ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Sunday presented to world capitals and all world organizations a dossier proving how India was violating all international and humanitarian laws to bring about demographic change in the Indian Illegally Held Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).
The government said the world will have to break the barrier of not taking India to task for economic reasons for its own and not for Pakistan’s sake. The exhaustive and well-researched 131-page dossier became all the more necessary after the death of iconic Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani, especially in the manner his family was terrorized and his body kidnapped by the Indian security forces.
"We decided that considering the situation there and the kind of government's thinking present there, we should play our role and unveil the real face of this [India] government claiming to be the world's biggest democracy before the world," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a joint press conference at the Foreign Office together with National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yusuf and Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari.
The dossier, the foreign minister pointed out, contained a chapter on war crimes by the Indian army and its genocidal actions, second on the disappointment of Kashmiris and how a local resistance movement is being born despite the propaganda of everything being normal, and a third chapter on how UN Security Council resolutions, international laws and humanitarian laws were being violated through efforts to bring about a demographic change in the valley.
Qureshi said majority of references in the dossier were from international and Indian media outlets as well as international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Explaining contents of the dossier, the Foreign Office spokesman said Indian patronage and training of militant Islamic State group was a serious concern and the dossier had clearly evidenced how India was operating five training camps in Gulmarg, Raipur, Jodhpur, Chakrata, Anupgarh and Bikaner.
"By injecting these state-trained ISIS fighters, India may try to establish linkages of freedom movement with international terrorism in order to malign the freedom struggle and to justify its own crimes as counter-terrorist operations," the spokesman said.
But it was Minister for Human Rights, Dr Shireen Mazari who correctly called out international organizations and governments who were hypocritical in their policies when it came to dealing with India, with accusations which were not part of the dossier. First she asked the UN why sanctions had not been placed on India when it violated its resolutions and why the silence that UN observers were not allowed into the IIOJ&K.
"I also want to call on the UK that made special sanctions laws after it left the EU. Why is the UK not bothering to assert itself on the human rights issue? Is it because of business interests?" she asked when these countries paid a lip-service to human rights and were ready to apply sanctions to other countries who they said were negating human rights in their countries.
"But if you do not fairly apply your own principles of foreign policy across the board, this means there is no respect of human rights by these Western states”, she said. Taking the European Union to task, she asked why it had not given a single statement against India's annexation of IIOJ&K, and why it continued to sanction Russia on the Crimean issue.
"Why is there duplicity of standards? The change in demography in an occupied territory is a war crime according to the fourth Geneva Convention. Why is not anyone taking notice? You can't cherry-pick," she said.
She said the UN Security Council presidency was given to India when the Indian government was a Hindutva-fascist regime like the Nazis.” “Would the UN have allowed a Nazi regime to chair the UNSC presidency? This hypocrisy has to be exposed because we are going to get more lectures on human rights in our region from Western democratic countries. So we need to be prepared and not be defensive and say, 'show us your intent by implementing your own policies you made for yourself against India and its occupation of IIOJ&K," Dr Mazari pointed out.
Moeed Yusuf said, "My request would be to remember that this dossier and its timing are a tribute to Geelani Sahab. His whole life was spent for this purpose but the struggle continues and we have to bring it to completion."
He pointed out that because of Pakistan’s aggressive campaigning, there was nobody today who behind closed doors defended what India was doing. “I think we should be clear about this. What is happening is so egregious that there is no possibility that anyone can tell you with a straight face that what Pakistan is saying is wrong."
Sending out a chilling warning, Moeed said this is how Europe talked about Hitler. “We are clear where this is going, the region is going to be affected first but the entire world will be affected. There is a clear shift in what the world thinks about India. I'm not taking any credit for ourselves, India is what it's doing inside the country and the world is seeing that," he said.
The demands put out by the foreign minister to India include action taken against perpetrators highlighted in the dossier, end to demographic change, end to the military and digital siege, release of all political prisoners, allow unhindered access in IIOJ&K to the UN, the independent permanent human rights commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, independent journalists, human rights and civil society organizations.
