Speakers call for holding India accountable for Kashmiris rights violations

President AJK says that India is targeting Kashmiris simply because they are Muslims

ISLAMABAD:

While addressing an International Parliamentary Kashmir Conference, speakers including AJK President Sardar Masood Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Chairman Parliamentary Kashmir Committee Shehryar Afridi and more than 15 sitting and former members of British and EU Parliaments have called upon United Nations and world parliaments to help stop the genocide in Kashmir and stand against the crimes being committed by India in Occupied Kashmir

Speaking at the event organized jointly by Institute of Regional Studies and Right of Self Determination Movement International to mark the World Human Rights Day, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said oppressed people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are not only being denied their inalienable right to self-determination for over seven decades but also facing gruesome repression at the hands of Indian occupation forces acting with full impunity.

Since 5 August 2019, Kashmiris are enduring the worst form of human rights violations. Their suffering has increased manifolds in the wake of coronavirus global pandemic. “In defiance of its obligations under the UN Charter, UNSC resolutions and international law, especially the 4th Geneva Convention, India is seeking to alter the demographic structure of the occupied territory,” Qureshi underlined.

The FM further said India’s gross and systematic violations of human rights in IIOJK have been comprehensively documented in the two Kashmir reports of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as well as by the UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders, international civil society, and the media.

Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while acknowledging the pivotal role of the British MPs in raising the profile of the Kashmir issue said that they constitute the nucleus of our parliamentary activity in the United Kingdom. He said that the cross-party All Party’s Parliamentary Group on Kashmir (APPKG) – consisting of 76 MPs from all British parties – have helped galvanise support and public opinion for the just cause of Kashmir.

Parliamentary caucuses like the Labour's and Conservative's Friends of Kashmir are striving for the rights of the Kashmiris and demanding an end to genocide in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he said. The State President said that in 1947 the Indian government in collaboration with the British rulers stole Kashmir from Pakistan and today 73 years later the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh regime in India is stealing Kashmir from the Kashmiris. Referring to the situation in IOJK, the AJK President said that massacres, killings, blindings, maiming, forced disappearances, fake encounters and sexual violence against women are common occurrences. India, he said, is stealing the land of the Kashmiris from the Kashmiris and settling millions of non-state Hindus.

He added that in the past few months over 2.2 million settlers have been brought into the occupied territory and granted domiciles under the Indian government’s fascist policy of settler colonialism.“The issue of Kashmir is not a bilateral issue and the lexicon of Kashmir having a relationship to terrorism must be delegitimised. India gets away with massacres and genocide under the pretext of fighting terrorism. The Kashmiris are simply struggling peacefully for their freedom and liberation from oppression and illegal occupation”, maintained Masood Khan.

Referring to the definition of genocide in Article 2 of 1948 Genocide Convention, he said that any act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group is considered genocide. He added that the US-based Genocide Watch has reported that IOJK has entered Stage 8 of the 10 Stages defined by its founder and president Dr Gregory Stanton. “This is exactly what is happening in IOJK”, said Masood Khan.

The president said that apart from these actions, Kashmiris are being robbed of their jobs. 480,000 jobs reserved for Kashmiris are being doled out to non-state Hindus. Contracts and leases in the construction sector have not been renewed and instead have been awarded to Indians. “The Kashmiris are being economically starved”, he said.
The President said that India is targeting Kashmiris simply because they are Muslims. “This indeed makes IOJK the biggest hotspot for anti-Islamism in the world. India is guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and brutalities the likes of not seen in the 21st century”, said the State President.

Masood Khan thanked the world parliaments for speaking up for the Kashmiris. He said that the British, Parliament, in particular, has sensitised the world and held numerous debates on Kashmir. Other parliaments like the European Parliament tabled a resolution demanding: one, implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and; second, the reversal of the steps taken by India after August 5 last year.

Furthermore, in the US Congress, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the Sub-committee of the House of Representatives both held unprecedented hearings on the situation in IOJK and thereby broke the taboo that India cannot be questioned in the US Congress for its crimes perpetrated in IOJK.
Khan said that a group of ASEAN parliamentarians had visited Pakistan and AJK and later formed Kashmir groups in all 10 parliaments the ASEAN member states. Similarly, the conservative French parliament also debated the issue of Kashmir.

He reiterated that there is an existing parliamentary network and it’s the responsibility of the Kashmiri representatives and Pakistani parliamentarians to further enhance our outreach. He said that political parties all over the world have their own networks and they can prove an asset for Pakistan and other activists working for the cause of Kashmir. He said that on the side-lines party conventions major decision making takes place. Last year, due to lobbying by the diaspora community, the UK Labour Convention passed a Kashmir resolution.

While expressing his gratitude to the 10 million strong diaspora communities, Sardar Masood said that they have played a pivotal role in providing us access to the global parliaments. He said that now we need the support of the global citizenry. He said the diaspora community have their own political and social networks that can be used to our advantage.

“The UN due to its composition, strategic interests and power dynamics will not be going to give a fresh dispensation on Jammu and Kashmir. It would hold semi-formal sessions but they would not make decisions. We must reach to the people for getting a just ruling in favour of the Kashmiri people”, he said.

The President maintained that the onus lies with the Pakistani parliament and leadership and we must send out parliamentary delegations to all forums, especially the International Parliamentary Union. He said that we must not wait for the Covid-19 pandemic to settle down and instead utilise modern techniques like webinars and virtual conferences to put forward our point of view.

Other speakers at the conference included Chairperson UK All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group Ms Debbie Abrahams MP, Co-Chair of the European Parliament Friends of Kashmir ND former MEP Ms Anthea McIntyre, Chairman Labour Friends of Kashmir Mr Andrew Gwynne MP, Shafaq Muhammad former MEP, President Institute of Regional Studies Ambassador Nadeem Riaz and Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Self-Determination Movement-International Raja Najabat Hussian.