Washington, November 16, 2019 (PPI-OT): President of US-based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), Dr Syed Nazir Gilani has thanked the Labour Party for addressing Kashmir correctly at its conference. Dr Syed Nazir Gilani in his letter addressed to Ian Lavery, MP and Chair of Labour Party, said, he is writing as a British of Kashmiri origin and as JKCHR President in special consultative status with the UN, in relation to the concerns expressed by members of Indian Diaspora in their letter of 14th October addressed to the Labour leader Mr Jeremy Corbyn on “emergency motion on Kashmir” passed at this year’s Labour Party conference” and your response of 11th November 2019 as Chair of the Labour Party.
He said, the “emergency motion on Kashmir” stands to dignify the history of the Party as an internationalist party, that has continued to ‘promote and protect’ human rights, all over the world and more so as retained in paragraph 4 and 5 of the telegram by Labour leader and Prime Minister, Clement Attlee to Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan on November 22, 1947.
Syed Nazir Gilani said, items 4 and 5 of the telegram reads as: Para 4 “Would you like me to take private soundings from the President of the International Court of Justice to find out whether he is of the opinion that it would be practicable and he would be willing to try to get together a small team of international experts, not connected with India, Pakistan or the United Kingdom, in the event of a joint request being preferred by the Governments of India and Pakistan for this to be done”. Para 5 “I should be delighted to take such a step if you and the Prime Minister of India think it would be helpful. I am sending an identical message to the Prime minister of India”.
The United Kingdom (Mr. Noel Baker) at the 284th Meeting of the UN Security Council held on 17 April 1948 has stated “that the Kashmir dispute is the greatest and gravest single issue in international affairs” and further stated, “May I now say why I hope its measures may find favour with both parties to the dispute, and may find it without prolonged delay. To begin with, the sands of time, in literal truth, are running out. Kashmir is a land of mountains. In October the snow begins to fall. If the plebiscite which both sides desire is to be held this year, the Commission and the administrator must be at work within a month.
The alternative is a summer, perhaps another winter, of uncertainty, maybe of fighting, with all that that would mean.” United Kingdom has remained the co-sponsor with Australia, Cuba and USA, in sponsoring the Resolution S/3787 dated 14 February 1957 supporting the proposal of Pakistan for a UN Force in Kashmir made at the 761st meeting of UN Security Council held on 16 January 1957 as follows: Para 112. “In view of this, the Security Council should call upon the parties to withdraw all their troops from the State and should also ensure that the local forces which should be placed under the representative of the Security Council and left behind, are suitably reduced, if not disbanded altogether.
The functions of protecting the State and ensuring internal security should be entrusted by the Council to a United Nations Force which should be introduced into the area at once. Let all other forces – Indian, Pakistani and local, be disbanded and non-Kashmiri nationals even in the police forces be removed from the State of Kashmir. It is further requested that an early and firm date be fixed for the induction into office of the Plebiscite Administrator. The situation may be saved even at this late stage – but only by these means. The most important of all is to take immediate steps to prevent India from taking the bit into its mouth and defying this august body.”
He said, “We respect the views of Indian diaspora on the question of ‘good community relations’. It has to be in equity and not at the cost of a political blackmail”. In fact, he said, the JKCHR has raised the issue of good community relations at its Round Table Conference held on May 4, 2017 in Islamabad. “We were well ahead (and more inclusive) of Indian community on the question of “community harmony,” he added.
He said the JKCHR highlighted at the Round Table Conference that “Images of Indian atrocities against Kashmiris are a threat to good community relations in Europe, US, Middle East and many other countries of the world”. Syed Nazir Gilani said, the five recommendations adopted at the RTC and The Concept Paper circulated were submitted to the UN Secretary General and are contained in UNGA Document A/HRC/35/NGO/132.
He said, recommendation 5 in the UNGA Document 132 reads: “RTC recommended that it is high time that UN Secretary General needs to be reminded of his duties under Article 99 of the Charter in respect of the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir which requires special attention. Indian atrocities being committed against the defenceless people are not only a threat to peace in the region but the images coming out could rupture the community peace in Europe, US, Middle East and many other countries of the world.”
He said, paragraph 5 of the letter dated 14 October seemingly endorsed by 119 Indian groups in UK, has no merit. It is a travesty of common sense and a total misrepresentation seeking to force an error of judgement on Labour Party, on the issue of Kashmir, he added. These groups, he said, have made a sinister hint to blackmail Labour Party during December 2019 elections. He said, Kashmiri Diaspora, Pakistanis and Kashmiris sympathisers would not entertain this blackmail and would like to point out that the latter numbers far outweigh the Indian voters in UK. “We would like to keep bench marks – the equity, fairness and justice, on the question of the consent of Kashmiri people,” he maintained.
The JKCHR said, “India has re-aggressed, occupied and imprisoned our brothers, sisters and elderly on 5 August 2019. Indian Army is in violation of 4 bilateral and 3 UN restraints placed on their number, behaviour and location. Over 900,000 Indian soldiers are engaged in a war with the people of Kashmir, known to UN for the last 72 years and described as the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who are worthy of the right of their own self-determination through a free, secure and impartial plebiscite. They are a people of legend, song and story, associated with snow-capped mountains, beautiful valleys and life giving waters”. (570th meeting of UN SC held on 17 January 1952).”
He said, it is unfortunate that these groups of Indian Diaspora should act to further the Hindutva programme of RSS and misrepresent the situation in Kashmir. “Their concern for ‘community harmony’ is a camouflage and you should consider to examine the merits of their sinister dig at the Labour Party. In fact the letter is an offence to ‘community harmony’ and people like us who work for the promotion and protection of human rights, find the misrepresentation on Kashmir very offensive. I join all other British voters of Kashmiri, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian origin, and the broad constituency of voters from other countries, who sympathise with the sufferings of the people of Kashmir and have testified in the British Parliament, European Parliament, US Congress, in wishing Labour Party, the best in the December elections. Kindly continue to keep the traditions as an ‘internationalist party’ and defend the dignity of the stand taken by Clement Attlee and British Government on Kashmir, as explained above.”
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