Afridi denounces India for its treatment of minorities

Says int’l community must intervene to stop atrocities in IIOJK

ISLAMABAD:

Chairman of Parliamentary Kashmir Committee Shehryar Khan Afridi, while addressing a seminar on the occasion of International Minorities Day, warned the United Nations and the international community that if the world fails to address the issue of systematic bloodshed and ethnic cleansing of minorities in Kashmir by India, then IIOJK could become a nuclear flashpoint with its effects extending beyond the region.

Afridi said the sole purpose of celebrating this day was to make the whole world realise the importance of the rights of minorities. He said the Indian government has launched state terrorism against minorities in India and Muslims are being targeted in a systematic manner.

“The international community must fulfil its responsibility to provide the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir with the right to self-determination,” he said, adding that it was time forthe developed world to intervene immediately to stop the ongoing atrocities in Kashmir.

The chairman of the Kashmir Committee warned that if the United Nations and the international community failed to stop the systematic bloodshed and genocide of Kashmiris, then Kashmir could become a nuclear flashpoint.

Speaking during the seminar, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan said the world should take note of India's plan to change the proportion of Muslim population in Kashmir.

He said India was created on the principles of secularism, but the BJP government has created a reign of terror against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits.

“Now the Indian government is pursuing a plan to turn the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir into a minority Muslim state,” he said, urging the international community to take notice of the organised genocide of Kashmiris.

Masood asserted that the world and the international community will also be responsible for the genocide of Kashmiris if they fail to intervene.

Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf also spoke on the occasion and said that Pakistan is a bouquet in which all kinds of religions coexist as flowers of different colours, with every religious community having equal rights.

The former prime minister condemned the mistreatment of minorities in India and called on the developed world to intervene and put pressure on the Indian government to ensure equal rights for minorities. “If all goes well in occupied Kashmir, why has India put its 900,000 troops there?” he asked.

The seminar was also addressed by Todd Shea, President National Council of Churches of Pakistan Bishop Dr. Azad Marshall, Member National Assembly Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and Member Provincial Assembly Ranjit Singh.