ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Dr. Arif Alvi on Tuesday urged the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir to investigate 'brutalities' committed by Indian forces against Kashmiris.
The president was speaking at a seminar at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad jointly organized by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University.
The disputed Kashmir valley has been at the heart of seven decades of hostility between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Last year, the United Nations said in a report that Indian security forces had used excessive force in Kashmir and killed and wounded numerous civilians since 2016. It called for an international inquiry into alleged violations in the disputed territory.
“People of Kashmir want Azadi (freedom) from India, and Pakistan will continue to extend all kind of diplomatic and political support to them,” the president said.
Each year, Pakistan observes February 5 as Kashmir Solidarity Day to show its support to the people of Kashmir.
At 10am, the nation observed a minute’s silence to pay tributes to the 'martyrs of Kashmir'. Later, a human chain was formed at Islamabad's D-chowk protest area.
Dr. Arif Alvi said the people of Kashmir had gone through “a lot of miseries, humiliation and violence” in the past decades, but they still continued to defy Indian brutalities.
“The United Nations must live up to its promise to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir …. and send a fact-finding mission to determine the Indian atrocities against unarmed and innocent Kashmiris,” he said.
The president demanded that India free all political prisoners, uphold freedom of expression in Kashmir, ban the use of firearms against Kashmiris, withdraw draconian black-laws in Kashmir, allow Kashmiri leaders to travel abroad and allow human rights representatives and journalists to visit the Jammu and Kashmir.
In a message to support Kashmiris, the head of the army's media wing, Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor, tweeted that decades of atrocities engineered by Indian forces in Kashmir “have failed to suppress (the) ever-strengthening, legitimate freedom struggle. Determined Kashmiris shall succeed.”
Speaking at the ceremony at the presidency, Minister for Defence Pervaiz Khattak said the Indian government had deployed over 700,000 troops in Jammu and Kashmir to suppress the legitimate freedom movement, but they wouldn't succeed.
“Indian troops are involved in war crimes in Kashmir,” he said. “Any aggression by Indian forces will get a befitting response from Pakistan army."
Participants of the seminar included foreign diplomats, members of the parliament, leaders and activists from Indian-administered Kashmir and representatives of civil society. They were informed that since a popular uprising erupted in Kashmir in 1989, Indian forces had arrested more than 145,342 Kashmiris and subjected them to torture, rape and assault, besides killing of over 100,000 Kashmiris.
At least 8,000 Kashmiris have become victims of custodial murder and more than 11,100 Kashmiri women were known to have been raped by Indian forces.
Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur said Kashmiris had been facing the “worst kind of” brutalities and human rights violations at the hands of Indian forces.
Abdullah Gilani, a representative of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference – a political front in Kashmir struggling for freedom – narrated atrocities of Indian forces against unarmed Kashmiris, saying that “India continues to violate all international laws with complete impunity.”
He thanked Pakistan for its support while urging “more diplomatic efforts to expose real face of India at the international forums.”
Dr. Maria Sultan, SASSI's director-general, said Kashmiris had been struggling for their freedom and right to self-determination and this needed to be recognized by the international community.
“Indian must be held accountable for its brutalities against innocent Kashmiris … and the perpetual cycle of violence under which the Kashmiris have been living for decades must come to an end,” she added.
