ISLAMABAD: Sensitising the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the current situation in India-held Kashmir, Pakistan has once again urged the international community to attend to SOS calls of the beleaguered Kashmiris.

On the sidelines of the IPU 141st General Assembly, the Pakistani parliamentary delegation met IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and Secretary General Martin Chungong in the Serbian capital Belgrade and informed them about human rights violations in India-held Kashmir and the difficulties the people in the occupied valley had been facing due to curfew for over two months.

According to the National Assem­bly Secretariat, the Pakistani delegation asked the IPU to send a fact-finding mission to the region to ascertain the scale and magnitude of human sufferings in held Kashmir.

Led by Kashmir Committee Chairman MNA Syed Fakhar Imam, the Pakistani delegation’s members included Senator Sherry Rehman, MNA Malik Ehsanullah Tiwana and MNA Shazia Marri.

Mr Imam urged the world parliamentary body to help convince India to implement the UN Security Council resolutions in wake of the recent surge in New Delhi’s atrocities in the occupied valley.

Inter-Parliamentary Union urged to send a fact-finding mission to India-held Kashmir

He called for immediate lifting of all restrictions on mobility and communications as the valley had seen an uninterrupted round-the-clock curfew from Aug 5 till the end of September, only to be relaxed in selected areas.

Terming India-held Kashmir the “world’s largest open air jail”, he deplored the inhuman detention of the entire Kashmiri leadership, besides abduction of thousands of young boys.

Referring to the recommendations of the UN High Com­missioner for Human Rights, Mr Imam endorsed the global human rights body’s call to establish a UN commission to investigate human rights violations in held Kashmir. He deplored that India had barred international observer missions from entering the occupied valley.

“It is regretted to note that while the entire international media and global human rights organisations have condemned India for its undemocratic and abrasive handling of the situation, they have so far failed in convincing the Indian leadership to revisit its fascist and racist actions,” he said.

Mr Imam also gave a comprehensive account of the Kashmir dispute and presented details of Indian atrocities over the years.

“Since 1989, around 100,000 Kashmiris have been martyred by Indian occupation forces. Out of these, 7,130 persons have been killed in custody,” he said.

Mr Imam elaborated the plight of Kashmiris by informing the IPU leaders that the occupying Indian authorities had even relegated to use rape as a weapon of terror. “There are more than 12,000 cases of rapes while over a million children have been left orphaned. The Indian forces have failed to give any account of over 7,000 mass graves so far discovered with thousands of victims of fake encounters,” he added.

Senator Rehman said the IPU was best placed to use its resources in bringing India to the negotiating table. “The very fact that India has continued to shy away from dialogue and has persistently barred any international agency or individuals from visiting the besieged valley for facts ascertainment proves itself that India wants to hide its crimes against humanity,” she added.

IPU President Barron observed that in her opinion the South Asian region and Indo-Pak borders were the most dangerous borders in the world, which divided the two opposing nuclear powers. She stressed the the need for maintaining peace and said she would visit the region in December in order to help develop an environment conducive to dialogue between India and Pakistan.

IPU Secretary General Chun­gong offered facilitating talks between India and Pakistan if the two sides agreed.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019