ISLAMABAD-Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said that the right to self-determination was an inalienable right of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and urged the United Nations to ensure a free, fair and transparent plebiscite for the people of the valley. 
In his message on the occasion of the Right to Self-Determination day for the people of J&K in line with the resolution adopted by the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) on January 5, 1949, the PPP chairman said that people of Indian Occupied Kashmir had been subjected to inhuman Indian atrocities since seven decades.  
“The silence of the international community over the brutal killings and torture at the hands of Indian occupying forces is seldom taken notice by the international community, which has disappointed the free people of the world,” he added. 
Bilawal said that former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto had internationalised the Kashmir issue through political and diplomatic struggles and assured the Kashmiri people that PPP would continue to raise its voice for them at every available forum. 
He expressed solidarity with the people of held Kashmir adding that issue of the held valley was an integral part of the PPP mission and the party had the strongest political base in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir. 
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate Sherry Rehman said, “The important date marks the promise of the UN and the international community to the people of occupied Kashmir who now live under a colonising, violent rule of a neo fascist regime in India.” 
“The international community has made a promise of a free and fair plebiscite. The right to self-determination is one of the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the UN, all international charters and by all our countries constitutions where we live as citizens,” she said in a statement. 
The PPP Senator said this was about reminding the international community of the important promise they had made and how they had turned away from that promise and how they did not see what was going on.  
“What the Narendra Modi regime has done is actually unconscionable and unprecedented in the history of any nation. He has brought his violent, colonising rule to an entire valley of people. From the use of pellet guns to blinding and completely crippling young people who come out on the streets to ask for their rights. Can the international community not see this,” she questioned. 
She said there were important reports from the UN, EU and human rights organisations from all over the world, including India’s mainstream human rights organisation, reporting on the level of impunity given freely to Indian occupation forces numbering over 800,000 to 900,000.  
“They have made this beautiful valley into a valley of blood and tears. A valley of mass graves and illegal detentions, where you have people disappearing overnight, throttled by the guns and torture of the Indian military and security forces, who are protected by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978. Had this been anywhere else, the whole world would have objected,” the lawmaker said.
The Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate urged all political leaders to ensure that Pakistan’s and most importantly, Kashmir’s voice was heard because they are under a lockdown, curfew and a kind of martial law that the world has not seen but still the international community is silent. 
“We look to the UN and those powers that support it. There’s a great deal of transitioning happening in the world and the newly elected US administration knows what is what and does not need to do any homework which our government is still doing. It is our job and responsibility as legislators to seek that attention in the interest of Kashmiri people who deserve to be heard. There should be special hearings in the Congress of the US where they discuss all kinds of issues. Human rights violations all over the world are addressed so why not the people of Kashmir? Why not give them a chance, a voice and relief from this oppressing, colonizing, brutal and neo fascist Modi regime,” she said.