NEW YORK   -   A prominent Kashmiri leader has called for the dispatch of a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Indian Occupied Kashmir, which is under a repressive lockdown for over a month now, with a mandate to produce a quick report on the situation in the disputed State.

“The matter is much too urgent to be relegated to the routine mechanism of the (Geneva-based) Human Rights Council and the various bodies established to monitor various conventions,” Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary-General of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, said in a statement issued on Sunday.

With Kashmir in turmoil, he pleaded for urgent action to bring relief to besieged people, citing the developments since the August 5 Indian annexation of Occupied Kashmir, especially the criticism of the “illegal” action in  the international Press as well as by human right organisations.

“The people of Kashmir are dismayed by this total apathy on the part of the United Nations when Governments, otherwise,e sympathetic to human rights situations make statements to the effect that India and Pakistan must resolve the issue on the basis of the Simla Agreement, they disregard the rights and aspirations of the people of Kashmir itself,” Fai said.

“We recognise that such disregard is not deliberate. Nevertheless, it tells and encourages India to sideline the United Nations and perpetuate its occupation of Kashmir by force...

“Therefore, on behalf of the people of Jammu and Kashmir –and a territory whose status is yet to be determined under the resolutions of the United Nations – we approach the United Nations Secretary General with the appeal that he exerts his personal influence to help arrest immediately the campaign of mass slaughter and indiscriminate destruction in which the Indian occupation forces have been remorselessly engaged in our country since January 1990 in general and August 5, 2019 in particular”, he added.

Fai said that “The acts of indiscriminate killing of unarmed civilians and assaults on innocent women and children have not been fully reported in the world Press because the Indian occupation authorities barred the entry of the world media into the territory and the restriction have been imposed even on the local media on reporting any incident that takes place in the Valley of Kashmir.

“Nevertheless, even the occasional reports that have appeared do afford a glimpse into the reign of terror, established by India inside the occupied territory.”

The Kashmiri leader urged the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to brings his influence to bear on India and Pakistan to initiate a peace process, associating with it the UN  and as well as the leadership of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, so as to ensure that any settlement would be based on the principles of justice.