Tag: Kashmir Media Service

London, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): Richard Corbett and Anthea Mcintyre, Members of European Parliament and Co-Chairs of the Friends of Kashmir wrote a letter to the chairs of the European Parliamentary Committees on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, Mr McAllister MEP, and Ms Arena MEP, and apprised them of the prevailing grim situation in occupied Kashmir.

 

Richard Corbett and Anthea Mcintyre in the letter wrote that it is primarily up to these committees to ensure that the EU Parliament does not ignore the situation in Kashmir as people there are still awaiting the implementation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions that offer the right to self-determination and to decide their own future through a referendum.

 

They further added that the situation in Kashmir drastically deteriorated last summer when India unilaterally changed the constitutional status of Kashmir, ending its autonomy after sending tens of thousands of extra troops to the area, arresting hundreds of local politicians and instituting a media blackout.

 

Moreover, the MEPs maintained, the UN Human Rights Report of 2018 already highlighted that the Indian army in Kashmir acts with legal impunity, facing no legal consequences for using pellet guns as a means of crowd control, and there are allegations of sexual violence, abductions and attacks on journalists. In this background, it is therefore important that the EU Parliament and these committees in particular, remain vigilant and active on this issue.

 

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Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org

 

Srinagar, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League (JKML) has said that Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory whose political future is yet to be decided by its people.

 

The JKML at a meeting in Srinagar presided over by its Acting Chairman, Farooq Ahmed Tawhidi, discussed the current situation in occupied Kashmir, Pak-India relations and the developments taking place at the global level.

 

Addressing the meeting, Farooq Ahmad Tawhidi said that several UN resolutions and promises of Indian leaders to give the Kashmiris an opportunity to decide their future by themselves testified that Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory. He maintained that Kashmir is not a territorial or border dispute between Pakistan and India but it is a matter concerning the right to self-determination of millions of Kashmiris.

 

The JKML leader said that the peace, development and prosperity of South Asia was at stake due to the Kashmir dispute which remained unresolved due to India’s intransigent attitude. He said that all the roads to peace, prosperity and development of Pakistan and India passed through Jammu and Kashmir, therefore, the rulers of both the countries should take serious steps in consultation with the Hurriyat leadership to resolve the Kashmir dispute to achieve this objective.

 

The JKML leader said that on 5th August, 2019, the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party government while furthering the communal agenda of extremist Hindu organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh repealed the special status of occupied Kashmir and the main motive behind this unconstitutional move was to change the demographic composition of the territory. He paid rich tributes to the resolve of the Kashmiri detainees including the party Chairman, Masarrat Aalam Butt, languishing in different jails of the territory and India.

 

He also hailed the efforts being made by Pakistan particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan to highlight at the global level the sufferings of the people of occupied Kashmir. He also appreciated the concern expressed by the world leaders over the prevailing situation in occupied Kashmir and said that this showed that the international community was aware of the urgency involved in the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

 

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Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org

New Delhi, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): As concerns over India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) increase, Luxembourg, a European Union member, has asked New Delhi to “do everything” to not increase stateless people. This was conveyed by visiting Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn, during talks with his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar.

 

“What I said to the minister (Jaishankar) is ‘do everything you can do to not increase stateless people’. That is something that we have to fight against. Rest concerns India,” Asselborn said during an interactive session at India International Centre in New Delhi. The new constitutional provisions of CAA and NRC have excluded millions of people particularly Muslims from the Indian citizenship.

 

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Kashmir Media Service

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Srinagar, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), an amalgam of several traders’ bodies, has decried shortage of essential commodities due to frequent closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

 

The residents of the Kashmir Valley have been facing an acute shortage of the daily necessities including food items, petrol, LPG and life-saving medicines since August 5, last year, when Indian government repealed the special status of occupied Kashmir and placed it due under strict military lockdown. The frequent closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only surface link of the Valley with the rest of the world, due to rains and snowfall has added to the miseries of the people.

 

The Vice Chairman of Kashmir Economic Alliance, Aijaz Shahdhar, in a statement issued in Srinagar said that this winter, the movement of vehicular traffic got frequently disrupted on the Srinagar-Jammu highway and as a result there was an acute scarcity of essentials in the markets. He said that shopkeepers were unable to receive goods on time due to frequent suspension of traffic. He added that petrol and LPG supply, too, had remained disrupted and people were facing immense problems.

 

He urged the occupation authorities to take effective measures to ensure sufficient availability of essential commodities. Meanwhile, normal life remains badly hit in the Kashmir Valley due to the military siege and broadband internet shutdown on 178th consecutive day, today. The people continue to suffer immensely due to the unrelenting restrictions under Section 144. The harsh weather has brought more miseries to the besieged people of the territory.

 

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Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org

Mirpur, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has urged students to reach out to their peers around the world and apprise them of India’s brutalities in Occupied Kashmir. “Our soul, body and identity will remain incomplete until and unless Occupied Kashmir attains freedom and becomes our part,” he said while addressing the 5th convocation of Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) on Tuesday.

 

Touching on the quest to freedom of previous generations, the AJK president said that it is the responsibility of today’s youth to struggle for the progress and prosperity of the region. “The youth should also fight for the liberation of a vast part of the state which is still under the unlawful occupation of the enemy.”

 

Referring to the situation prevailing in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ and K), he once again underscored that Kashmiris are undergoing the worst phase of their history and they are being deprived of their right to self-determination.

 

President Masood also expressed his immense pleasure that MUST had organised several seminars to highlight the liberation movement and the right to self-determination of the people of IOK. Felicitating the passed out students and their parents, he said that education does not mean to have knowledge on some specific aspects of life or to attain a degree but the real education is to become a good human being.

