Srinagar: Incarcerated senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has urged the international community to take cognizance of the fast-deteriorating human rights situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Shabbir Ahmed Shah in his message from New Delhi’s infamous Tihar jail voiced concern over the global community’s deafening silence on the abysmal situation in Kashmir and said that political, social, cultural and religious rights of the Kashmiri people remain critically suppressed.
Shah, while stressing the need for early and amicable settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute, urged the international community to play its much-needed role to help resolve the dispute peacefully in accordance with the universally accepted principle of right to self-determination. He maintained that India’s continuous denial to grant the Kashmiris their birth right had prevented the people of occupied territory from enjoying the fruits of liberty, experience of dignity and full benefits of freedom as enshrined in the UN charter, the Geneva Convention and other core international human rights treaties.
The APHC leader said that instead of reflecting a genuine desire to grant the Kashmiri people their promised right, the Indian rulers over the past 76 years tried to crush their legitimate struggle for right to self-determination by using its military might. For that matter, India has deployed massive troops in the disputed territory. These trigger-happy troops operating under the protection of draconian laws are resorting to extra-judicial killings, detentions, massacres, targeted killings, sieges, torture, enforced disappearances, rape and molestation, he deplored.
Shabbir Shah said since 5th August 2019, IIOJK has been turned into a hell for its inhabitants. “The suffocating conditions in which Kashmiris are forced to live were a greatest challenge for the world’s conscience. Kashmir is the only place in the world where humans live without human rights,” he said.
The APHC leader urged the international community to take cognizance of the Indian state terrorism in IIOJK and impress upon India to resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations for ensuring durable peace in the region.
