Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir: Pakistan unveils dossier on Indian war crimes

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday unveiled a comprehensive dossier on war crimes and human rights violations by Indian forces in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which also included references of the suspected use of chemical weapons against innocent Kashmiris in the occupied valley.

The 131-page dossier titled, "Indian Human Rights Violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK)", was released in a joint news conference by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, who also raised questions on "duplicity" of the western countries for not sanctioning India because of their business interest.

Sharing details of the dossier, Qureshi said that it contains three chapters; the first one carries details of war crimes and genocidal acts of Indian troops; the second chapter exposes the false flag operations by Indian forces to suppress the indigenous freedom movement in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir; and the third contains details of India's open violations of the UN Security Council resolutions, international and human rights laws.

He said that the dossier contains 113 references - 26 from international media, 41 Indian, 32 international organizations and think tanks, 14 Pakistani media, and 15 audio interceptions of Indian army officers.

World community urged to take note of India’s growing belligerence in IIOJK

The foreign minister said that India has continued the communication blockade in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir by design to hamper international media and observers from reporting the heinous crimes being committed by its occupation forces.

He said that the international community should not show callousness and apathy towards Kashmiris, must force India to comply with its international and moral obligations and allow Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in international law and the relevant UNSC resolutions.

He said that the Indian government is also asserted to take actions immediately including; stop human rights violations of innocent Kashmiris; proceed against the perpetrators highlighted in the dossier and bring them to justice; halt demographic change and apartheid by lifting military and digital siege and release all political prisoners; and allow unhindered access of UN, independent journalists and human rights/ civil society organizations to IIOJK.

Qureshi said that Pakistan expects the international community including the UN, its relevant Human Rights machinery, civil society organizations, media houses and other defenders of human rights to fulfil their obligations towards besieged Kashmiris by playing their part to end the Indian rule of tyranny and oppression.

Message on Defence and Martyrs Day: PM vows to expose real face of radicalised India

"We expect the UN to compel the government of India to allow free access to Special Procedure Mandate Holders of the UN Human Rights Council for independent investigations of human rights violations. The UN should record names of individuals and units involved in war crimes and place sanctions on the individuals and entities," he said, adding that Pakistan also expects the EU, the UK and others to impose sanctions on India under their specific global human rights sanction regimes for perpetrating state-sponsored war crimes.

In her remarks, Minister for Human Rights Mazari lashed out at the international community, United Nations, European Union and the UK for their "duplicity" in neglecting the worst human rights violations by Indian forces in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

She questioned the UN for not placing sanctions on India despite contravention of its resolutions and asked the world body and the international community as to why they did not push India to allow access of UN observers in the occupied valley.

"I would also like 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 in IIOJK? Because of your business interests?" she asked. On the other hand, she added that Pakistan was told that human rights were a central focus of Western countries' foreign policies.

"But if you do not fairly apply your own principles of foreign policy across the board. This means that there is no respect of human rights by these Western states...In fact, they want to press Pakistan because it's a Muslim country while keeping a mum over India [HR violations] because of the business interest," the minister maintained.

She also lambasted the EU for not giving a statement against India's illegal annexation of Kashmir, adding that the EU's sanctions were continued on Russia on the Crimean issue while there were none on India.

"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 no one taking notice? You can't cherry-pick," she added.

The minister further stated that the UNSC presidency has been given to India at a time when the Indian government is a Hindutva-fascist regime like the Nazis. "Would the UN have allowed a Nazi regime to chair the UNSC presidency," she questioned to India's UNSC presidency for the month of August 2021.

"This hypocrisy needs to be exposed because we are going to get more lectures on human rights in our region from the Western countries. So, we need to be prepared and not be defensive," she said, adding that the EU and other western countries need to apply their standards for India alike; otherwise, these would have no credibility.

Moeed Yusuf maintained that 'there is nobody today who behind closed doors defends what India is doing', adding that there were economic reasons and other interests for not giving public statements.

"This is exactly how Europe talked about Hitler and at the end we saw what happened. We are clear where this is going. The region is going to be affected first but the entire world will also be affected," he maintained.

To a question about world community's failure to address India's involvement in fomenting terrorism from Afghanistan, he said that one reason was India's interests with the world such as being a counterweight to China.

Sharing more details from the dossier, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that Indian atrocities since 1989 include over 96,000 extra-judicial killings, around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests & torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries, 11,250 women raped, around 23,000 women widowed while more than 108,000 children orphaned.

He said that the Indian forces have also destroyed over 110,000 properties of Kashmiris during cordon and search operations.

He said that the dossier covers accounts of 3,432 cases of war crimes perpetrated by Indian forces in which 1,128 personnel of Indian forces have been found to be involved including Major General, 4 Inspectors General, 7 Deputy Inspectors General, 5 Brigadiers, 31 Colonels and 188 Majors, and 1 Captain.

He said that 118 Units of Indian Army have committed these war crimes which include 33 Units of Rashtriya Rifles, 37 Battalions of Border Security Force (BSF) and 48 other units.

Moreover, he added that 29 Rashtriya Rifles has perpetrated 24 genocidal acts of Kashmiris. He said that the testimonies of victims reveal that perpetrators enjoy state patronage and are deliberately shielded by a sham system of justice.

AJK PM condemns growing belligerence of India: UN urged to help resolve Kashmir issue

The dossier also reveals that victimization of innocent Kashmiris and repeated cycles of violence is creating resentment in educated youth, who are compelled to join the ranks of resistance struggle.

"Irrefutable evidence demonstrates the way in which Indian forces conduct fake encounters and fake recovery operations to manifest Indian designs of maligning Pakistan, trying to establish a linkage of Kashmiri freedom movement with terrorism," he added.

He said that bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by Indian forces were completely beyond recognition. "Use of chemical weapons is in complete contravention to 'Chemical Weapons Convention' and necessitates an impartial international investigation," he added.

Since 2014, he said that the Indian forces have raped/ molested more than 3,850 and killed over 650 women, besides victimization of numerous children. He said that IIOJK administration admitted in Indian Supreme Court on 14 October 2019 that 144 children had been detained in August and September 2019 alone; the youngest one was just 9-years old.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021