Int'l community concerned over HR violations in held Kashmir: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday that the international community remained deeply concerned over minorities' oppression in India causing dozens of killings of Muslims and other minorities across the country by extremists groups.

Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, during the weekly press briefing here, said oppression of non-Hindus in India has been on the increase for past few years and minorities including Muslims, Christians and Dalits have been lynched for trading, consuming or even transporting beef by the proponents of Hindutva (RSS affiliates).

He said India has resorted to tactics of harassing relatives of the Hurriyat leaders and meting out inhuman treatment to the Kashmiri Leaders to deter the indigenous movement for self-determination in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) spearheaded by Kashmiri youth.

"We have been sensitizing the International community as well as the UN and other relevant quarters on the grave human rights situation in IoK and unending bloodshed of Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces," he added.

He said since July 8, 2016 alone, hundreds of Kashmiris have been mercilessly killed, over 8,000 are victims of pellet guns with hundreds of youth blinded either completely or partially, 19,000 have been wounded many with life threatening injuries, over 18,000 arrested with their fate remaining unknown and around a thousand cases of molestation of Kashmiri women have been reported.

Terming the accusations of Afghan media regarding training of Afghan children in Pakistani seminaries a baseless propaganda, Zakaria said Pakistan has educated 50,000 Afghan children so far in Pakistani schools along with local children with same standards of education.

Replying to a question, he said Pakistan was always ready to alleviate the sufferings of its Kashmiri brothers whether from a natural catastrophe or man-made disaster.

"As we know that PM Nawaz Sharif had also offered to have pellet-blinded victims treated in any European country," he said.

He also informed about the status of two Pakistani diplomatic staff members who have been safely recovered by Afghan authorities, apparently, as a result of an operation by Afghan security forces.

"We have conveyed our thanks on behalf of the government and the families of the two officials," he added Responding to another question about Indian involvement in regional terrorism, he said there are hard and undeniable facts that clearly identify the state actors of our eastern neighbor, perpetrating and financing terrorism and using their own and other countries soil against Pakistan.

"Samjhota express incident and its report in which former Indian officers had publically accepted to masterminding the incident can be taken as one of the examples of the matter," he added.

He also congratulated the young Pakistani scholars and sports persons on their outstanding achievements in different competitions all over the world.