Imran Yaqoob
New York
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir appealed to the United Nations (UN) to ask New Delhi to halt human rights violations in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK).
Last year in August, the Indian government had rushed through a presidential decree to abolish Article 370 of the Constitution which grants special status to Indian occupied Kashmir which has intensified the situation in the region.
At its informal meeting in New York, the Contact Group said India should also be urged upon to implement the UN Security Council resolutions – which call for a plebiscite to enable the people of the IOJK to exercise their right to self-determination.
The members of the contact group voiced deep concerns at the continued violations by India of the fundamental human rights in the occupied territory.
Conveying the special message of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is engaged in systematically engineering a demographic change in the IOJK through new domicile laws.
The issuance of 1.6 million domicile certificates is meant to change the demography of the occupied territory from a Muslim majority into Hindu majority territory.
He also said that the status of Urdu is also being changed under new legislation by India to obliterate the Muslim identity of IOJK.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his special message stressed that it was imperative for New Delhi to immediately lift its inhumane military siege, remove restrictions on communications, movement, and peaceful assembly, release incarcerated political leaders and reverse new domicile laws.
