JEDDAH: The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said on Tuesday it condemned an ongoing security blockade and communication blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir and called on the Indian government to immediately restore all civil liberties.
On August 5, India revoked the constitutional autonomy of the part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir that it administers and moved to quell objections by shutting down communications and clamping down on local leaders.
Pakistan has reacted with fury to India’s decision, cutting trade and transport ties and expelling India’s ambassador. Both countries claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part.
“Despite this iron curtain blockade, there are credible media reports confirming that over 5000, mostly young Kashmiris, have been illegally detained by the security forces, entire political leadership is incarcerated without any legal recourse, and journalists and human rights activists are being prosecuted on false charges,” the OIC’s human rights commission said in a statement.
“These are deplorable and blatant violations of Kashmiris’ fundamental human rights including the right to life, right to freedom of expression, right to peaceful protest and assembly, which are contrary to international human rights law and also violative of India’s commitments/international human rights obligations.”
IPHRC welcomed the Press Statement issued by the Special Procedures/Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council, which has termed the ongoing “blackout as a form of collective punishment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir” and expressed concern over the illegal detentions and enforced disappearances of young protesters and use of excessive force, including live ammunition, to disperse the protests.
“There are similar pronouncements from human rights defenders all over the world, including from within India denouncing the undemocratic and illegal Indian actions, which are arbitrary and inconsistent with international human rights law,” IPHRC said, saying that it “shares these grave concerns and supports the recommendation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a Commission of Inquiry under the UN auspices to comprehensively investigate all the allegations of human rights violations.”
The Commission said it welcomed and echoed the call made by the OIC to the Government of India to immediately lift the curfew and communication blackout in Kashmir and restore fundamental freedoms and civil liberties of the Kashmiris.
OIC’s human rights commission condemns curfew, communication blackout in Kashmir
OIC’s human rights commission condemns curfew, communication blackout in Kashmir
- Calls on government of India to immediately restore all civil liberties
- Supports recommendation to establish UN commission to investigate human rights violations
Pakistani students stuck in Afghanistan permitted to go home
- The border between the countries has been shut since Oct. 12
- Worries remain for students about return after the winter break
JALALABAD: After three months, some Pakistani university students who were stuck in Afghanistan due to deadly clashes between the neighboring countries were “permitted to go back home,” Afghan border police said Monday.
“The students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest Pakistan) who were stuck on this side of the border, only they were permitted to cross and go to their homes,” said Abdullah Farooqi, Afghan border police spokesman.
The border has “not reopened” for other people, he said.
The land border has been shut since October 12, leaving many people with no affordable option of making it home.
“I am happy with the steps the Afghan government has taken to open the road for us, so that my friends and I will be able to return to our homes” during the winter break, Anees Afridi, a Pakistani medical student in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, told AFP.
However, worries remain for the hundreds of students about returning to Afghanistan after the break ends.
“If the road is still closed from that side (Pakistan), we will be forced to return to Afghanistan for our studies by air.”
Flights are prohibitively expensive for most, and smuggling routes also come at great risk.
Anees hopes that by the time they return for their studies “the road will be open on both sides through talks between the two governments.”
