Islamabad, September 29, 2020 (PPI-OT): While condemning India’s move to abrogate Article 370 and induction of a new domicile law for Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, panellists at a webinar have termed the actions as a flagrant violation of Geneva Conventions and the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.
The event was hosted by Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) in collaboration with World Muslim Council (WMC). The webinar titled “Demographic Changes, Violation of International Law: A Case Study of Indian Occupied Kashmir” was attended and addressed by independent observers and experts on human rights, Hurriyat leaders, and lawmakers including Labour MP for Luton North Miss Sarah Owen, Member of Parliament for Peterborough Paul Baristow, Kashmiri leaders Masroor Abbas Ansari, Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, Shaista Safi, Executive Director YFK Ahmad Qureshi and several others. The event was moderated by the KIIR chairman Altaf Hussain Wani.
During his initial remarks Altaf Wani underlined the Indian government’s settler colonial project in Kashmir aimed at seeking the demographic change in the region that has been reeling under the Indian state-terrorism and unrelenting violence since the Modi led fascist regime took away its special status and bifurcated it. He said that the lopsided move was a violation of international covenants and the UNSC resolutions that strictly bar the occupation state (India) from changing the status of the disputed territory. He said that these actions that have been rejected by the people of the territory were taken to pave a way for implementation of the BJP’s Hindutva agenda in Kashmir.
The distinguished panellists on the occasion said, “Annexation and new domicile law is a violation of international law, Geneva Conventions and the UN security resolutions on Kashmir”. “The colonial tools such as extrajudicial killings, systematic violence against women and children, ethnic cleansing, genocide of Kashmiri youth are being used by the Indian authorities to suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle for right to self-determination,” the panellists said.
Urging the international community and world leaders to raise their voice for the voiceless people of Jammu and Kashmir, the panellists said that it was high time that the Government of India should be made accountable for the crimes its forces have been committing against Kashmiris”. Terming Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle as a legitimate political struggle they said that it was the prime responsibility of the global community to persuade India to resolve the long-drawn conflict so that people of Kashmir could decide their political future through their free will.
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