MIRPUR (AJK): Nov 27 (APP):Azad Jammu Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has appealed to the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to help the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) to reverse the process of colonization and demographic changes in the area.
“These two policies were being pursued by the Indian occupation forces in the IOJK to establish illegal settlements in the territory and reduce Muslim majority to a minority by populating Hindus from all parts of India in a land that does not belong to it by law”, President Masood Khan made these remarks during a detailed presentation he made to the 18-member OIC-IPHRC in Jeddah which has been closely following the situation in IOJK for years, AJK Presidential Secetariate said in an official statement released to the media here Tuesday night.
“People are facing death destruction, disposition and destitution. India is stealing Kashmiris land. Land grab must be stopped”, he said.
The Commission had invited the AJK President as a Special Guest to brief them in the light of his expertise in the field of human rights in his career as a diplomat and his assessment during his current position.
This was the first time that a President of Azad Kashmir had addressed and briefed the Commission in its Headquarters.
Many Commissioners made statements supporting the right to self-determination of Kashmiris demanded an end to repression in IOJK and underlined the urgent need for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. They also interacted with the AJK President.
The Commission’s meeting, which was also attended by OIC member States was chaired by Mr. Adama Nana and organized by the Commission’s Executive Director Mr. Marghoob Salim Butt.
The AJK President said that Azad Kashmir was looking forward to the visit of Yousef Al Dobeay, OIC Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, in the near future.
President Masood Khan told his audience that as the Ummah, Muslims all over the world were obligated to follow the edict of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): “Assist any person who is oppressed, whether he is Muslim or not”.
Islam, he said, recognized and upheld the right to life, freedom and justice; and protection against discrimination, torture and abuse of power; freedom of religion, belief, thought and speech; and protection of property. “All these rights were being trampled in IOJK today,” he said
The President told the Commissioners that India had laid a siege to the territory and was killing, blinding, maiming, torturing and disappearing its inhabitants. Women have been subjected to rape and molestation and their bodies were being objectified and fetish. Some 13,000 young boys have been abducted and put in jails incommunicado. Kashmiris have not been able to sell their crops, walnuts, apples and saffron worth billions of dollars.
The full horrors, he said, of Indian occupiers’ malfeasance have not yet fully unfolded because of the brutal security lockdown.
President Masood said that OIC nations, which have clout and leverage with India should persuade it to renounce annihilation of Kashmiris and work on “pathways to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute and peace in the region”. He said that if India is not amenable to s5uch diplomatic overtures the OIC should seriously consider using economic tools to dissociate itself from a country that kills our brothers and sisters and persecutes Muslims simply because they are Muslims.
The President invited the Commission to implement its recommendations given in its 2017 report to start a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against India; and request the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Solidarity Fund to initiate projects in the livelihood sector, health and education in IOJK and refugee camps in AJK.
In this context, he said that the OIC should step forward to help Kashmiri students and youth, studying and working abroad, whose education and jobs have been disrupted due to India’s siege. This could form a first step towards the establishment of a humanitarian corridor in IOJK.
He also urged them to examine the dire consequences for human rights in South Asia as a result of the Hindu-violent extremist’s neo-Fascist agenda of religious exclusivism, discrimination and Xenophobia. ”Please play your role in saving us from a holocaust”, he said.
The AJK President informed the Commissioners from Asia, the Middle East and Africa that genocide had been widely reported by the international media and human rights organization. He invited the IPHRC to investigate reports of genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacres, crimes against humanity and war crimes in IOJK.
President Masood Khan told his audience not to believe India’s false account of “normalcy” in the IOJK. “Their hands are drenched in blood and their lips pedal lies”, he said. He underlined the need for the collation of authentic information and data to work with the international community and project the true voices of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and broadcast a true narrative.
After decades, the taboo that India cannot be questioned over its occupation and brutalization of the Kashmiris has been broken, he said adding that thousands of parliamentarians, media persons and opinion leaders around the world were calling out India and speaking out for the Kashmiris including the European Parliament, British and French Parliaments and the US Congress, which has held two hearings on Kashmir during which witnesses flayed and excoriated India.
The AJK President told his audience that Azad Kashmir is a peaceful State with the lowest crime rate and the highest literacy. Thousands of students, he said, graduating from public sector universities and postgraduate colleges are determined to transform Azad Kashmir into a model of sustainable development. The Azad government was investing in roads, electricity, tourism, industry, agriculture, quality education and health. “In our part, there are no massacres, no blinding, no forced disappearances, in starkest contrast to IOJK”, he said. We are determined to promote the rule of law, access to justice and good governance, he said.
He invited the IPHRC Commissioners to visit Azad Kashmir to see for themselves the conditions. “Our part of Kashmir is also paradise on earth”, the President said. Ends / APP / AHR.
