ISLAMABAD The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party has urged the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) to use his diplomatic clout and address the deteriorating situation in occupied Kashmir. The DFP Acting President, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, highlighted the precarious situation in the territory. He said, ‘At a time when civilized world is hectically engaged in a war against COVID-19 the Indian government is remorselessly hatching conspiracies to subjugate Kashmiris’. ‘Kashmiris, who have endured eight-month long suffocating military siege and information blockade are now subjected to collective punishment by Indian authorities’, Saghar said, adding that the coronavirus pandemic unfortunately became a new tool for the Indian occupation authorities to harass and humiliate Kashmiris. India army troops, he said, were now haunting people especially the corona-affected patients in the valley by using their phone records, ATM histories and other information. Referring to Article 12 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said the surveillance abuse by the army constitute a direct infringement of people’s right to privacy stated. The intensive surveillance being practiced under the garb of corona pandemic, he said, has created a fear psychosis, which is unwarranted and unfair to the people who continue to bear the brunt of reckless use of violence by the occupying state. ‘Even in this pandemic of epic proportions there is no letup in Kashmir violence as arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings and military crackdowns and nocturnal raids by the Indian army continue unabated’, the DFP leader said adding that Civilian population was being harassed and humiliated by the occupation forces under the pretext of corona-pandemic.—KMS
