NGA handed over dossier on rights violations in Kashmir

By APP 

NEW YORK: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and MNA Dr Shezra Mansab Ali, who are currently visiting the United States as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s envoys on Kashmir, met UN General Assembly president Peter Thomson on Wednesday and handed him a dossier about human rights violations in India-held Kashmir.

The two briefed Mr Thomson about the grave threat to peace and security posed by the deteriorating human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir as a result of India’s suppression of Kashmiris’ freedom movement.

Dr Ali informed Mr Thomson about the killing of peaceful Kashmiri demonstrators by Indian occupation forces.

She said that the use of pellet guns had blinded hundreds of children, women and men.

Senator Sayed informed Mr Thomson that India had stoked war hysteria to distract world attention from its brutal action to suppress the legitimate demand of Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination.

He stressed that the ongoing movement of Kashmiris was indigenous and it had been sparked by the extrajudicial killing of Kashmir leader Burhan Wani.

He said India had closed all doors to bilateral dialogue, scuttled a regional summit and at the international level it had refused to implement the Security Council resolutions. The Indian attitude, he said, posed an imminent threat to peace and security in the region.

The UNGA chief expressed his concern at the situation and assured the visiting envoys that he would do everything possible to foster peace. He said that he would get an update on the current situation from the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Senator Sayed also informed Mr Thomson that India had raised the temperature on the Line of Control (LoC) and this escalation was a threat to peace.

The special envoys, accompanied by Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, also briefed the DPKO officials on accelerating tensions along the LoC. They reiterated Prime Minister Sharif’s proposal to expand operations of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan to avoid such situations.

The DPKO officials informed the envoys on the continued noncooperation by the Indian side, hampering the mandated work of the UN mission.

They were greatly appreciative of Pakistan’s cooperation with the mission, and its role as one of the world’s top troop contributors to the UN peacekeeping missions.

The two parliamentarians earlier had an interactive session with representatives of the Kashmiri Diaspora. Senator Syed assured them of Pakistan’s continued moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmir cause in their quest for their right to self-determination.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016