Indian human rights violations and genocide of Kashmiris in IoK, a biggest threat to world peace: Masood Khan
LONDON, (MILLAT ONLINE):President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan Friday said that Indian gross violations of human
rights and genocide of Kashmiri people in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) posed serious threat to world peace.
He called upon the United Kingdom (UK) to take up issue of
Indian human rights violations and genocide of people in IoK, in its capacity as the
permanent member of the UN Security Council, besides playing a leadership role in sensitizing the world body
about the fast deteriorating security situation along the line of control as more than 400 cease-fire
violations and provocations by Indian occupations forces against Pakistan were noted.
Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, made this appeal during a hearing on Kashmir
held here at the House of Commons by thirty members Lords and British Parliamentarians of All-Party
Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPG) which was chaired by Honourable Chris Leslie, Member of Parliament.
The AJK President was invited as a witness to the hearing.
He also visited two UK universities of Oxford and London School of Economics and met with the students
and attended Councillors convention 2018 during his visit to the UK.
Later addressing a press conference along with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to London, Syed Ibne Abbas
here the other day, Sardar Masood Khan thanked the APPG’s support for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri
people and through dialogue; sought support from the British parliamentarians for the Kashmir cause asking them
also, highlight the human rights violations in the IoK.
At the hearing, President Masood Khan pleaded for higher visibility for the Kashmir dispute in the
British Parliament and underlined the need for international intercession through the UN for the resolution of
the dispute.
“India must be stopped from killing Kashmiris in their own homeland and killing civilians across the
line of control”, the President said adding that this year alone India had violated the 2003 ceasefire
agreement 400 times, killed 17 innocent people and seriously injured 70, he remarked.
“Thus, the situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir is appalling and along the line of control highly alarming
and this requires preventive steps by the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General”, he said.
The AJK President urged the APPG Members of Parliament and Lords who were present at the hearing to
help make the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) an effective peacekeeping mission.
He added that India was also not allowing the peacekeepers to work independently.
The AJK President said that he had told the APPG’s members that the Security Council had no justification
for not taking cognizance of the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir and not holding a discussion on an issue
that was on its permanent agenda.
He informed the media that APPG would also take testimony from all stakeholders of Kashmir over the
gross violations of human rights and present it before British and European Parliaments.
Sardar Masood Khan said that Pakistan and Azad Kashmir had welcomed fact-finding missions of the Human
Rights Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to both parts of Kashmir including IoK and Azad Kashmir –
but India declined such access altogether. He invited a multiparty British parliamentary delegation to visit
Azad Kashmir.
He also thanked Pakistan for extending political, moral and diplomatic support to people of Kashmir in
their just right to self-determination for the last seven decades.
He also called upon the UN Security Council to fulfill its obligation and pressure India to stop
atrocities on innocent people of IoK and grant them right of self-determination pending since long at its
agenda.
President Masood Khan said that compared to the IoK, the Azad territory was a ‘utopia’ with the lowest
crime rate and highest educational score in the whole of Pakistan.
Still, Azad Kashmir was working constantly on women’s empowerment, gender parity, youth engagement,
poverty alleviation, and sustainable development to promote and protect human rights holistically, he added.
He said that under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) an Economic Zone would be established in
Mirpur Azad Kashmir in order to promote Industrialization and creating more job opportunities to people of the area.
He invited British investors and British Pakistani diaspora in the UK to come forward, take benefit from
this opportunity and participate in the development of Mirpur Industrial zone.
The AJK President said that India’s accusations of cross-LOC infiltration from Azad Kashmir were false
and designed to hide its crimes against humanity in the IoK.
“This is India’s fabrication even as it boasts that India has erected a 540-kilometer long electrified
fence connected to motion sensors, thermal imaging, and lighting.”