ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on Monday called upon the international community to take notice of human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference along with the family members of imprisoned Kashmiri freedom fighter Asiya Andrabi, she urged the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as women organisations including the International Women Caucuses to take action on the issue.

Ms Mazari said Asiya Andrabi, along with Fehmida Sufi and Naheeda Nasreen, had been imprisoned in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

She said that imprisoning Dr Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, the longest serving political prisoner, Asiya Andrabi and Syed Ali Gilani, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Ashraf Sehrani, Dr Fayyaz, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Musarrat Alam Bhat in occupied Kashmir’s prisons and the notorious Tihar Jail was a complete violation of Article 49.

PM says Pakistan observes Jan 5 as a reminder to UN of its unfulfilled commitment to Kashmiris

The detention of these prisoners was also a war crime under Article 82 (2b, VIII) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), read with Article 143 of Geneva Convention IV, she added.

In a related development, Prime Minis­ter Imran Khan reiterated Pakistan’s support for the people of occupied Kashmir.

In a series of tweets, he said: “On 5th January 1949, the United Nations guaranteed the right to self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir through an impartial plebiscite. We observe this day as a reminder to the UN & its member states of their unfulfilled commitment to the Kashmiri people.

“Despite suffering 73 years of brutal Indian occupation, generation after generation of the Kashmiri people remain steadfast in the demand for their inalienable right to self-determination as guaranteed to them under the UN Charter and by the UNSC.

“We call on the international community to take action against the well-documented human rights violations being committed with impunity by Indian Occupation forces against innocent Kashmiri men, women & children; & to ensure Kashmiris get their right to self determination.

“Pakistan stands unequivocally with the Kashmiri people in their struggle for freedom from the tyranny of one of the most ruthless, inhumane & illegal Occupation in modern history.”

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2021