By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan Affairs, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur Monday said that Pakistan’s dossier exposed Indian war crimes and human right violations in the Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).“World must take serious notice of Indian brutalities in IIOJK,” he said in a news release, citing forced burial of hurriyat leader Ali Gilani and cases against his family.
The minister said India have turned the entire valley of occupied Kashmir into an open prison and detained thousands of Kashmiris. Gandapur said India should learn lesson from the past that despite decades long oppression it could not defeat the will of Kashmiris for right to self determination.
Indian bigotry over Kashmir issue is the biggest obstacle for lasting peace and development in the entire region, he added. He said India must give Kashmiris right to self determination as the prevailing situation in the Sout Asia region has proved that war is not the solution to any problem.
On Sunday, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar, while presenting statistics and figures from the dossier, exposed India’s nefarious activities and said that the country is operating five training camps for UN-designated terrorist organisation Daesh.
He stressed that there was a “great need” to make the world aware so that action could be taken to bring an end to the grave human rights violations in IoK. During his brief, Iftikhar pointed out that Indian patronage and training of the militant Islamic State group was a “serious concern”. He alleged that evidence suggested India was operating five training camps in Gulmarg, Raipur, Jodhpur, Chakrata, Anupgarh and Bikaner.
“By injecting these state-trained ISIS fighters, India may try to establish linkages of the freedom movement with international terrorism in order to malign the freedom struggle and to justify its own crimes as counter-terrorist operations,” he said.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the foreign minister pointed out that the decision to compile the dossier was taken due to the actions of Indian authorities after the death of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and their treatment of his family.
“We decided that considering the situation there, (IoK) and the kind of govt’s thinking present there, we should play our role and unveil the real face of this India government claiming to be the world’s biggest democracy before the world,” he said. Qureshi said there was a continuing communications blackout in IoK as independent journalists and observers were denied access, while facts were distorted and brutalities went unreported “by design”.
