LONDON, Oct 28 (APP):Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Moazzam Ahmad Khan Wednesday said Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have been denied of basic human rights for more than seven decades.
The Webinar was organized by Pakistan High Commission, London in connection with Kashmir Black Day.
On this day in 1947, India forcibly occupied Jammu & Kashmir by landing its forces in
Srinagar against the will of the Kashmiri people, and in total disregard to the Partition Plan.
President Azad Jamu and Kashmir (AJ&K) Sardar Masood Khan and a large number of cross-party British Parliamentarians including Debbie Abrahams MP, Chairperson APPG on Kashmir, Paul Bristow MP, Chairperson Conservative Friends of Kashmir (CFoK), Steve Baker MP, Lord Qurban Huassain, Imran Hussain MP, Mohammad Yasin MP, Andrew Gwynne MP, Alex Sobel MP, Rachel Hopkins MP, Richard Burgon MP, Tracy Brabin MP, Afzal Khan MP, Khalid Mahmood MP, Naz Shah MP, John Howarth ex-MEP, Anthea McIntyre ex-MEP, Wajid Khan ex-MEP, and Richard Corbett ex-MEP. Kashmiri leaders, academia, legal fraternity, human rights activists and British friends of Kashmir also participated in the event.
Speaking on the occasion, President AJ&K, Sardar Masood Khan said that the response from international civil society and media on Kashmir was strong but the powerful governments were not playing an effective role due to their strategic alignments with India.
The President emphasized on a worldwide civil rights movement to internationalize the Kashmir issue to impose economic sanctions against India; and to activate international diplomacy on Kashmir.
High Commissioner Moazzam Ahmad Khan said seventy thousand Kashmiris, including men, women and children have been martyred, hundreds of women raped and molested, tens of thousands have passed through chambers of incarceration, and several hundred have been blinded.
All these accounts of brutalities have been well documented by the UN and other international organizations, added Mr Khan.
He said, Indian designs to change the demography of IIOJK would not only disenfranchise the people of Kashmir but it was also in direct contravention of the UN
Resolution and Geneva Convention.
He also reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to the just cause of the Kashmiri people.
The British Parliamentarians on the occasion recognized that Kashmir has become a “cross party” issue in the UK, after the launch of “Conservative Friends of Kashmir” (CFoK) recently.
Expressing deep concerns over worsening humanitarian crisis in IIOJK, the speakers condemned the continuous military siege since 05 August 2019 and ongoing human rights violations committed by the Indian occupation forces with impunity.
The speakers emphasized on the legal accountability of crimes in IIOJK in light of the
evidence documented by credible international organizations.
Terming it an international issue, the speakers refuted Indian narrative of Kashmir being an internal matter.
They called upon the international community to intervene and resolve the conflict according to the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.
They also urged India to allow access to human rights and humanitarian organizations on its side.
