LAHORE (APP): Experts on Sunday termed India’s belligerence as the biggest threat to peace and stability in the region, which is creating war hysteria and deflecting the world attention from serious human rights and war crime situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
They said the dire political and human rights situation in the occupied territory had left India exposed at the international level. Lauding the sacrifices of people living at the Line of control (LoC), experts said that Kashmiris had been braving the brunt of firing at the LoC with the utmost courage. On June 24, the Indian Army, in a display of usual inhuman approach towards innocent Kashmiris, opened indiscriminate fire on a group of shepherds in Sattwal sector, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. “In sequel to Indian Army unprovoked firing today, while adopting an inhuman approach towards innocent Kashmiris at Sattwal sector, one more civilian embraced shahadat while another was critically injured. (Total two martyred and one critically injured),” ISPR statement said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chaudhry Anwarul Haq condemned the Indian forces’ unprovoked firing in the Sattwal sector of the Line of Control. In a statement issued here, he regrettably noted that on the one hand, the Indian forces had been committing war crimes in Kashmir, while on the other, they had been brazenly violating the ceasefire agreement by targeting innocent civilians along the LoC.
He said that despite Indian shelling, Kashmiri people living near LoC stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pakistan Army in their fight to defend the country’s territorial integrity. The AJK PM also hailed the supreme sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani forces. He also paid homage to those who embraced martyrdom and directed the authorities concerned to provide the best medical facilities for the injured in the incident. He also appealed to the United Nations, Security Council and international organisations to take notice of India’s naked aggression.
The Foreign Office (FO), in this connection, summoned the Indian charge d’ affairs to register Pakistan’s protest and condemn the incident. “It was underscored that such senseless acts were in clear violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding, reaffirmed in February 2021. It was further underscored that targeting of civilians was contrary to human dignity and international human rights and humanitarian laws. “The Indian side was urged to respect the ceasefire understanding, investigate the incident, and maintain peace along the Line of Control,” the FO said in the release.
Earlier, last month, Indian troops shot dead a 25-year-old inadvertent crosser from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Likewise on May 15, Parveen Fatima, a 65-year-old widow from the Pandu sector of AJK in Jhelum valley district, was also killed by the Indian army, after she had strayed across the LoC while picking some medicinal plants.
The development comes days after the United States (US) and India issued a joint statement on June 22, that was issued as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Joe Biden during his visit to the US. Responding to the statement, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a media talk that India habitually used terrorism bogey to deflect attention from its brutal repression of Kashmiri people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and maltreatment of its minorities.
Responding to media queries regarding the US-India joint statement, the foreign office spokesperson said: “We consider the Pakistan-specific reference in the ‘Joint Statement from the United States and India’, issued on 22 June 2023, as unwarranted, one-sided, and misleading. The reference is contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones. “We are surprised that it has been added despite Pakistan’s close counter-terrorism cooperation with the US.” She said, “Pakistan has rendered unmatched sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. “In laying down their lives, our law enforcement agencies and armed forces have set an example. People of Pakistan are the real heroes in this fight,” she added.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, while speaking in National Assembly, said he was extremely annoyed over the inclusion of Pakistan in the joint statement issued after the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, he noted that during Narendra Modi’s time as Gujarat’s chief minister, thousands of Muslims were killed and raped, and the US at the time had banned Narendra Modi from receiving a visa in retaliation for those atrocities. Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik’s wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick told APP that the RSS-inspired ‘Hindutva’ ideology was being pursued by the BJP-led Modi government, which was a major threat to ‘foreign investment’ in India. She urged the people of IIOJK to observe a complete strike on Monday, to register their protest against the holding of G20 meeting in Srinagar by Narendra Modi-led Indian government.
Mushaal Mullick said fascist Modi and the Indian Army are turning Kashmiris into a minority in the valley by issuing domiciles to Indian citizens. In IIOJK, over 100,000 Kashmiris had been killed by Indian forces since 1989, while more than 7,200 people were murdered in custodial torture by the Indian army.
The Kashmir Media Service (KMS), in its recent report, revealed that nearly 11,000 women were raped by Indian soldiers and over 110,000 children became orphan, whereas around 23,000 women were made widows by the Indian troops. The Indian forces are using rape, molestation and sexual violence against women and children as a weapon of war, besides awarding collective punishment, in a bid to suppress the legitimate freedom movement in the occupied valley,” former senator from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Sehar Kamran (TI) told APP.
Kashmiris have been stating for decades that India intended to settle paramilitary families and military settlements there, as well as establishment of semi-permanent military colonies in Kashmir, she said and urged the G20 member countries to boycott the meeting in the occupied territory and ask India to give Kashmiris their fundamental right to self-determination. The Indian occupational forces’ state terrorism, war crimes and human rights violations had made life a nightmare for over one million oppressed Kashmiris, especially women, senior citizens and children in IIOJ, she added.
Violating all fundamental rights, India had imposed military siege on some 10 million Kashmiris in IIOJK, by converting the territory into biggest jail on earth, where over 900,000 Indian forces had been deployed with no regard for human rights, Sehar Kamran lamented.
India’s belligerence designs, unmatched war-crimes reach climax in IIOJK
