MUZAFFARABAD: Rallies and demonstrations were held across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday under the aegis of different outfits to mark Human Rights Day, with participants calling upon United Nations, international community and human rights watchdogs to fulfill their obligations towards stopping organised genocide of Kashmiris in the disputed Himalayan region.

The theme of the day was related to the Covid-19 pandemic and many leaders including AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the incarcerated chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), pointed out that India had been purposely denying testing and treatment facilities to the people of occupied Kashmir as part of its abhorrent attempts to change demography of the Muslim majority state.

“By all counts, India’s record of human rights is despicable and warrants reprimand and corrective measures by the UN and the international community without further loss of time,” Mr Haider said, adding: “If the world has to prove its sincerity towards the sanctity of the fundamental rights of all human beings, it should free the oppressed Kashmiris from the largest prison of the world that the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir happens to be under.”

In his statement from Srinagar, Mirwaiz pointed out that for the past three decades the abysmal human rights situation in occupied Kashmir had shown no signs of improvement.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020