MIRPUR (AJK)-As human rights violations continue unabated in the Indian Held Kashmir, the Azad Kashmir government urged the international organisations and institutions to help stop Indian state terrorism.
AJK President Masood Khan made these remarks in a meeting with the leadership of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress in Washington. During his visit to the Capitol Hill, the president was received by Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), Co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress, a message said.
Describing the current situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir to the Commission's leadership, he said that India had unleashed a reign of terror in the occupied Kashmir. The unspeakable atrocities perpetrated against innocent civilians should cause the world community view Indian Occupied Kashmir as a region of concern, the president said.
Pointing to various independent reports on the state of human rights in IHK, he said that killings, torture, forced disappearance, mass blinding and use of public humiliation had been used as instrument of coercion against the people. In addition, Indian forces were also culpable in killing civilians across the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir in violation of the ceasefire. In doing so, he said India was not only using disproportionate force but was also making no distinction between combatants and civilians.
He highlighted the dark prospect of systematic alteration of demography of the Jammu region by threatening local Muslims through criminal gangs. India was forcing illegal settlers in settlements in the occupied territory by creating Pundit and ex-army personnel colonies. Such transfers of population in the occupied territory are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I, as well as UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Commission's Resolutions.
He said that India's policy of repression in Occupied Kashmir is the violation of International Humanitarian Law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and scored of Human Rights Conventions and Treaties. "The international human rights community must take cognizance of the outrage which is visited on Kashmiris everyday in pursuance of dark, draconian laws devised by India to bludgeon Kashmiris into submission," he said. He added that it gave immunity from prosecution to occupation troops.
Masood said that India was using excessive force and flagrantly infringing the recognized principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in a conflict situation. Indian occupation forces were targeting civilians (non-combatants) and systematically persecuting unarmed population of the occupied Kashmir.
In viewing the Kashmir dispute, the president said self-respect and aspirations of the people of Kashmir must not be lost in the fog of regional strategic interests. He reiterated that silence by international community on human rights violations in Kashmir had emboldened India to unleash terror with full fury and absolute impunity.
He extended an invitation to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to visit Azad Kashmir. Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is a bipartisan organisation in the US Congress and is responsible for promoting, defending and advocating Human Rights.