LAHORE - Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairman Dr Mehdi Hasan on Sunday stressed the need for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions passed to give the right of self-determination to the people of Indian-held Kashmir. Talking to the APP here in connection with Kashmiris’ Right to Self-determination Day, the HRCP chairman said the people of occupied Kashmir had been deprived of all basic rights. “In 1949, the UNSC had passed a resolution, supporting the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through UN-sponsored plebiscite,” Hasan added. He said that oppressed Kashmiri people and their leadership could not be coerced into changing their principled stand on Kashmir. “Despite facing unprecedented level of oppression, the people of occupied Kashmir are sacrificing their lives to end India’s decades long illegal hold of their territory,” he added.

The HRCP chairman lamented the illegal detention of thousands of Kashmiris, who are languishing in jails in occupied Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

He said that Indian authorities continued to abuse and violate rights of Kashmiri prisoners by placing them in worst living conditions inside jails.

“These prisoners are even deprived of basic rights like medical treatment and access to legal help,” he deplored.

Kashmiris observe Right to Self-Determination Day:

Meanwhile, Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over observed the Right to Self-Determination Day on Sunday, with the pledge that they would continue the struggle for settlement of the Kashmir dispute through a free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.

The day was marked by various activities, including rallies, seminars and conferences in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and across the world through which the UN was reminded to save the Kashmiris from the Indian brutalities by implementing its resolutions.