan, member Kuwait Bar Association Dalal Al-Hajmi, spokesman of World Sikh Parliament Ranjit Singh, Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement Altaf Ahmed But, JKLF spokesman Mohammad Rafiq Dar, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Scotland Hanif Raja, and others also spoke during the event.

Addressing as chief guest of the event, President Masood said that 10-month i.e. 300 days have elapsed since the Indian government besieged Jammu and Kashmir and another lockdown was enforced because of the novel coronavirus.

He stressed that the Modi regime considering Kashmiri people as its enemies and has denied even supply of masks, sanitisers and personal protection equipment (PPEs) to doctors and paramedics in order to contain the pandemic in the occupied territory. He expressed his apprehension that IOJ&K could become a new hotspot of coronavirus.

“The extremist Modi regime under its agenda based on Hindutva fascism is settling Hindu fanatics and RSS hooligans in Occupied Kashmir to deprive the Kashmiri people of their citizenship, jobs and lands under the garb of new black domicile law," he said, adding, "The Kashmiri youth are being targetted, women are raped, and the innocent people are being killed or blinded through pellet guns in a systematic manner."

The AJK president said that around one million Indian occupation troops have killed scores of Kashmiri people whose bodies were not handed over to their families fearing that mass funeral processions would capture the world attention.

"It is high time that the international community pay attention to Kashmir and find a peaceful solution to the conflict; otherwise, a war between Pakistan and India will engulf not only the region but the whole world."

He regretted that UN Secretary-General António Guterres is not fulfilling his obligations, and is issuing ambiguous statements on Kashmir though the world body had already recognised the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.



He went on to say that 650 members of the European Parliament through their, more than six resolutions, have condemned human rights violations by India in Occupied Kashmir, and have urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw his unlawful actions.

“Pakistan and Kashmiris are ready on this side of the negotiating table to engage but India has disappeared. There is no interlocutor across the table.”

Referring to the tension between armies of India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC), the AJK president said, "India is using its current tension with China and provocations along the Line of Control as a smokescreen to hide the crimes being committed in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to change its demography and to accomplish Hindutva fascist agenda."

Moreover, he expressed solidarity with the MPs of the UK where the novel coronavirus has claimed 38,000 lives, saying that the people of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir shared the grief. He also thanked the Pakistani and the Kashmiri expatriates and the UK parliamentarians for keeping the Kashmir issue alive even in a difficult situation.

In his written statement read out in the conference, MP Jack Dromey said that he remained deeply concerned that the unilateral decision taken by the Indian government to revoke Article 370 last year will take us ever further away from the peaceful, political settlement needed by the people of Kashmir.

Dromey also said that he was troubled to see reports last year of Kashmiri leaders being placed under house arrest, the banning of public gatherings and phone and internet coverage being cut.

The British lawmaker called upon India and Pakistan to work together, with the support of the international community, to determine a lasting and a peaceful political solution which protects the human rights of the Kashmiri people and respects their democratic rights to self-determination in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

MP Jim McMahon said that human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir are well documented and the international community should do more, as should the UK government, to uphold the standards and protect people from harm.

“We all recognise that the progress will not be made until India and Pakistan come together and show a willingness to cooperate to resolve issues of tension between the two nations."