FM writes to UNSC President on Indian violations in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi written to the President of the UN Security Council sharing additional information on India’s continuing massive violations of human rights in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

This comes in the wake of one year of India’s illegal and unilateral measures of 5th August 2019 in its attempt to change demography, and escalating ceasefire violations and rhetoric against Pakistan which together pose a threat to regional and international peace and security.

In his letter, the foreign minister highlighted how, through a combination of military siege in Kashmir, internet and communication blackout, imprisoned Kashmiri political leaders, and abducted Kashmiri youth, India is seeking to camouflage ongoing systematic torture, extra-judicial killings, and imposition of collective punishment on Kashmiris.

“These atrocities epitomise India’s brutality in suppressing Kashmiris’ resistance against Indian occupation for over seven decades,” he wrote.

Pakistan has also circulated two papers as official documents of the Security Council. The first deals with the legal aspects of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and the second, on India’s violations of human rights in the occupied Kashmir.

The legal document apprises the UN Security Council members and the world community of the legitimacy of the Kashmiris’ demand for self-determination. The document on India’s human rights violations will be a permanent and damning testimony to India’s long record of oppression and serious crimes against the Kashmiri people.

The foreign minister emphasised that India’s intensified ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and belligerent posturing towards Pakistan pose a threat to peace and security.

He urged to UNSC to strengthen the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to report fully and accurately on the gravity of the security environment in occupied Kashmir.

Reminding the Security Council of its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the foreign minister has called on the UNSC to convene a meeting and consider the consequences of India’s military siege in the occupied Kashmir and the serious threat Indian aggressive posture pose to the peace and security in South Asia.