Islamabad
The Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR) organised a webinar titled “Kashmir: A Utopian Land with Dystopian Lives”.
The webinar was part of IICR’s Exclusive Globe 2020 which covered diverse discourse on Kashmir’s past, present and future. It also included China-India stand-off. The event was moderated by Yasir Rehman and the panelists included Lt. Gen (retd) Raza Muhammad Khan, Ms Sabah Aslam, CEO IICR, Major Gen (retd) Raza Muhammad, Chairman IICR, Ahmed Qureshi, senior journalist on Security and Kashmir and Altaf Ahmed Butt, President of Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat addressing the session highlighted the plight of the people of occupied Kashmir. He said that Kashmir was under triple lockdown: The first in 1989, second after 5th August 2019, and third one due to COVID-19.
Giving firsthand information from the occupied Kashmir, he said that in past 310 days of lockdown, 170 youth were martyred, 1500 people were critically injured, 995 houses damaged or demolished while more than 100 women were molested during cordon and search operations by the Indian forces.—KMS