LAHORE, Jan 05 (APP):Experts and Kashmiri people on Sunday have reiterated their unwavering commitment to the struggle for self-determination and urged the United Nations to play a key role in implementing the historic 5th January 1949 resolution to resolve the Kashmir dispute once and for all.
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), leaders and organizations of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) have also demanded the UN to settle Kashmir issue, in accordance with Its approved resolution. On January 5, 1949, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had passed a resolution affirming Kashmiris’ right to self-determination for their future through a UN-sponsored plebiscite. Kashmiris every year observe this day as the Right to Self-Determination Day.
Talking to APP in connection with Right to Self-Determination Day, experts said that the main impediment in resolving the Kashmir issue and providing the right to self-determination to the Kashmiris is India’s expansionist designs and its stubbornness. They said the failure to implement the resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council on January 5, 1949, is a big question mark on the existence of the international body to settle this dispute between the two nuclear states.
PPP MNA Sehar Kamran said that it is the responsibility of the United Nations and the international community to take notice of India’s terror designs in IIOJ&K while holding it accountable for not fulfilling its international commitments on Kashmir.
She said, “We mark this historical day to remind the world comity of nations that it cannot abandon its moral and legal responsibilities towards the oppressed Kashmiri people. The Kashmir issue is a flash reality, while peace and development cannot be maintained or established in the region without resolution of the lingering Kashmir dispute.”
Hurriyat leader and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Human Rights and Women Empowerment Mushaal Hussein Mullick urged the UN and the leadership of OIC to take practical steps to save oppressed Kashmiris and Palestinians.
Referring to the situation in IIOJ&K, she said it was a “no-go region, where humans were being treated worse than animals. Mushaal said pellet guns, which were prohibited to be used even on animals, were also used on Kashmiris by the Indian butcher forces.
She said the United Nations emphasized human rights worldwide but, unfortunately, it was completely silent on the violation of human rights in IIOJ&K. Disrespecting women in occupied Kashmir was a daily practice of the Indian army, she added. Mushaal Hussein Mullick said humanity was being humiliated in occupied Kashmir for decades, while millions of Kashmiris had been martyred by the Indian para military forces and army, adding IIOJ$K had turned into the biggest prison in the world.
She said thousands of women had been widowed and children became orphans due to the atrocities of Indian forces in the region, adding India was changing the population ratio in IIOJ$K and Kashmiris were being robbed of their land to make them financially weak.
Meanwhile, six prominent UN mandate-holders in a joint letter to the UN have expressed their deep concerns over the severe restrictions on the freedoms of expression and peaceful people’s gathering and assembly; enforced disappearances; and widespread arbitrary arrests and detention of political figures.
They wrote in the letter that human rights defenders, journalists and boys/teenagers were being forcibly detained during night raids since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 05th August.
They also voiced their strong concerns over reported violations of Kashmiri people’s fundamental right to live by using brutal torture, including live ammunition, by Indian forces as well as the adverse human rights effects of the complete internet and communication shutdown.
