AJK president condemns India's ceasefire violations, calls upon UNSC to take notice

Sardar Masood Khan terms fresh spate of shelling from across the LoC as India’s war hysteria

MUZAFFARABAD: Terming the Indian firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) as an attempt to divert world’s attention from grave human rights abuses in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has urged United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to inform the UN Secretary General and the members of the Security Council about the deteriorating security situation in the region.

The president condemned Indian shelling on unarmed civilian populations in different sectors of Azad Jammu and Kashmir that had martyred an elderly woman in Haveli sector and wounded two others in Goi, Tatapani sectors of Kotli district and destroyed several residential houses.

He called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take serious notice of the escalating incidents of firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC).



Masood said that international community must compel India to abide by the 2003 ceasefire agreement and added that the Indian occupation forces had committed over 1,000 ceasefire violations in the current year, which had left eight civilians martyred and 100 others injured.

Urging UNMOGIP to effectively monitor ceasefire violations, he expressed his dismay over the silence of the UN Secretary General and failure of the Security Council to take cognisance of such violations regularly reported by the UN observers.

The AJK president described the unprovoked Indian firing in different sectors of LoC as a cowardly act of terror and an attempt to divert the attention of the world from the worst human rights situation in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and in India. He termed fresh spate of shelling from across the LoC as India’s war hysteria that is threatening peace and security in the region.

Earlier in an interview with a web news portal, the president outlined that a bevvy of international laws specifically prohibit what the BJP-RSS regime is doing in IOJ&K. He added that the crimes they are committing fall within the categories of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.



President Masood emphasised that actions against these crimes are listed in the charter of the United Nations, the two International Covenants, Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol -I, and International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute, as well as numerous conventions on the rights of the child, elimination of racial discrimination, discrimination against women, torture and enforced disseverances.

Indian soldiers and occupation authorities in the state, he said, are in fact Génocidaires but India gets away because of its political and economic heft. The will of the member states and states parties to the conventions and treaties has wilted over the years in dealing with difficult issues.

He went to say that they (UN member states) are selective and choose their subjects based on political considerations. The UN Security Council and other international law enforcing bodies have taken a hiatus from issues like Kashmir. This is one of the most severe crises in the contemporary world order.