Geneva, October 02, 2020 (PPI-OT): The speakers at a press conference in Geneva have sought urgent attention of the global community towards the impending humanitarian crisis in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The speakers of the press conference said that over a year-long undeclared military siege in IIOJK is a challenge to the world conscience.
The press conference, held on the side-lines of the ongoing 45th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, was addressed by President of Tehreek-e-Kashmir, UK, Fahim Kiyani. Former president of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Mr Morgan Lykketoft and Chairman of Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) Altaf Hussain Wani attended and addressed the event through video link. They said, “Besides leaving undeletable and devastating impacts on the Kashmiris’ psyche, the unrelenting siege, on one hand, left the economy of the territory in doldrums, while on the other, it has enormously affected the education and health sectors at a time when it was hit by the novel coronavirus.”
Amidst a deepening crisis, they said, “After 5th August 2019 a population of over 8 million people was held virtually incommunicado by the Indian authorities thereby enforcing a crippling communication blockade in the territory. “All forms of communication including the internet, mobile and landline phones and social media sites were disbanded,” they said, adding that the entire Kashmir was turned into an information black-hole for rest of the world.
Referring to the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights report, which focuses on the worst human rights violations committed by Indian troops in Kashmir, the speakers said that there was a dire need that the Indian government, which has an appalling human track record of muzzling the voices of dissent, should be pressurized to allow a UN fact-finding mission to visit IIOJK to carry out an independent investigation into the incidents of human rights violations, enforced disappearances and systematic genocide of Kashmiri youth by Indian forces.
Voicing their serious concern over the persecution and victimization of political and human rights activists at the hands of the occupation authorities in IIOJK, they said that pro-freedom political leaders, human rights activists and members of the civil society were being harassed, humiliated and arrested under draconian laws.
Demanding release of all illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists, they said that colonial tools such as arbitrary arrests, imprisonments and detention of youth in concentration camps were used by India to stifle the voice of Kashmiris, who had been struggling for their legitimate right to self-determination guaranteed to them by the world community.
Calling for an early and amicable settlement of the Kashmir dispute, the speakers said that peace in the region would remain a distant dream unless the long pending dispute was addressed in accordance with the universally accepted principle of right to 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