LONDON, Feb 05 (APP): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday evening called upon the international community, including the United Kingdom (UK), to play their vital role and save humanity in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), who were undergoing the worst kind of atrocities and human right violations at the hands of Modi-led fascist Indian government and his brutal occupation forces.
“Kashmiris in the IOJ&K are dying and suffering, and the international community and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should not remain oblivious to this humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in front of their eyes. The world’s powers and peace-loving democratic countries and human rights activists, including the UK government, should come forward and intervene to save humanity in the IOJ&K,” he said while addressing a Special Women and Youth Conference here at Macmillan Room Portcullis House Westminister London on Tuesday evening.
The conference was organized by Jammu Kashmir Self-Determination International team led by its Founder Chairman Raja Najabat Hussain.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Lord Qurman Hussain and Debbie Abrahams MP Chairperson All Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the British Parliament also spoke on the occasion.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons London Dame Rosie Winterton MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Media and Culture Tracy Brabin MP, Shadow Foreign Minister for South Asia Afzal Khan MP, Lillian Greenwood MP, Mohammad Yasin MP, James Daly MP, Councillor Khalid Hussain Bury, Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Muhammad Ayub, Chairperson British Multicultural Society Asia Hussain, and British Pakistanis and Kashmiris attended the conference.
Sardar Masood also called upon them to put pressure on India to stop genocide and extermination of defenseless people of the IOJ&K forthwith and implementthe UNSC resolutions on Kashmir to allow Kashmiri people to decide their future destiny through UN-sponsored plebiscite promised to them by the UNSC some seven decades ago.
He reiterated that valiant people of Kashmir would continue their freedom struggle against Indian occupation till the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination and complete freedom from Indian subjugation.
President Masood also rejected the illegal actions taken by India on August 5 and October 31, which were in flagrant violation of the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, as well as international law and conventions.
He thanked the organizers of the the conference, APPG and its participants for expressing their solidarity with the people of IOJK who were struggling for their birth right to self-determination and complete freedom from Indian illegal occupation.
He hoped that the supreme sacrifices of the IOJ&K people would not go waste and one day they would succeed in their mission and get freedom from the Indian yoke.
Speaking on the occasion, High Commissioner Nafees Zakaria highlighted the grave human rights situation and humanatarian crisis in the IOJ&K since August 5 Indian illegal actions.
“Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute. There are UN SC resolutions on it that call for Kashmiris’
right to self-determination under a UN SC agenda,” he remarked.
The high commissioner said Pakistan would continue to extend its moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle for self-determination.
Pakistan, he said, would like an amicable settlement of the dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions and the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“As the dispute remained unresolved for over seven decades, many dimensions have been added to it, such as grave the situation of human rights,risk to the regional security and its bearing on the the socio-economic situation on the people of that region”, he said.
“Kashmir issue is back on the international radar in the wake of illegal unilateral action taken by India on August 5,2019.The ensuing siege that 900,000 fully armed Indian occupation forces laid on Eight (8) million Kashmiris has created a deep humanitarian crisis ever since.genocide watch has issued Genocide alert for Kashmir,” Zakaria said.
The high commissioner said the entire Kashmiri population remained cut off from the outside world and reportedly Kashmiris had been suffering from shortage of food and milk for their infants and children.
He added that there was no access to medicines and medical facilities even for those suffering from terminal illnesses.
Zakaria said that Kashmiris were also suffering from economic losses to the tune of billions of dollars since August 5. There were reports of arbitrary detention and tortures of Kashmiri leaders and youth, night raid of houses without warrants or advance notice.
He said a series of international human rights treaties and other instruments adopted since 1945 were applicable on the human rights situation in the IOJ&K.
Zakaria said the ongoing human catastrophic was disturbing. “Failure of the international community and institutions, responsible for protecting humanity,to intervene would be an indelible black mark in the human history and people would lose faith in them,” he remarked.
He said the Kashmir dispute was a consequence of the violation of the basic principle of the partition plan and manipulation of the demarcation of boundaries through connivance and deceit.
He said the historical accounts recorded by the British historian Prof Alastair Lamb, Secretary to the Boundry Commission Sir Christopher Beaumont , Indian lawyer A G Noorani, and Human Rights activist Victoria Schofield would testify to the assertion. Kashmiris, he said were suffering because of that historical dishonesty.
He hoped that the international the community would ensure an end to the ongoing siege immediately and unconditionally.
The high commissioner said fact-finding missions demanded by the UN Human Rights Commissioner,OIC, IPHRC and APPG on Kashmir should be allowed to visit the IOJ&K to ascertain the factual situation of human right violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
In her remarks Chairperson APPG Debbie Abrahams MP expressed her deep concern over the worst humanitarian crisis and lockdown of IOJ&K and urged India to immediately stop violations of human rights and siege and lockdown of the area.
She assured her full support to the people of Indian held Kashmir in their struggle for their right to self-determination.
The other speakers also called upon the international community to put pressure on India to stop violation of human rights and atrocities being perpetrated on the innocent people of IOJ&K.
They also urged them to ask India to implement UNSC resolutions on Kashmir to ensure peace and justice to the oppressed people of IOJ&K.
