British MPs express concern over IHK rights situation

ISLAMABAD: A British parliamentary delegation on a visit to Pakistan on Thursday expressed concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) and said it was the Kashmiris’ right to decide how should they be governed.

Speaking to a media conference, along with Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan here, the members of the delegation urged the international community to take notice of the atrocities being inflicted on the Kashmiri people in held Kashmir.

Member Parliament Andrew Flint said the Kashmir dispute was a human rights issue and called on the world community to listen to the voices of Kashmiris.“I stand with the truth. It is the basic right of people to live with freedom and peace. The rest of the world needs to know what is happening in Kashmir,” he emphasised.

Through a motion, a discussion was held on the Kashmir issue, he pointed out and said that the motion was unanimously adopted though two lawmakers spoke against it. He contended that Pakistan, Kashmiris and India were three parties, who should follow the process set by the United Nations to resolve the issue. “It is the Kashmiris who have to decide their political future, the right which has been denied to them and injustice meted out to them for the last 70 years,” he said.   

Another member of British Parliament, Wajid Khan, who is also part of the visiting delegation, strongly condemned the human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir and said the blood of the Kashmiris was ‘as valuable as that of anyone living in Britain or any other country’. “We want to listen to the Kashmiris’ voices by going there. Kashmiris have to decide about their future themselves,” he maintained.

The delegation said it would request the Indian ambassador back home to allow a fact-finding mission to visit the Indian-held Kashmir.The delegation will visit Azad Kashmir on Friday to interact with Kashmiris there and is likely to also tour the Indian aggression-hit areas in AJK.

Speaking on the occasion, AJK President Sardar Masood Khan said the British parliamentarians were playing an important role in highlighting the Kashmir dispute. He decried the fact that India was not prepared to listen to any proposal with regard to the issue. 

He said particularly the Labour Party was at the forefront and had expressed commitment to play its role in resolution of the lingering Kashmir dispute, where massacre of innocent Kashmiris, who believed in peaceful settlement of the issue, was continuing and their peaceful struggle was being crushed with full force by Indian forces.

Sardar Masood called Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti a facilitator in the murder of innocent Kashmiris and said she should resign if she could not put an end to the ongoing atrocities there. He lamented in one year, hundreds of Kashmiris had been martyred and scores of others wounded and arrested by Indian security forces.

“The dream of Kashmir’s freedom will turn into a reality soon. Kashmiris are target of Indian atrocities. We have raised voice for them in the European Union,” contended the delegation members.