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 (IIOJ&K).
According to Kashmir Media Service, 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 the 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 the 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.
Posters also appeared in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), asking the Kashmiri people to massively come on the roads to save their identity and raise their voices for the rights snatched by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government on 5th August 2019.
According to a report by Kashmir Media Service, the posters were displayed by All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir Political Resistance Movement, Jammu and Kashmir Justice and Peace Initiative, Nawjawanan-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Justice League Forum, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Movement, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Youth Forum, Jammu and Kashmir Social Youth Forum, Warseen-e-Shuhada Jammu and Jammu and Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Resistance Party.
The posters read a patronized judiciary under the influence of BJP is likely to endorse its illegal actions of August 5, 2019, and Kashmiri people must come on roads massively and raise their voices for the rights snatched by the BJP regime.
The posters, while appealing to people to protest against Hindutva BJP/RSS anti-Kashmir agendas, read “Revocation of Article 370 on 5th Aug 2019 was an assault on Kashmiri identity and was meant to strip Kashmiris of their rights”–” People of Jammu & Kashmir want immediate restoration of Article 370.”
The posters appealed to the world community to put pressure on India to restore Kashmir-specific Articles 370 and 35A as on August 5, 2019, the Modi-led Hindutva government revoked Article 370, which granted special status to the internationally recognized disputed territory Jammu and Kashmir, and imposed a brutal military and police siege.
The posters said the Indian judiciary is giving priority to Hindutva ideology while announcing verdicts in cases related to Muslims in India/IIOJK as RSS-backed Indian BJP government’s 5 Aug 2019 annulment of J&K’s special status was meant to strip Kashmiris of their rights.
The posters, rejecting the illegal and unilateral Indian actions of August 5, 2019, said it is the legal duty of the Indian Supreme Court to give a verdict in favour of the suppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir, adding the restoration of Articles 370 & 35A is the demand of every Kashmiri living under the military and police siege since Aug 2019.
