Islamabad - Former interior minister and Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Senator A. Rehman Malik on Monday urged the government to move the United Nations and human rights organisations over the ongoing human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).

Addressing a policy seminar on Kashmir here, Malik said that the government should pursue a proactive rather than defensive diplomatic policy in order to expose to the world Indian PM Narendra Modi’s unprecedented war crimes in the held valley.

He regretted that 22 days had passed since the Indian government, in a surprising move, scrapped the special status of Kashmir by revoking Articles 370 and 35A, but Pakistan was still to file a case in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Indian government and Narendra Modi.

He was of the view that the government couldn’t exert sizeable pressure on PM Modi which could compel him to take back his decision of abolishing the special status of IoK.

Senator calls for filing case against India in ICC

He asked the government not to waste further time and ask the United Nations to hold the Indian government accountable for the violation of 11 resolutions passed by its Security Council (UNSC).

The senator said that time was ripe to draw the world’s attention towards unprecedented brutalities being committed by Indian forces against innocent Kashmiris such as mass murders, mass blinding through the use of pellet guns, enforced disappearances, rape, political repressionand suppression of freedom of speech, including complete lockdown of the valley by the Indian troops.

Malik said that unprecedented brutalities similar to a genocide made Narendra Modi vulnerable to the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court.

He added that if the Government of Pakistan was reluctant to refer the matter to the ICC, taking the plea that it had not ratified the ICC then the Kashmiri leadership can itself inform ICC about the matter. He said he was ready to assist the Kashmiri leaders in fighting its case in the ICC.

Malik said that just before General Elections 2019 in India, he in his book “Modi’s War Doctrine” had written that if re-elected, Modi would increase state terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and would try to change its demography.

He said he wished the government had taken some preemptive measures at that time since the revocation of articles 370 and 35A was already promised by Narendra Modi during his election campaign.

He said that he had clearly stated in his book that Prime Minister Modi was the prime violator of human rights who had no respect for human dignity and honour, and will be shedding more blood of innocent Kashmiris, if re-elected.

The former minister said with Modi as Prime Minister of India, peace between the two countries and in the region was impossible. He added that by revoking Articles 370 and 35A, PM Modi actually wanted to get RSS trained families settled in IoK.

He said there was nexus between RSS and BJP, which have further established contacts with ISIS/Daesh through RAW for ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Kashmir.

He also hit out at the role of Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in perpetrating the worst atrocities in Kashmir, putting peace of South Asia at stake.

Senator Rehman Malik said that he had written a letter to Ms Michelle Bachelet Jeria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Sunday, requesting her to constitute a Parliamentary Commission, consisting of parliamentarians from different countries, to visit Indian occupied Kashmir and observe the worst human rights violations there.

He said that as per the statistics and details given in UN’s report alone, since January 1989 till 31st January 2018, 94,644 innocent Kashmiris had been killed, 7,099 were killed in custody, 11,042 women were gang raped and 7,485 were injured by pellets.

While closing his address, Senator Malik urged the US President Donald Trump to practically step in to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir as the remote mediation concept will not work in every day worsening situation. Meanwhile he advised the government to ask the United Nations for deployment of peace keeping missions on urgent basis to save the lives and properties of innocent Kashmiris. He said that our permanent ambassador to UN to take up with un and all international forums adding we should also revisit our foreign policies and improve the diplomatic ties with world powers.