India can no longer hoodwink global community on Kashmir: AJK president

MUZAFFARABAD/ISLAMABAD: President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry and British MP Mirza Khalid Mehmood have said that the G20 Working Group meeting held by India in Srinagar has failed because key members of the group, including China, had categorically refused to attend the conference.

While addressing a press conference here on Sunday, the duo said that, along with China, many other members of the Group would skip the meeting. Referring to the Indian government’s nefarious designs to use the high profile event to achieve its strategic objectives, they said that the G20 nations’ decision to skip the conference being held in the restive region was a clear indication that they have refused to become brand ambassadors of India’s so-called normalcy narrative on Kashmir. They said that India’s main motive behind organising the G20 Summit events in IOK was meant to hoodwink the international community by creating a false impression that everything was normal in Kashmir.

Highlighting the precious situation in the region, they said that the political and human rights situation in the held territory has further worsened since the Modi government stripped the region of its special status on August 5, 2019. They said that on one hand, India had intensified human rights violations, while on the other, a massive onslaught to change the region’s demography and its political landscape was launched to convert the Muslim majority of the state into a minority.

Voicing their grave concern over the abysmal situation in the region, they said, “It is high time that the international community should take effective cognisance of the matter and pressurise India to stop bloodshed and violence in Occupied Kashmir”.

Citing the United Nations Commission on Human Rights report, they said that the Commission had released a detailed report on the human rights situation in the IOK in 2018 and called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the ongoing human rights violations being committed by the Indian occupation forces in Kashmir.

They said that it was imperative that the world community should influence the government of India to allow a fact finding mission to visit the occupied territory and implement the recommendations of the report the Commission had released in 2018.

AJK President Barrister Sultan said that on his call protest demonstrations were being held all across the globe, especially in the influential world capitals including Washington, London, Brussels, Geneva, Paris and other places. The main purpose of these protests was to register Kashmiris’ anguish and resentment against India’s decision to hold a G20 conference in Kashmir, which happens to be a disputed territory.

He said that the international community needs to realize that the key to peace in the region lies in the settlement of the long-running Kashmir dispute. He said that India wanted to mislead the world about Kashmir by holding the G20 conference and wanted to give the impression that Occupied Kashmir is a peaceful area.

On this occasion, British Member of Parliament Mirza Khalid Mehmood said, “We will continue all our efforts to raise the issue of Kashmir at the international level”. They also appreciated the Chinese leadership for taking a principled stance on the issue of Kashmir.