Muzaffarabad:(Parliament Times) President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has strongly condemned the fresh wave of brutality by the Indian occupation forces against the unarmed innocent civilian in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
In a statement issued here today, on the occasion of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s address to the joint session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and AJK Council, the President said that the killings of Kashmiris are part of a systematic pattern and are organized.
“The standard methodology of the Indian occupation forces is to mount cordon and search operations and gun down unarmed and defenceless civilians. In addition, they are using chemical explosive substances to demolish houses.”
The core question, he said, is the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute which was being obstructed by India. Human right violations and crimes against humanity are offshoots of the denial of the right of self-determination to the Kashmiris because India wants to perpetuate its occupation through brute force
Paying tribute to the martyrs of the Shopian killings and the Hurriyat leadership, President Masood Khan said that the United Nations Security Council should take notice of the egregious human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir and hold a discussion for view to implementing the UN resolutions for the Jammu and Kashmir.
President Masood Khan welcomed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s statement in which he has shown concern over the situation and underlined the need for an investigation. “Expression of concern is not enough. UN Secretary General should have condemned the brutal killings and he should clarify that the investigation should be done through a UN mechanism, preferably the Human Rights Council”, he said. He added that the international community must put pressure on India to withdraw the bulk of its 700,000 forces and rescind its draconian laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act.
The President said that congressional and parliamentary delegations, as well as fact-finding missions of the Human Right Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) should be allowed to monitor the fast deteriorating human rights situation in IOK and submit their reports to the UN and other relevant forums.
The people of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and the diaspora community would continue their unflinching support to their brothers and sisters being brutalized by the Indian occupation forces with impunity. “Our heart bleeds with their sufferings and we shall always stand by them in this dark hour of history”
The president demanded that Hurriyat leaders under detention are released immediately and fake cases against them should be dropped. He paid tributes to the young men of Kashmir who are being gunned down in fake and staged encounters. “India must be made accountable for these war crimes through the international due process”, he said.
The joint session was also attended by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ch. Barjees Tahir, Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan, Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer, Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Ahmad Tarar and Chairman Kashmir Committee Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and senior bureaucrats of Pakistan and AJK.