Human Rights Day: World community urged to take notice of Indian atrocities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reiterated its call to the world community to stop India from its blatant human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), especially after August 5, 2019.

The call was made by Minister for Human Rights Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Advisor on Kashmir Affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira, on the eve of Human Rights Day, while addressing a news conference here on Friday.

Pirzada said India must immediately withdraw its troops from Occupied Kashmir and lift all restrictions imposed there since 2019. He said Pakistan will always continue to support the Kashmiri people who are facing Indian atrocities.

He said that India was trying to hatch conspiracies against Pakistan by using various tactics including the spread of terrorism like Kulbhushan Jadhav networks, creating hatred among various communities, and promoting sectarianism in Pakistan. “Being human rights minister it is my first duty to protect the rights of every citizen living in Pakistan regardless of religion and ethnicity,” Pirzada reiterated.

Speaking on the occasion, Kaira said the world must fulfil its responsibility to uphold the sanctity of law and human rights in the Indian Occupied Kashmir and Palestine. He said Pakistan stands steadfast with its Kashmiri brethren and will raise their voice at every international forum. He asked the global community, especially United Nations (UN) and other world bodies to play their active role in stopping the Indian military’s atrocities against the people of Indian occupied Kashmir.

Kaira said in the past 75 years, the Indian military has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, thousands of women have been raped, and children are being deprived of education and orphaned. He said that the Indian government was following Israeli designs in Kashmir, and both India and Israel are free to kill innocent people who are not accepting their occupation.

He said that it was the duty of the political parties and political workers operating in Pakistan to raise the Kashmir and Palestine issue on every platform. Kaira also lambasted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan for negative politics through spreading fake propaganda locally and globally against the country with levelling serious allegations like of money laundering.

He asked the PTI chief to formally apologise to the nation for speaking lies and cheating the masses as he has now been fully exposed to the people.

Responding to a question regarding Arshad Sharif’s murder in Kenya, he said that the government has taken the matter seriously and now the Supreme Court has also taken notice. Responding to another question regarding the leaked videos, he said that so far nobody has denied the revelations.

Meanwhile, Convener All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Chapter, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar has also called upon the world community to do the needful to protect the human rights of the people of Kashmir.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

In a statement issued here, Mehmood Sagar said Indian troops were continuously violating human rights in the IIOJK, adding Kashmir was the most unfortunate place on earth where the people are denied basic human rights.

He appealed the international organisations to help settle the lingering Kashmir dispute according to the United Nations resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

He said it was time to pressurise India to end brutal and illegal actions and pave way for holding a referendum in the region to allow Kashmiris exercise their inalienable right, the right to self-determination.

He condemned the continued cordon and search operations, killings and arrest of youth by Indian troops in the territory and urged world human rights bodies to take notice of the worst situation of the IIOJK. He said, these atrocities were being committed to suppress the Kashmiris’ voice but freedom movements never get suppressed by these kinds of tyrannies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022