Islamabad, October 31, 2018 (PPI-OT): The All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG) in the UK Parliament in its report released today expressed concern over the present human rights situation in occupied Kashmir. The report compiled after receiving various testimonies about the human rights violations perpetrated by the Indian troops in the occupied territory was released by Chairman of the APPKG, MP Chris Leslie, in London.
The report said that violations, most egregiously in occupied Kashmir, frame everyday life for millions of Kashmiris. It further said that excessive state violence, systematized by a legal framework which grants near-wholesale impunity to those responsible, is routine, adding it is, in sum, a reality that warrants far greater attention than it receives.
The report has discussed in detail the draconian laws, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) as well as enforced disappearances, lack of transparency and use of pellets in the territory.
The report has proposed a number of recommendations to alleviate the sufferings of Kashmiris. They include:
The Government of India must repeal the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 and enable prosecution of armed forces and security personnel in the civilian judicial system
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir must urgently provide a strict and limited statutory basis for administrative detention powers, in line with international legal principles, by repealing or amending the Public Safety Act 1978
The Government of India must initiate a comprehensive public investigation into the identities of bodies in mass and unmarked graves, with an independent forensic verification process, and provide for a full freedom of information mechanism for the families of suspected victims of enforced disappearance
The Government of India should immediately ban the use of pellet firing shotguns
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir must open its prisons to international inspection.
The Governments of India and Pakistan should work to resume regularised visa-regulated civilian travel across the Line of Control and reunite separated families.
Following is the report released by All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group in UK Parliament
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