Mirwaiz calls on UN to resolve Kashmir issue

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wrote to Secretary General United Nations Ban Ki Moon to help resolve the Kashmir issue.

ISLAMABAD: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a letter addressed to Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki Moon asked him to play his part in resolving the Kashmir issue.

According to Kashmir Media Service Farooq wrote, “It is high time when the UN should adopt a proactive course of diplomatic maneuvers to compel India, while taking genuine Kashmiri leadership on board, to initiate talks for the settlement of the conflict.”

The letter was simultaneously submitted to the United Nations Military Observer Group offices in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan by Hurriyet representatives.

Terming Jammu and Kashmir as a nuclear flashpoint, Farooq stated that no peace could be guaranteed in South Asia unless the Kashmir dispute was amicably settled.

He said the UN and global leaders should urge the government of India to revoke the Army Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) which gives Indian troops immunity from civil and legal action and promotes further human rights violations, withdraw all armed forces from populated areas and release all illegally detained Kashmiri Hurriyet leaders and activists languishing in various jails in India and the occupied territory.

He recalled that the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan in its August 13, 1948 and January 5, 1949 resolutions had vociferously recommended plebiscite to determine the political future of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference had been struggling in a peaceful democratic way to force the Indian leaders to resolve the Kashmir dispute.