Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Veteran rights activist and senior vice chairman Jammu and Kashmir National Front Altaf Hussain Wani has appreciated European Union Parliament for condemning India’s unlawful and unconstitutional move of changing the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Terming it as a great development the JKNF leader said, “We owe a token of gratitude to the EU parliamentarians who have right away supported the Kashmiris’ just cause and raised their concerns over the dire human rights situations in the Indian occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir”. Wani maintained that the EU debate and vote on a scathing resolution against the annexation of occupied Kashmir by India amply demonstrates the fact the so-called normalcy narrative peddled by New Delhi was no longer supported by the western world. Urging India to shun its traditional intransigence and accept the ground realities on Kashmir the JKNF leader said, “India needs to understand that there are no takers for its false rhetoric”. Rather than peddling half-truths and deliberate lies, he said that India should stop befooling the world and should get down to the normal business of diplomacy to resolve the long-pending dispute of Kashmir peacefully in accordance with the UN resolutions calling for a referendum on Kashmir.
Referring to the EU draft resolution Wani said that the resolutions has rightly pointed out that India has never implemented the UNSC resolutions requiring a referendum to allow all Kashmiris to determine the future status of Kashmir. He said that the Kashmiri people have been struggling against the unlawful occupation of Kashmir by India for the last 72 years, and they would continue their struggle until they get their inalienable right to self-determination.
Meanwhile, JKNF vice-chairman while remembering the victims of the Kupwara massacre expressed his heartfelt sympathies with bereaved families whose near and dear ones were mercilessly killed by Indian occupation forces. It is worth to note here that the massacre was carried out in a broad daylight wherein scores of unarmed civilians were killed by the occupation forces thereby resorting to indiscriminate firing.