Pakistan to respond forcefully in any Indian misadventure: minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen M Mazari on Tuesday warned India that any misadventure by its forces would be responded with even greater force and strength.

She said that India had continuously violated United Nations’ resolutions on Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) and Indian security forces were committing state terrorism in IHK and jeopardising the peace of the whole region. She said international community should raise their voice against human rights

violations in IHK and stop the Indian brutalities in the Kashmir Valley.

“The extremist ideology of Hindutva has found new face and feet under BJP’s leadership, revealing the state’s true face while unraveling its claim of secularism in the process. In India the lower caste Hindus and minorities like Sikhs, Muslims and Christians were being discriminated and treated as inferior citizens of the state. Indian claims of secularism unraveling under Modi’s regime,” she added.

Mazari was addressing the international seminar ‘Hindutva Policies and the State of Minorities in India’ organised by Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). Others who spoke on the occasion included Pakistani Dalit leader Senator Engr. Gianchand, Dr Akis Kalaitzidis (USA), Dr Nitasha Kaul (UK), Murtaza Shibli (from Indian Held Kashmir), Dr Mujeeb Afzal, Amb (R) Jalil Abbas Jillani, Amb (R) Zamir Akram, Dr Waqar Masood and Dr Asma Khwaja.

The Human Rights minister also criticised UN’s role over Kashmir’s issue, maintaining that while UN resolutions for East Timor were identical to the ones on Kashmir, the later was being neglected in execution merely for being a Muslim minority.

The plight of Muslims of IHK, according to Dr Mazari, was particularly a major concern for Pakistan where the Kashmiri struggle of independence was being repressed by all means giving it a colour of religious extremism issue, whereas in reality it was about the struggle for their right of self-determination. “Even as per the UN resolutions, the IHK was an occupied state, and from the ongoing suppression to the attempts of changing the region’s demographics, everything that was being done in IHK should be seen as a war crime. We need to reiterate that India is committing war crimes in IHK and Indian forces used systematic women rape as weapon of war,” she said.

Mazari said that Indian forces are committing grave human rights violations and state terrorism in occupied Kashmir to suppress the freedom movement of innocent Kashmiri people. “The internal situation of India is also deteriorating day by day and the minorities are not safe in India as well,” she said.

She lamented that the world has turned a blind eye to Indian human rights abuses in IHK, which reflects hypocrisy on the part of countries that talk about human rights and democracy.

The violations are being highlighted by international organisations, despite all this evidence, adding that why the world is silent on human rights violations in IHK.

She said that Indian forces “committing human rights violations” in the valley will not be able to suppress the freedom movement of the Kashmiri people. “India is escalating tension in the region,” said Mazari, adding that, New Delhi is resorting to Pulwama incident to divert attention from the upcoming elections in the country.

Mazari further said that India had always jeopardised peace of the region through its aggressive measures. The minister said that instead of fanning provocation, India should pay attention towards resolving the issues being faced by its people. “Kashmir is not a dispute not just between two countries, but it is an international dispute as it lies with UN Security Council.”

Executive President of IPS Khalid Rahman, in his opening note, presented the context of the seminar maintaining that the need of studying the rising phenomenon of Hindutva had increased manifold under the present Indian regime.

A book titled “Hindutva: Rising Extremism in India,” documenting the speeches and papers on the same topic presented by the speakers in a similar international seminar held last, was also launched and presented to Dr Mazari during the session.