Pakistan calls for end to impunity, brutal repression in Indian-held Kashmir

NEW YORK - Pakistan Ambassador to the UN has called for an end to impunity and brutal repression of innocent civilians by Indian occupation forces in Jammu & Kashmir in a series of meetings with top UN officials and in her address to the General Assembly.

During her address, Lodhi urged those in attendance to ensure the provision of the right to self-determination and justice for the Kashmiri victims of Indian repression.

Ambassador Lodhi also reminded the United Nations of its longstanding commitments to the people of Jammu and Kashmir under several UN Security Council resolutions.

She argued that the human rights situation in Jammu & Kashmir was worsening because UN Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite and self-determination for the Kashmiri people had not been followed.

Ambassador Lodhi said that the worsening situation in J&K merited attention by the world body, as it posed a grave threat to regional peace and security.

Lodhi also briefed the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Koro Bessho, Chief of Staff of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman on the situation in Kashmir, where fundamental human rights are being blatantly violated by the Indian state.

She informed them that over 100 Kashmiri youth risked losing their vision because of the brutal use of air gun pellets by Indian forces. This was in addition to over forty innocent people killed and thousands injured from firing of live ammunition on peaceful protesters by Indian forces. She called for an independent and transparent inquiry into the extra-judicial killings of civilians in Indian occupied Kashmir.

Ambassador Lodhi also said that the assassination of a Kashmiri youth leader Burhan Wani had set off widespread protests which had been met with by heavy-handed tactics from Indian occupation forces. Dubbing the Kashmiris agitating for their right to self-determination as “terrorists” was a travesty of truth and was further inflaming passions, she argued.

The Pakistani envoy was informed that the UN Secretary General  was concerned about the deteriorating situation in Indian-held Kashmir, and that he was  ready to mediate peace talks between India and Pakistan provided the two neighbors accept his intercession.

The Pakistani envoy called the use of excessive force against civilians exceedingly deplorable and condemnable.

She said that the leaders of the APHC (All Parties Hurriyat Council) had all been confined to house arrest. The continued imposition of a curfew had alsp brought life to a halt and was causing great hardship to the people, she said.

 

Ambassador Lodhi also forwarded letters of the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz addressed to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council expressing Pakistan’s serious concern at the alarming situation in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK) and drawing attention to the brutal killings of innocent civilians and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces.