MIRPUR (AJK)
The Jammu and Kashmir National Front top leader urged the international community to take effective notice of rising human rights violation in Indian-held Kashmir.
JKNF Central Vice President Altaf Hussain Wani said that world community should take effective measures to stop rights violations besides unearthing the facts regarding 10, 000 disappeared Kashmiris and thousands of unnamed mass graves that have been discovered in the disputed territory.
Talking to journalists during his visit to the city, Wani said, "On the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the JKNF seeks world community's immediate attention towards the enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, detention of Hurriyat leaders and the killing of innocent civilians by Indian troops in the disputed territory of Kashmir."
Under the shield of notorious laws enacted in the state, he said, the Indian military and paramilitary troops were enjoying full immunity. Referring to TADA, AFSAPA, PSA and other laws, he said that after the enactment of these laws the human rights violations in the disputed region had increased manifold.
Terming these laws tantamount to issuing a killing license to Indian troops, he said these acts grant military and paramilitary forces wide powers of arrest, seizing property and even the right to kill.
He said that Indian troops in Kashmir have a track record of only violating human rights. He maintained that during the last 26 years, thousands of Kashmiris were subjected to custodial disappearance. The most dangerous aspect of the human tragedy is that the families of the victims have no information as to what happened to their dear ones, he said.
"Over 10,000 Kashmiris died in the custody after they were picked up by Indian troops and police; thousands of unnamed graves had been discovered in the territory and it is feared that these graves could be of Kashmiri youth who were subjected to enforced disappearance," he said.
Seeking international community's attention towards the murky situation in the region, Wani said that it was high time that the champions of human rights should come forward in a big way to stop the rights violations in Kashmir. He maintained that in order to mitigate sufferings of Kashmiri nation it was essentially important that the long running dispute should be peacefully resolved keeping in view the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiri people.