By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: The Jammu and Kashmir National Front (JKNF) Monday expressed serious concern over the stepped-up human rights violations by Indian forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. In a statement JKNF spokesman Shafiq-ur-Rehman said that the Indian forces were harassing and arresting innocent people on one pretext or the other and put them in jails in far-flung areas of India.
Urging world human rights bodies to take immediate notice of the worsening political and human rights situation in the region, he said that Indian state terrorism has wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent people who were forced to live in a state to constant fear of being killed, harassed and humiliated by the occupation forces deployed at every nook and cranny of the state.
Condemning occupation authorities’ attempts to bring material change in the region, the spokesman said that the authorities have illegally granted domicile and PRCs to tens of thousands of non-state subjects since August 5, 2019. Terming it as a grand conspiracy to change demographic complexion of the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir he said that the move was a flagrant violation of the international law and the UNSC resolutions.
The spokesman while remembering the sacrifices of the Kashmiri martyrs reiterated Kashmiris’ pledge to take the ongoing struggle to its logical end. Rehman also expressed his concern over fast spreading Coronavirus in Kashmir and the Indian government’s indifference and apathy towards the miseries of the corona-affected people and their families who wander from pillar to post in search of medicines and oxygen.
The spokesman also took exception to the continued detention of senior Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan who has been languishing in jails since 2018. Demanding urgent release of the illegally detained scribe he said that Sultan was being punished for speaking truth to power.
Meanwhile, the spokesman reiterated his party’s demand for early release of the incarcerated party chairman Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Hurriyat leaders and thousands of youth who have been languishing in far flung jails in different parts of India.
Earlier on Friday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a gathering of Pakistani-Americans that Pakistan will negotiate to find a solution to the decades-old Kashmir dispute, but will not barter away the inalienable rights of Kashmiri people. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was deeply committed to the just cause of Kashmiris and that his stand on the issue was unequivocal. “We will talk respectfully, but will not make a deal on Kashmir,” he told in a cheering audience.
He was answering a question about concerns being voiced over reported back-channel engagement with India on the decades-old dispute. He also said that Pakistan was open to dialogue with India aimed at peacefully resolving all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.
Past regimes in Pakistan, Qureshi said, had put the Kashmir issue on the back-burner, but the present government had revived it, citing PM Imran Khan’s forceful address to the UN General Assembly in 2019.
Friday’s meeting with community members was held at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan were among those present.
Pakistani Consul General in New York, Ayesha Ali, welcomed the foreign minister, noting that he is the first dignitary from Pakistan to visit New York since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world early in 2020.
On their part, the community members praised Pakistan’s strong advocacy of the Palestinian cause, the way it stood by the beleaguered people and highlighted their plight as they suffered under the 11-day Israeli bombardment that left nearly 250 people dead, including women and children.
