MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 26: A six-member delegation of legislators from the northeastern US state of New Hampshire on Wednesday called upon the Indian government to open occupied Kashmir to the outside world and stop shelling of the civilians along the Line of Control.

“I call upon the government of India to open to world what is happening in occupied Kashmir. I also call upon it to cease shelling at random or regularly of innocent civilians in Azad Kashmir,” leader of the delegation Rep Robert J. Giuda said while speaking to reporters at the local press club.

Others members of the delegation, which arrived here on Tuesday, included Rep Saghir A. Tahir, Rep Henry McElroy, Rep Michael Albert Balboni, Rep Kimberley Dionne and Senator Frank V. Sapareto.

“There is shelling of innocent civilians daily and atrocities also continue. These are the things which we know and see near the Line of Control. But we don’t know other than what the Kashmiri refugees told us that what is happening on the other side of the Line of Control,” Mr Giuda said.

On Tuesday, the delegation visited the border village of Chakothi where they were briefed by a military official and later toured a refugee camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad and interviewed the refugees.

On Wednesday, they were taken to the Combined Military Hospital where they saw and spoke to the victims of Indian shelling, including an 8-year-old boy and a woman.

“The things which we have seen in the last two days make it necessary to question India what exactly is happening in occupied Kashmir,” Mr Giuda said.

The people who were being shelled were not combatants, soldiers, policemen, or in any way involved in the political turmoil. All of their wounds afflict them for the rest of lives, he said.

“They (Indian troops) hit the innocent civilians in the fields, mothers in the houses, students in the schools and patients in the hospitals. This is not peace but aggression with designs to inflict fear upon the civilians and to systematically disrupt their economic infrastructure.”

The Republican lawmaker said he had twice sought permission for a visa and visit to occupied Kashmir from the Indian ambassador in the United States, but so far there was no response.

“I intend to know what is happening in an area where the UN observers are not admitted and where soldier to civilian ratio is 10:1,” he said.

India, he said, was acting under Pota that empowered it to detain and interrogate the people under the guise of combating terrorists.

“It is interesting that struggle for freedom or right to self-determination is deemed terrorism and that the atrocities are being committed by a government that claims to be the largest democracy on the face of the earth,” he said.

He told reporters that the New Hampshire legislature had recently passed a resolution which asked the US Senate and House of Representatives to immediately initiate hearing to discern all relevant facts and circumstances linked to the Kashmir conflict so as to facilitate its just and peaceful resolution.

The lawmaker said the American people knew little about Kashmir because there was communication problem.

“You live in a place which most of the world does not know exists somewhere.”

He said they had also formed a non-profitable organization — “Americans Resolution of Kashmir” — to educate people in the United States about the Kashmir conflict.

“Our goal is to take the issue of Kashmir and present it in the framework of next presidential elections, because we believe that its settlement is essential for the strategic interests of the US and global peace.”

“Someone in the run for the US presidentship will have to stand against the atrocities in Kashmir.”

Mr Giuda stressed that four parties — Kashmiris, India, Pakistan and the US — needed to sit on the negotiating table to resolve the Kashmir issue.

“Being the sole superpower, the US should act as a referee. That superpower is obliged for the sake of preventing a nuclear holocaust and for the sake of cessation of hostilities that produce atrocities beyond description to mediate, arbitrate and ensure that India, and Pakistan honour their signed pledge to the people of Kashmir in the resolution of 1948 in which a free and open plebiscite was promised to the Kashmiris.”

Earlier, speaking at a luncheon hosted by Shah Ghulam Qadir, AJK minister for finance, Mr Giuda said they had visited Azad Kashmir to learn, listen and see and in doing so develop a body of knowledge to take back to the American people.

“Most of the outside world does not know about the story of Kashmir. When I learnt it during my previous visit (in December last year) I thought it is must to inform them about it.”

“I also refute the comments of the US ambassador to India, Mr Robert Blackwill, that the US would not spend any resources to resolve the Kashmir issue,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the only woman member of the delegation, Kimberley Dionne, said that she was emotionally upset after visiting the hospital.

“Hopefully we will convey a strong message to our people back home,” she said.