JKLF Urges UN to Intervene on Grave Human Rights Abuses in Jammu Kashmir, in a Memorandum on 72nd Human Rights Day.
By: Syed Touseef Gilani
Tags: Human Rights, India, United Nations, Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan

In the memorandum, addressed to UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres and handed in at the Organisation’s Brussels office by JKLF Europe Zone members, the Party stressed the need for the international community to take urgent action and help stop human rights violations being committed in Jammu Kashmir by India and Pakistan. The memorandum also reiterated Party’s stance that only an independent state of Jammu Kashmir offers a fair solution to all parties, and the only one that can lead to sustainable peace and prosperity for entire South Asia.

Full text of the memorandum is given below (© JKLF Europe Zone).

Memorandum presented by JKLF Europe to the UN Secretary General at Brussels office on 72nd Human Rights Day.

His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres

Secretary-General

United Nations

405 East, 42nd Street

New York, NY, 10017

United States of America

We, the undersigned, are writing to you to request your urgent attention towards grave human rights violations in Jammu Kashmir, the longest running occupation in the world. People of Jammu Kashmir desperately need your support to end the most horrific of human rights abuses being committed by occupying forces. On the occasion of 72nd Human Rights Day, we urge the United Nations to fulfil its responsibilities towards Jammu Kashmir and its 20 million subjugated citizens, and bring an end to 73 years of bloody occupation.

We, the undersigned, want to draw your urgent attention towards grave human rights violations and abuses in occupied state of Jammu Kashmir, and demand your urgent intervention to secure an end to hostilities between Indian and Pakistani armies on ceasefire line in Jammu Kashmir, and work towards complete withdrawal of the forces of both countries from Jammu Kashmir, as promised by both countries and enshrined by the UN resolutions. Over the recent months, there has been a marked increased in tensions between India and Pakistan on ceasefire line. This escalation is again causing severe loss of lives and property of civilians on both sides of the ceasefire line. As recently as last month, both armies bombarded civilian populations along the forcibly imposed line of division, killing 20 people. We urge you to demand an urgent and immediate de-escalation by both countries.

We, the undersigned, urge you to demand governments of Pakistan and India to release all political prisoners in occupied Jammu Kashmir state and immediately put a stop to suppression of legitimate and peaceful rights of the citizens of the State. Both India and Pakistan have resorted to brutal actions and measures to suppress any form of dissent in Jammu Kashmir. In Indian-occupied Jammu Kashmir, the entire political leadership including pro-India politicians had been arrested in the aftermath of India’s unlawful decision to remove special status from Jammu Kashmir, and most still is in imprisonment either on fabricated charges or without any charges at all. Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the leader of the largest and entirely non-violent movement has now been imprisoned by India for over 2 years. Despite his rapidly deteriorating health and pleas of human rights bodies, he is being denied the medical care he urgently needs. Numerous other prominent Kashmiri leaders, including Zahoor Butt and Shabbir Shah, have been languishing in prison for even longer and, again, without any provable charges whatsoever.

In Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir, numerous human rights and political activists are in prisons for many years with absolutely no access to justice. To give you an example, two prominent Kashmiri activists Baba Jan and Iftikhar Karbalai were recently released by Pakistani authorities after nearly 10 years imprisonment. The release, however, effectively took place on a bureaucratic order rather than through a legal process or a court of law. Does this not beg the question that why were they imprisoned in first place? What was their crime, other than peacefully asking for very basic rights for the people? And this draconian approach characterised by impunity has been used in case of prominent British-Kashmiri journalist Tanveer Ahmed too, who was arrested almost four months ago for staging a peaceful, one-man protest, and continues to languish in prison without access to justice. We urge you to demand India and Pakistan to allow representative of the UN, human rights bodies and other relevant bodies to visit Jammu Kashmir, and to urgently investigate the grave violations of human rights being committed with impunity in Jammu Kashmir.

