ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Human Rights Committee on Friday condemned Indian atrocities in Kashmir and expressed complete solidarity with the APHC and the people of the valley.

A joint meeting of the two committees, presided over by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed, was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Minister for Human Rights Senator Farooq Naek.

The meeting, says a press release, decided to send a Senate delegation representing all the parties to New York to meet Dr Aafia Siddiqui to enquire after her health.

The delegation may also visit the infamous detention centre at Guantanamo Bay to meet seven Pakistani prisoners there and to find out if they are being treated in accordance with universally-accepted standards of civilised conduct.

The meeting adopted a resolution expressing grief over the gruesome killing of APHC leader Shaikh Abdul Aziz and called for “immediate steps to stop state terrorism and prevent human rights violations in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”

It also expressed solidarity with JKLF president Yasin Malik who is on hunger strike against the Indian brutalities.

The resolution urged the international community, particularly the United Nations, to act to end the use of “brutal force against civilians” in Kashmir.

Later, a delegation of senators handed over the resolution, in the form of a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to an official of the UN Military Observer Group.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said the issues of Kashmir and human rights violations were above party politics on which the entire country spoke with one voice.

He praised the government, particularly the foreign ministry, for condemning the Indian atrocities and taking up the issue with the United Nations and the OIC.

Foreign Minister Qureshi briefed the meeting on the steps taken by the government since the murder of Shaikh Aziz on August 11. He said the government had taken several steps to mobilise the international community.