UN, int’l community appealed to help stop HR violations

Srinagar, February 08 : The Kashmir High Court Bar Association has appealed to the United Nations and international community to impress upon India to stop human rights violations in Kashmir.

The Bar Association, in a memorandum of appeal to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon on behalf of the people, said that Kashmiris were waiting for the resolution of the long-pending dispute under the United Nations’ resolutions for the last sixty-three years.

The memorandum condemned the killing of an innocent Kashmiri youth, Zahid Farooq of Brein Nishat, 13, by Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and described it as unabated spate of killings of the youth especially of tender age. “Zahid’s killing by Indian troops is seventh incident since January 1, 2010 till date in which youth especially school going children have been targeted to death,” it added.

Condemning the illegal detention of Hurriyet leaders and activists including Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Firdous Ahmad Shah, Rafiq Ahmad Ganai and Mushtaq-ul-Islam, it said that more than 500 Kashmiri youth had been illegally detained by the occupation authorities and lodged in different jails of the occupied territory.

Expressing concern over the plight of Kashmiri detainees in different jails and worsening health condition of Abdul Basit and Shabbir Ahmad of Safa Kadal who were injured by the troopers in tear gas shelling, the memorandum demanded of India to deliver the corpus of renowned Kashmiri liberation leader, Mohammad Maqbool Butt, hanged in Tihar Jail New Delhi, to the family for his final burial ceremony.

It also flayed the Indian electronic and print media for blacking out the coverage of the continued rights violations by the occupation authorities in the territory. “The peace and stability in South Asia can not prevail till the lingering dispute between the nuclear rivals is resolved,” it maintained.

Denouncing the Indian state terrorism and imposition of draconian laws in the occupation territory, it maintained that the killing of innocent people, extra-judicial murders, illegal detentions and custodial disappearances by the troopers had become a routine. “The troops are using the sexual abuse of Kashmiri women as a weapon of war besides arson and destruction of the property,” it deplored. KMS