ISLAMABAD: The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday condemned India for its security and communications blockade of Kashmir, asking New Delhi to safeguard the rights of the people of the region and implement the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions on Kashmir.
In an official statement issued in Jeddah, the commission accused India of “systematic persecution of Kashmiri Muslims.”
“Since 5th August 2019, the IOJ&K [Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir] has turned into the world’s largest prison with severe human rights and humanitarian repercussions for the innocent Kashmiri population,” it said. “The entire Kashmiri political leadership was incarcerated without any legal recourse, and journalists and human rights activists are being prosecuted on false charges. Violence, rape, and molestation of women are widely used as a method of collective punishment by the Indian security forces, who continue to enjoy the blanket protection of the draconian laws of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act (PSA) to trample human rights of innocent Kashmiris.”
Quoting a report by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, it said that about 229 Kashmiris were killed in the first six months of the year, adding that there were 48 cases of destruction of people’s properties during the same period and 450 detention cases under the PSA.
The statement added that the worsening humanitarian situation arising due to the “inhuman lockdown and closure of economic and social activities” had also caused an economic loss of over $2.4 billion to the region’s economy.
“India is mischievously using the opportunity to illegally alter the demographic composition of the Muslim majority in IOJ&K by enacting ‘Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020’ causing ‘demographic flooding’ of non-natives in the IOJ&K. An estimated 30,000 people have already been given domicile, and there are reports that 1.74 million, i.e., 14% of the population, could acquire domicile to convert the Muslim majority in Kashmir into a minority,” said the statement.
“This is a manifest violation of the well codified international human rights treaties, including Articles 27 and 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which clearly prohibit any illicit transfer of population in conflict zones or disputed territory,” the commission added. “The manifestation of these blatant human rights violations under an exclusionary ideology of Hindutva reflects an obvious State bias, which has led to the issuance of genocide alerts by international human rights organizations.”
The statement urged the international community to put pressure on India to ensure an immediate halt to “its gross and systematic human rights violations” and help secure “release [of] all political prisoners” to restore the fundamental freedoms of the people of Kashmir.
It also asked the world community to make India “refrain from altering the geographic and demographic status of the IOJ&K,” provide “access to UN/OIC fact-finding missions,” and let “Kashmiris exercise their legitimate right to self-determination in line with the relevant UN Security Council and OIC resolutions.”
The OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission is an expert body with advisory capacity, and its creation was announced in March 2008.
