‘UN has failed to hold India accountable for human rights violations in IIOJK’

AJK President Masood Khan calls upon world leaders to embrace Kashmiris' struggle as a global issue

ISLAMABAD:

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the performance audit of the United Nations on Kashmir last year, since 5th August 2019, “has been zero efforts and zero endeavours; except for the three informal sessions held at the UN Security Council shoehorn, that too at the initiative of Pakistan and the help of China”.

The UN leadership’s reaction, he said, has been limited to the very few anodyne statements issued periodically.

The president made these remarks while addressing a seminar titled, "Piecing Peace Together: Shared Future for Humanity", jointly organised by the Parliamentary Kashmir Committee and the Islamabad Institute for Conflict Resolution (IICR).

The event was also addressed by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, Senate Committee of Foreign Relations Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Ambassador Ashraf Jahangir Qazi and Institute of Multi-Track Dialogue Development and Diplomatic Studies Director Dr Waleed Rasool.

Speaking on the sub-theme “Peace Quest for Kashmir: Hunting ways under Indian occupation and global moral regression”, the AJK president said that the UN has failed miserably in holding India accountable for committing genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the systematic settlement of non-Kashmiri Hindu citizens from all over India in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“The UN has no agenda for peace in Kashmir; no process for peace-making, peacekeeping or peacebuilding for the 14 million people living in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir who are under direct attack of 900,000 strong occupation forces,” Masood added.

The world, he said, is not safe if Kashmir is not safe. “UN has displayed an unforgiving dereliction from its prime duty and responsibility of maintaining world peace.”

The AJK president said that the Modi government has granted 1.7 million illegal domiciles to non-state Hindus from all over India and that a systematic ethnic cleansing is taking place in IIOJK, in which the Kashmiris have been disenfranchised and are being killed with impunity.

“Global powers through their silence have emboldened India and it continues its reign of terror in IIOJK with no ill consequences. India’s colonial government is seeking exceptionalism for its human rights violations in IIOJK.”

Masood said that last year after 5th August, there was a strong reaction from world parliaments, media and opinion makers but now the issue has mellowed down and people are not actively raising the issue due to other global issues. “With the exception of Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, China and a few Nordic countries, no other country spoke up openly for Kashmir.”

He added: "We have learned this lesson the hard way that we are not going to be given Kashmir. We can only achieve it if we make this [Kashmir] a global movement."

The president also said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being punished for their strong loyalty towards Pakistan and its ideology but they won't give up. The people of Jammu and Kashmir as a whole had decided to join Pakistan and this decision took place almost a month before Pakistan’s independence, he added.

Masood said that Kashmiris are the most valiant people of the world as they are armless and face a huge enemy – India.

He said that US President Donald Trump has complimented the Afghan Taliban as tough, smart and sharp. “One day, Kashmiri freedom fighters will also be described with such epithets and find their place at the negotiating table.”

The AJK president categorically rejected bilateral talks with India, saying that no such dialogue would be possible without the Kashmiris at the table. He said that India has used the ruse of bilateral talks as a method to buy time. “India is insincere in its claims for peace in the region.”

He went on to say that the BJP-RSS regime has, in its aspirations of advancing the Hindutva doctrine, unleashed a war against its own people, the Kashmiris and also its neighbours.

Shehryar Afridi, chairman of the Kashmir Committee, said that Pakistan will continue to raise the issue of Kashmir. “For the world to hear we need to make Pakistan an economic hub and then only the world will hear the cries of the Kashmiris.”

He urged that the time has come to take up the issue proactively and the world must realise that Kashmir is a reality and needs to be resolved or else peace and security will be at risk

Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that the ramification of the 5^th August steps have led India to be highlighted as a human rights violator. US-congressional representatives have asked President Trump to designate India as the country of particular concern in view of its violations related to religious freedom.