Srinagar, December 09, 2020 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that for past three decades the abysmal human rights situation due to the lingering conflict has shown no sign of improvement.
The Hurriyat forum in a statement issued in Srinagar, today, on the eve of World Human Rights Day, said, the human rights situation has only worsened for people of Kashmir with time, being taken to another level since August 5, last year, with enforcement of unprecedented lockdowns extra-judicial measures and communication gags. “The people in this Muslim majority territory are being punished by those in power just for being that – a Muslim majority,” it said.
“Despite the coronavirus pandemic hitting us all, even basic facility of high-speed internet is inaccessible to the people of IIOJK thereby adding to our woes and miseries,” the Hurriyat forum. It maintained that black laws are ruling the roost in Kashmir for the past three decades resulting in extra-judicial and custodial killings. “Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to enforced disappearance. Communication blockades and suspension of internet is almost a daily occurrence,” it added.
The statement said that arrests at the will of the state through force is unprecedented in IIOJK while thousands of activists, youth, political workers, members of civil society and social workers are languishing in jails without charges and access to legal process. Under the same policy, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is under arbitrary house detention for the last one-and-a-half years, it added.
The forum appealed to the international human rights organisations including United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and Asia Watch to play their part in ensuring that the conflict is resolved and the fundamental human rights of people of IIOJK are respected and reinstated.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement Vice Chairman, Abdul Qadeer, in a statement asked the UN General Secretary to appoint a commission of inquiry to probe the human rights abuses in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said it is obligatory on the UN to impress upon New Delhi to stop gross human rights violations in the occupied territory.
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