Speakers welcome UN move on Indian rights abuses in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Speakers here on Thursday welcomed the United Nations’ call for a commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent investigation into Indian human rights abuses carried out during the last 70 years.

They expressed views at an interactive session on Kashmir admired the UN’s call for international investigation in Kashmir and said Kashmir now truly topped the international agenda. They recalled 60 years ago, the UN called for a referendum in Kashmir.

In 2018, the UN is calling for a Commission of Inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into Indian human rights violations in seventy years of conflict. The event was organised by the International Kashmir Lobby Group (Youth Forum for Kashmir), marking the day of Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan, here.

Dr. Mohammad Faisal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that UN report was a success of Pakistan and now the world has woken up. “We condemn the black laws in Kashmir like; Armed Forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA), excessive use of force, use of rape as a tool of war, suspension of communication and internet,” he said.

He said that OIC delegation has been visiting Azad Jammu and Kashmir, so have EU delegations, we have nothing to hide, we are open. High time is for international community to fulfill its promise and to urge India to end its occupation.

Ambassador Zamir Akram, former Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Geneva said that UN mostly ignored Kashmir since 1957 but the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner found the courage to write such reports. I’m surprised and happy.

It calls upon India to fully respect the right to self-determination of Kashmiri people. He urged Pakistani government to be more proactive as they have this document in hand. Last two governments placed Kashmir on back burner. Referring to Molana Fazlur Rahman, he said that unsuitable people were sent as envoy in world capitals. We can't afford to let this chance slip out of our hands. Why should Pakistan deny the excess to UN team? We should not put ourselves with India.

Altaf Hussein Wani, Head of the Kashmir delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Geneva said that more than 13 types of HR violations are mentioned in the report. India denied the report and its media started propaganda, more they tried to malign the report, and the more people got interested. Humanitarian intervention in Kashmir is here in the form of this report and now we will see political intervention very soon.

Ahmed Quraishi-Executive Director YFK said that since 1957 till recent time we had same vocabulary, same terms and same speeches. But today something had changed and now we have report from UN. Pakistan is assessing what to do next, this report have changed things intentionally. But there is a confusion in India that how to move forward.

Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, Convener All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) said that we need to highlight what is the difference between India and Pakistan which is even mentioned in the report. There are no pellet guns, no HR violations in AJK. Pakistan has time and again asked to deploy UN teams on borders. Pakistan should allow fact finding missions to AJK to expose Indian propaganda.

UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein mentioned Burhan Wani in the first-ever Kashmir report released by the United Nations in June 2018.