LONDON: Kashmiris will be masters of their own destiny one day as self-determination is not a gift but a right, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at an international conference in British Parliament on Monday.

Expressing solidarity with the struggling Kashmiris for their right to self-determination, the minister praised the participants for asking India to repeal draconian laws, ban use of pellet guns, open jails for inspection and initiate a comprehensive public investigation into the identities of bodies found in mass and unmarked graves across the occupied valley.

“In India-occupied Kashmir, humanity is bleeding, the valley is burning, people are groaning under the weight of an occupation that is becoming harsher by the day.

“Every passing day brings sordid news of rape, murder, killings and grievous injuries inflicted upon hapless civilians by Indian forces armed to their teeth,” Mr. Qureshi said.

Praises international community for asking India to repeal draconian laws, ban use of pellet guns and investigate unmarked mass graves in occupied valley

He reminded the international community that India had committed itself to holding a plebiscite to determine the will of the Kashmiri people. “The Indian leadership has repeatedly reaffirmed this commitment. But India has repeatedly reneged on its solemn commitments, choosing instead the destructive path of genocide and repression.

“Where in the world will you find such a heavy concentration of armed forces, equipped with draconian laws meant to institutionalize violence by these forces against an unarmed civilian population? I am referring to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and other public safety laws that give legal cover to armed personnel to assume the mantle of law enforcer, judge, jury and executioner and to act with impunity.

“Even under these laws, the Indian government has failed to grant approval for prosecution of a single case of human rights abuse, not a single prosecution, not one conviction.

“Where in the world will you find mass graves? In its 2009 report, buried evidence, the NGO International Peoples Tribunal and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons investigated hundreds of mass graves throughout Jammu and Kashmir. It concluded the bodies unearthed were of indigenous Kashmiri Muslims who had been killed by Indian occupation forces on the false pretext that they were infiltrators.

“Where will you find mass rape and sexual abuse being used as instrument of torture? The Kuna Poshpura incident that led to gang-rape of over one hundred innocent women by Indian army personnel back in 1991 is without a parallel in modern history. Its victims still cry out for justice.

“Where’s justice for eight-year-old Asifa Bano of Kathwa who was raped to death. In India, processions were taken out in favour of the rapists. Elected members of state governments spoke out in their defence and concerted efforts are being made to discredit the evidence and exonerate the criminals.

“Under which canon of fundamental law is blinding of innocent protesters by pellet guns is a justified action,” the foreign minister said, reminding the international community about its commitment to the United Nations charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2019