UK PM Johnson urged to take up Kashmir dispute with Modi

British parliamentarian and head of All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG), Debbie Abrahams has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take note of grave human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) since the abrogation of its autonomous status by the Naredra Modi-led government.

Debbie wrote a letter to Premier Johnson in which she voiced concerns over deteriorating human rights situation in IIOJK including extra-judicial killing of Kashmiri youth.

Kashmiri leaders, including Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM) President Altaf Ahmed Bhat and Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK President Fahim Kayani appreciated the letter of MP Debbie to UK prime minister.

They said that the United Kingdom has to play a decisive role in resolving Kashmir dispute and termed the recent debate in House of Commons as a constructive step for Kashmir freedom movement globally.

MP Debbie said while she fully supported PM Johnson’s endeavours to the strengthen country’s foreign and trade relations, the primacy of human rights issues should not be compromised by any trade deal.

“I need to make you [PM Johnson] aware of the strongly held views of Parliamentarians of all political parties have regarding the primacy of human rights and that these cannot be compromised in any trade deal.”

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The APPKG is particularly concerned about escalating violence across IIOJK and Line of Control (LoC), she added.

She reminded the UK premier that since the abrogation of IIOJK autonomous status by the Modi-led government, there has been a further erosion of inherited protections on land and jobs in the Muslim-majority territory.

“A dozen petitions challenging the constitutionality of the move remain pending with India's Supreme Court. Many prominent Kashmiri politicians and public figures in the region have been detained with no recourse or under threat,” she wrote in a letter.

Accusations of torture by security forces have been widespread and internet access was blocked in the region and this till remains patchy, she said.

Organisations such as the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have raised concerns about human rights abuses in the disputed Himalayan region.

UN human rights experts last year called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the alarming human rights situation in IIOJK.

They have also raised concerns with the Indian government about alleged arbitrary detention and torture and ill-treatment as well as the criminalisation of journalists covering the situation and the detention and deteriorating health of a high profile human rights lawyer.

The escalating tensions between nuclear armed neighbours — India and Pakistan — makes Kashmir conflict the “number one security concern in the world,” she said in the letter while urging the British PM to take up these matters with his Indian counterpart.