Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday said the world must come forward to resolve the Kashmir issue and urged the UN Human Rights Council to constitute a commission of inquiry for investigation into blatant and grave human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
"The people of this occupied land are suffering systematic and serial violations of their fundamental freedoms," he said while speaking at the 42nd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He said that from the last six weeks, over eight million Kashmiris, already in the clutches of decades-long Indian oppression, had been virtually caged by an illegal military occupation - that has swelled in ranks, within days, from 700,000 to nearly a million troops.
"India has transformed IOK into the largest prison on this planet, with virtually no access to basic amenities and means of communication. Shops are running short of supplies, hospitals of life-saving medicines and the sick and wounded unable to access even emergency health services," the Foreign Minister told the UNHRC.
He said the Council should take steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of human rights violations of the innocent Kashmir people.
The Foreign Minister said if India has nothing to hide, it should allow unhindered access to the Commission of Inquiry.
He said Pakistan stands ready to allow access to the proposed Commission of Inquiry, or other mechanisms, on our side of the Line of Control; together with similar access to Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the UN Human Rights Council should urge India to immediately lift the curfew and reverse the clampdown and communications blackout in Occupied Kashmir. India should also be asked to stop the use of pellet guns, end the bloodshed and restore fundamental freedoms and liberties.
He said India should release political prisoners, stop targeting human rights defenders and fulfill obligations under the UN Security Council resolutions and various human rights instruments.
He said Indian draconian emergency laws in Occupied Kashmir could not be allowed to stand.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Human Rights Council should authorize the Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council's Special Procedures Mandate Holders to monitor and report on India's human rights violations in IOK and regularly update this Council.
The Foreign Minister said India should be called upon to allow unhindered access to Human Rights Organizations and international media to the Occupied Valley.
Voicing serious concerns over the situation in IOK, the Foreign Minister said, "We must not remain indifferent to the tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes. We must act decisively and with conviction."
Drawing attention towards the prevailing situation in Occupied Kashmir, the Foreign Minister said the basic and inalienable human rights of Kashmiri people are being trampled with impunity by India.
He said over 6,000 people, political workers, activists, students, and professionals have been arrested, without due process of law. Many of them have been forcibly shipped to jails all over India, under draconian laws operative in IOK.
He said independent and renowned international media outlets as well as neutral observers, were regularly reporting horrendous atrocities against the people of Occupied Kashmir.
He said the Kashmiri people in the Occupied Territory as a national, ethnic, racial and religious group of people face grave threats to their lives, way of living and livelihoods from a murderous, misogynistic and xenophobic regime. He said this was the true face of the so-called largest democracy of the world.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India's unilateral actions of 5th August 2019 of altering the status of Occupied Kashmir recognized as a disputed territory by the UN Security Council, are illegal under international law. He said India's assertion that these actions were its internal affair is patently false. He said Jammu and Kashmir had been on the agenda of the United Nations for over 70 years now. The meeting of the Security Council on 16th August, to discuss the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, is an attestation of this fact, he added.
The Foreign Minister said India's efforts to hide its atrocities by falsely labeling freedom movement in Occupied Kashmir with terrorism and cross border terrorism were shameless and indefensible.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned that India could once again resort to false-flag operations and use the bogey of terrorism as a red herring to divert international attention from atrocities in Occupied Kashmir.
Commenting on the situation along the Line of Control (LoC), he told the assembly that India's another ploy to deflect attention was its increasing violations of the 2003 ceasefire understanding on the LoC; and regular and persistent targeting of civilians in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
Referring to the violations at LoC, the Foreign Minister said New Delhi had used cluster ammunition and heavy artillery on the LoC in flagrant disregard of fundamental norms of international humanitarian law. This, he said, must end immediately.
He said the reckless posture and draconian measures by India posed a grave threat to peace and security in nuclearized South Asia.
"For seven decades, the people of IOK have awaited implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions, prescribing a plebiscite to honour their right of self-determination. History would be a most unforgiving judge if we fail, yet again, the people of this illegally Occupied Territory, in their moment of greatest peril," Qureshi said.
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