Continued human rights abuses in IOK are an affront to the conscience of humanity: Nafees Zakaria
High Commissioner briefs British Parliamentarians at the House of Commons on Humanitarian Crisis in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK)
Continued human rights abuses in IOK are an affront to the conscience of humanity: Nafees Zakaria
High Commissioner Mohammad Nafees Zakaria held a closed meeting with a large number of UK Parliamentarians facilitated by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir (APPKG), in the House of Commons, today.
Briefing the APPKG on the tragic human rights situation and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in IOK, the High Commissioner said that since 5th August 2019, in particular, and for the past seven decades Indian governments have been perpetrating grave human rights violations in the occupied territory unabatedly with impunity. He emphasised that Indian governments’ atrocities, such as mass killings, fake encounters, abductions, forced disappearances, use of prohibited weapons such as pellet guns and cluster munitions against the defenceless Kashmiris have caused incalculable sufferings to the Kashmiri nation and these atrocities come under the ambit of crimes against humanity under all human rights and humanitarian conventions, statutes and United Nations resolutions.
The High Commissioner underlined that complete lockdown in IOK for 31 days with no communication with the outside world, and the reports of killings, abductions, illegal detentions, rapes and use of pellet guns against the defenceless Kashmiris was a matter of deep concern. Since there is no access to media in IOK, the actual scale of atrocities could be much more given the Indian governments’ track record of torture, killings in fake encounters, forced disappearances, and other in human treatment.
The High Commissioner noted that all these human rights violations were taking place in the 21st century and amidst protectors of human rights, by a so-called world’s largest democracy.
The High Commissioner urged an immediate and unconditional end to the bloodshed of Kashmiris in the IoK; delivery of justice to the victims; and, accountability of the perpetrators as demanded by international human rights bodies and NGOs of international repute and members of the civil society, such as OHCHR, IPHRC, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Human Rights Report on India and International People’s Tribunal.
The High Commissioner reiterated that Pakistan would continue to extend its moral, political and diplomatic support to the oppressed people of the IoK in realization of their inalienable right to self-determination and do everything in its capacity to ensure delivery of justice to the Kashmiris in IoK. He lauded all the British parliamentarians for becoming voice for the oppressed people of IOK.
The honourable British Parliamentarians noted with concern the tragic situation of human rights as well as Indian government’s blockade of the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), which has led to severe humanitarian, political and security crisis in the Occupied Territory. Acknowledging that the Kashmir Issue was an internationally recognised dispute awaiting implementation of UNSC resolutions, they agreed to continue to work towards ensuring alleviation of human sufferings faced by the Kashmiri people in the IOK.
Both sides agreed to build upon the conversation and charting a way forward to bring an end to the ongoing human tragedy.
