Kashmiri leader condemns HR violations, killings in IOK

ISLAMABAD: Veteran Hurriyat leader and senior vice Chairman Jammu Kashmir National Front (JKNF) Altaf Hussain Wani has expressed grave concern over the stepped-up human rights violations and wanton killing of Kashmiri youth by the Indian occupation forces in occupied Kashmir. In a statement issued here on Sunday, the JKNF leader said that the Indian occupation forces deployed across the valley have turned the restive region into a killing field where innocent civilians are being killed ruthlessly day in and day out. Altaf Hussain Wani warned that the killing of Kashmiri youths has become a new norm for occupation forces who enjoy a culture of impunity under various black laws enforced in the disputed territory. He pointed out that the exemption from prosecution provided to military personnel under a regime of black laws was a major source of rampant rights violations in the disputed territory of held Jammu and Kashmir. Citing the incidents of violence and vandalising of public properties by the Indian occupation forces Altaf Wani said that the people of Kashmir who have endured seven-month long suffocating military siege and information blockade are now being subjected to collective punishment by India. At a time when civilized world is hectically engaged in a war against COVID-19 he berated that the so-called world’s largest democracy (India) was remorselessly hatching conspiracy to subjugate Kashmiris who have rejected the India’s imperialistic agenda and its nefarious scheme aimed at reducing Muslims into a minority. He said that it was unfortunate to see that coronavirus has become a new tool for the occupation authorities to persecute Kashmiris. Referring to a news report Wani said that India army has been haunting corona-affected patients in the valley by using their phone records, ATM histories and other information, which he said was an infringement of the fundamental rights and privacy of the people. He regrettably noted that the woes of Kashmiris who are caught between pandemic and a militaristic state have further multiplied especially after 5th August 2019 when India stripped the region from its autonomous status by resorting to constitutional terrorism. Wani thanked Pakistan for highlighting the plight of Kashmiris at the UN human rights council saying that it was high time that the world should take effective notice of the situation and help resolve the lingering dispute peacefully.