LONDON: Speakers including Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, expressing their grave concerns over the current worsening human rights violations and humanitarian crisis in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, said that unresolved Kashmir dispute was a permanent threat to peace and prosperity in the region.
The seminar on Kashmir was organised by the Pakistan High Commission London to highlight Kashmir solidarity day which was observed every year on October 27. This was the day when in 1947 the Indian forces illegally landed in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and together with Patiyala troops , already illegally present in Kashmir, Indian Dogra forces and RSS terrorists carried out the genocide of over 300,000 Kashmiris and displaced over one million Kashmiri Muslims.
The speakers also discussed the current worst human rights situation and humanitarian crisis in Indian occupied Kashmir since the siege of occupied valley by Indian occupation forces on August 5. The seminar was addressed among others by member of European Parliament Ms Anthea Mclntyre, renowned jurist Ben Emmerson QC, Kashmiri leader Syed Nazir Gillani, Uzma Rasool, Prof Nazir Shwal and Shameem Shwal of APHC.
The British Pakistani and Kashmiri community members, parliamentarians, legal fraternity, cross section of the civil society, representatives of human rights organizations and media persons attended the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion, High Commissioner Mohammad Nafees Zakaria took into account multiple facets of the long standing dispute of Kashmir. Zakaria said the siege and the ensuring humanitarian crisis necessitated response from the international community, including the UK.
The High Commissioner said that given the Indian forces track record of atrocities and crimes against humanity, it was not beyond comprehension that the stories of tragedies of individual families may start to surface in due course since media, human rights activists or even the relatives have absolutely no access to Kashmiris under siege in IoK.
He identified that there were numerous crimes against humanity , committed by the Indian occupation forces, including thousands of massacres since 1989, mass rape of Kashmir women of Kunan, Pashpora, dilemma of “Half widows”, mass blinding and physical tortures, all documented by the international human rights organizations.
Zakaria also highlighted that connivance, manipulation in demarcation of boundaries and deceit were the reasons behind the creation of the Kashmir dispute.
He quoted several examples to this effect from the books of renowned authors Alastair Lamb, Victoria Schofield and Sir Christopher Beaumont. Zakaria concluded that the Kashmir dispute ,which was a political issue, has assumed many other dimensions such as human rights, security and socio-economic impact on the improvised people of the region.
This was what Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has been cautioning the international community about since August 5, 2019, he remarked. He emphasised that it was important for the world to know about the human tragedy in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir before it was too late.
