Observer Report
United Nations
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, on Thursday updated the UN Security Council President, Joanna Wronecka, on the deepening crisis in Indian occupied Kashmir and then briefed two senior world body’s humanitarian officials on the acute suffering of the people languishing under a military lockdown for the past 25 days.
According to informed sources, she told the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, that over 14 million Kashmiris were facing a grim situation since Aug 5 when India annexed occupied Kashmir, sparking off the crisis.
New Delhi’s “draconian measures”, she said, have led to shortages of food, medicine and essential supplies for over a million Kashmiri people, with no end in sight.
She told the UN officials that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The humanitarian situation will become clearer once restrictions are lifted by the Indian authorities. This is not a crisis waiting to happen, she said, there is an even greater crisis waiting to erupt.
The occupied territory, ambassador Lodhi added, has been turned into a large open-air prison, grossly violating human rights of the people.
Thousands of Kashmiris, including business leaders, human rights defenders, elected representatives, teachers, students and children as young as 14, have been rounded up and whisked outside occupied Kashmir, without trace, according to reports coming out of the disputed state.
During her meeting with UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Hannan Sulieman, the Pakistani envoy said that systematic human rights violations are being committed by Indian security forces. Young boys are being abducted from their homes and being tortured and women and girls were being sexually harassed, molested and dishonoured.