We, the undersigned, ask the UN to demand India that it revokes its unlawful action of 5th August 2019, when Narendra Modi’s government abrogated key parts of Articles 370 and 35A of its constitution which had enshrined the special status of Jammu Kashmir and the commitments made by founding leaders of India, such as Jawaharlal Nehru who stated that "it is only the people of Kashmir who can decide the future of Kashmir. It is not that we have merely said that to the United Nations and to the people of Kashmir; it is our conviction and one that is borne out by the policy that we have pursued, not only in Kashmir but everywhere". The events in the build up to and following the unlawful and outrageous decision by India on 5th August 2019 are well broadcasted. In the lead up to this decision, the horrific human abuses committed by Indian forces cannot be matched by any other atrocity in recent times. It saw Indian forces resorting to barbaric and inhumane use of pellet guns, resulting in tens of deaths and permanent blindness for hundreds, including children as young as 18 months. Even if the figures released by Indian government itself were to be believed, 17 innocent civilians were killed by Indian forces using pellet guns, 139 permanently blinded and 6,221 suffering serious injuries. Sadly, the reality on the ground, the local records and the estimates by human rights organisations show that the real figures are much, much higher.

The same period has also seen Indian forces return to their old tactic of using human shields. One example is a completely innocent man tied in front of an Indian Army vehicle and paraded through the streets of Srinagar is perhaps one of the most barbaric actions of our times. What is worse, and incomprehensible for subjugated people of Jammu Kashmir, is that this event was broadcasted all over the world, yet we saw absolutely no reaction or condemnation. The horrific pictures of blinded children, innocent people being used as a human shields, and the subsequent cries for action from human rights organisations should have shaken this world into action, but unfortunately the entire episode has only served as a reassurance to occupiers of Jammu Kashmir that they can keep committing human rights abuses with total impunity.

We, the undersigned, request you to demand Pakistan’s government that it does not go ahead with its recently announced plans to unlawfully annex Gilgit-Baltistan region of the occupied Jammu Kashmir state. Despite some of the largest protests the region has even seen, the government of Pakistan recently announced its plans to unlawfully annex Gilgit-Baltistan region of Jammu Kashmir and declare it a province of Pakistan. It is worth remembering here that this announcement is not just in contravention of agreements and promises Pakistan has made in relation to Jammu Kashmir, it also flouts country’s own constitution, Article 257 of which makes it absolutely clear that Jammu Kashmir is NOT a part of Pakistan and only people of Jammu Kashmir have a right to decide their future.

Your Excellency, it is a travesty of justice that people of Jammu Kashmir are not even being allowed a seat on the table when it comes to international efforts to resolve Jammu Kashmir dispute. Throughout the 73 years of occupation, Pakistan and India have been wrongly allowed to set the discourse and frame the international opinion around their respective narratives, and the wishes of 20 million subjugated citizens of Jammu Kashmir have been forgotten in the process. Your Excellency, we urge you to demand Pakistan that parts to the State in its control, namedly ‘Azad Jammu Kashmir’ and ‘Gilgit Baltistan’ are allowed reunite and create a representative government which can represent the people of Jammu Kashmir and work for the resolution of the conflict as per their wishes.

Your Excellency, the people of Jammu Kashmir have endured a highly painful wait for the resolution an issue which has been lingering on the table of UNSC since its birth. Since 1947, the UN Security Council has passed more than a dozen resolutions in favour of resolving the issue according to freely expressed wishes of the people of the state of Jammu Kashmir. The UNSC has passed resolutions and promised the people of Jammu Kashmir state to demilitarize and reunite the state as it existed in 1947 and a final settlement based on freely expressed will of the state subjects. We urge you to fulfil this promise and facilitate the promised referendum for people of Jammu Kashmir, where they can freely decide their future and bring an end to the violent occupation of the occupied State.

As a political party, JKLF strongly believes that an independent Jammu Kashmir would be a bridge of peace, not only between India and Pakistan but for the entire South Asian region. It is the only solution which is fair to all parties involved, and certainly the only one that guarantees sustainable peace and prosperity that the region so desperately needs and deserves.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Europe .