Observer Report
Islamabad
The Members of the European Union Parliament on Saturday called for trade and travel sanctions on India over the alarming human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
The Co-Chair of the Friends of Kashmir Group in the EU Parliament, Richard Corbett, called for utilising all possible means to mount pressure on India to ease the military curfew in the occupied Kashmir. He proposed the imposition of trade sanctions on New Delhi and restrictions on the travel of those involved in committing human rights violations and acts of terrorism in IOK.
Corbett was speaking to a conference jointly organised by Friends of Kashmir Group in the European Parliament and the Jammu-Kashmir Self-Determination Movement at the European Parliament in Brussels. The Friends of Kashmir Group also proposed that a resolution be presented in the EU regarding the situation in the occupied Valley. Last month, members of this group had visited Azad Jammu and Kashmir. During the visit, the EU members had a chance to meet the victims of the unprovoked attacks from India on the Line of Control and the relatives of those who had lost their lives in these attacks.
The group also met a wide range of civil society members including journalists, physicians, teachers, students and lawyers to collect firsthand information about the area. They called upon the Indian government to provide a similar kind of access in IOK so as to independently verify claims about lack of food, medicines and other items in the occupied Valley.