 

While appreciating the university administration for imparting higher education to a large number of students, President Masood said that in order to promote research and innovation, the students should be acquainted with ultramodern technologies to compete other nations in the world.

 

Greeting the MUST administration for holding a successful job fair and establishing close contacts with the industrial sector, he advised the students to become active members of the society and build their own future.

 

“Hundreds and thousands of Pakistani youth – who are also the real strength of the country – belong to Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and they can change the fate of the country while bringing Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in the world’s first rank nations,” Masood emphasised.

 

Earlier in his address, MUST Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Maqsood Ahmed said that the university had recently introduced several new disciplines including media and communication, tourism and hospitality, forestry, sociology, and nutrition sciences etc.

 

More than 84 departments are operation at the MUST at the moment, he added. Later, the AJK president awarded degrees to 3,367 students, and gold medals to 70 boy and girl students for showing excellence in different disciplines. They included 2,289 under-graduate, 250 MS and MPhil and five doctorate degree holders.

 

For more information, contact:

Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org

Lahore, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has written a letter to 751 members of the European Parliament (EU), including its vice-president, regarding Indian atrocities on Kashmiris and controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act against the Muslims of India.

 

He has also mentioned the violations of seven conventions of United Nations and other international organisations by India. The governor in the letter also demanded of the European Parliament to play its role by approving a resolution against India on January 30, 2020.Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said that despite war hysteria by India, Pakistan under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan was advocating for peace.

 

He wrote that Prime Minister Imran Khan as “ambassador of Kashmiris” had effectively been highlighting Kashmir issue and peace efforts by Pakistan before the world at all the international forums. The world community should play its role in settlement of Kashmir issue and also take strict notice of Indian government’s atrocities on Indian Muslims.

 

In his letter addressed to European Parliament Vice-President Fabio Massimo Castaldo and other members of the parliament on Tuesday, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar urged the EU member states to support resolutions for repealing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act-2019 (CAA) of India and lifting of curfew by India in occupied Kashmir, besides help implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.

 

“I am deeply grateful to all the European Union lawmakers for their commitment to upholding social justice and democratic values such as equality, diversity and fairness and as a result drafting the anti–CAA resolution and calling upon all the EU member states to condemn unilateral changes made to the autonomous status of Kashmir and implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions in the upcoming European Parliament session” Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said.

 

It is high time the international community checked gross violations of human rights and draconian laws by Indian government” the governor added. He wrote that since May 2019, PM Narendra Modi’s start of second term, India first stripped Kashmir of its autonomy, deployed additional troops in the region, cut off internet/phones, placed thousands of people in preventive detention and, secondly, reinforced its nationalistic orientation by introducing the CAA on Dec 11 2019 which could trigger the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause widespread human suffering.

 

The CAA is explicitly discriminatory in nature as it specifically excludes Muslims from having access to the same provisions as other religious groups. The Indian government’s justification for “fast track citizenship” is to prevent persecution of minorities.

 

However the world’s most persecuted minorities such as Sri Lankan Tamils, Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh and Buddhist refugees from Tibet, do not fall under CAA’s purview. Under CAA, India is prosecuting national and religious minorities and silencing opposition, human rights groups and journalists critical of the government.

 

“We are grateful to the members of the European Union for condemning India’s disregard to its international obligations and human rights treaties (as below) to which New Delhi is a signatory, in the upcoming European Parliament session: Charter of the United Nations; Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; UN Security Council Resolution 91 (1951) on Kashmir; UN report on Kashmir of 2019; India-EU Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan and the EU-India Thematic Dialogue on Human Rights; and Article 14 of Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to equality to all and protects all from discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, gender or place of birth,” he maintained.

 

The Punjab governor further mentioned in the letter, “As a former member of the British Parliament, I know that the European Union and member states have always played a key role in addressing international issues. On Jan 30th European Union and member states are urged to vote in favour of resolutions; 1) For India to repeal the discriminatory CAA; 2) To remove the curfew in Kashmir and implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.”

 

“Lastly I would highlight that Pakistan’s priority is regional peace. Prime Minister Imran Khan is open to dialogue and negotiations as we realise the enormous human, economic and political benefits of resolving the Kashmir conflict and the importance of stability in the region as both Pakistan and India are nuclear weapon states,” he concluded.

 

For more information, contact:

Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org

Islamabad, January 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): A photo exhibition depicting the brutalities faced by the people of Indian occupied Kashmir at the hands of Indian forces was displayed here at national art gallery of PNCA. In the wake of marking Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5, Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) Tuesday arranged the exhibition to unveil the inhumane action and brutality of Indian forces in held Kashmir.

 

The exhibition was aimed at portraying unanimity with the Kashmiri people and highlight the miseries and catastrophic life being lived by Kashmiris under the communication blackout that has been imposed by Indian fascist government since August last year. It also intended to mobilize the international community to play its due role to provide future to the Kashmiri people.

 

Present on the occasion, Parliamentary Secretary on Kashmir Sobia Kamal Khan said the Indian forces were committing unprecedented human rights violation in Kashmir to subjugate Kashmiri people, however they were not alone as the whole world especially Pakistani people were sporting the Kashmiri brothers in their just struggle for right of self-determination.

 

She said the world was condemning the Indian policy against its persecuted minorities. “Kashmiris have been under curfew for more than five months and were being deprived of basic human necessities. These photographs narrate the story of Kashmiri youth who were sacrificing their days and nights for their independence and right of self-determination”, she added.

 

The Pakistan National Council of the Arts has planned several week-long activities programmes to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day and pay tribute to Kashmiri people for their struggle for right of self-determination.

 

For more information, contact:

Kashmir Media Service

Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549

Fax: +92-51-4861736

Email: info@kmsnews.org

Website: www.kmsnews.org