Ceasefire violations by India: Senate panel urges UNSC to appoint special commission

A Senate panel Wednesday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to appoint a special commission to investigate all the ceasefire violations by India and compensate the victim families suffered due to the Indian shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary.

The Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, which met in the chair of Senator Sajid Mir, adopted a unanimous resolution moved by committee member Senator Rehman Malik in which the House strongly condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian forces.

In the resolution, the panel demanded the government of Pakistan to request the United Nations Security Council to appoint a Special Commission to investigate all the ceasefire violations by India, increase the strength of military observers across the LoC and file a claim of damages in terms of lives and properties in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against India.

The committee termed the continuous ceasefire violations by Indian forces along the LoC and Working Boundary as sheer violation of the agreement between India and Pakistan supervised by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan to establish ceasefire at the LoC.

The committee asked the government of Pakistan to file a complaint with the UN Security Council for the continued and unprovoked violations of the Ceasefire Agreement.

While presenting the resolution, Malik said that Indian forces are violating the agreement which was signed on July 27, 1949 both by India and Pakistan under United Nations regarding the establishment of ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that Indian forces along the LoC and Working Boundary are continuously targeting civilian population with artillery fire and automatic weapons, adding that targeting of civilians is highly condemnable and sheer violation of international human rights and United Nations laws.

He said that he would also write a letter to Foreign Minster Shah Mehmood Qureshi with suggestions to raise the issue with the UN.

The committee was also briefed on the devastations caused due to the recent earthquake in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Senior officials of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan informed the committee that as a result of the September 24, 2019 earthquake, a total of 40 people lost their lives while more than 1,000 others got multiple injuries.

It was further told that a total of 65,464 buildings were damaged, out of which 58,000 buildings were in Mirpur and 6,000 in Bhimber. In Mirpur, 2,800 homes were completely destroyed while 100 houses were completely destroyed in Bhimber.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019