Kashmiri children suffering ‘ignored’

Pakistan calls UN report omission ‘unjust’

UNITED NATIONS:

Highlighting the plight of children living under foreign occupation, Pakistan on Wednesday criticized the United Nations for ignoring the suffering of Kashmiri children in its report on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, calling the omission “unjust.”

Speaking in the UN Security Council, which met under South Korea’s presidency, Ambassador Munir Akram said the situation of children in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir had been unjustly omitted this time, despite their ongoing suffering under foreign occupation.

“Generations of Kashmiri children have grown up amidst fear of violence and repression under foreign occupation,” the Pakistani envoy told the 15-member council.

“The report’s most glaring and persistent failure and double standard has been its selective omission of certain situations, most importantly, the children of Palestine. It has taken the killing of 14,000 children in the (ongoing) Gaza war for Israel to be included in the report (this year).”

Meanwhile, Ambassador Akram added, “the plight of children in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, previously included in the reports, has been unjustly omitted, despite their ongoing suffering under foreign occupation.

Detailing the plight of children in the occupied territories, where human rights violations are “tragically routine”, the Pakistan envoy said, “We vividly recall the heart-wrenching image of a three-year old Kashmiri boy sitting in shock on his grandfather’s lifeless body just murdered by Indian soldier; we remember 18-month-old Hiba, her eyes ruptured by pellet guns fired by security forces inside her home in Kapran village of Kashmir.”