The Chairman of Kashmir Institute of Interna-tional Relations, Altaf Hussain Wani has urged the UN Human Rights Council to redouble its efforts to establish a commission of inquiry in line with the OHCHR recommendations to investigate human rights violations in the In-dian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking part in the debate held under Item-4 during the 48TH Session of Human Rights Council Geneva Mr. Wani while speaking on behalf of the World Muslim Congress briefed the world audience about the worsening politi-cal and human rights situation in the held terri-tory. He regrettably noted that the bloodshed and violence in the region con-tinued unabated despite the fact that world human rights watchdogs raised their concern over the situa-tion in the region.
“Almost all the credible outlets of international media and human rights organizations United Na-tions Special Procedures have been report-ing on the reprisals- including killings, torture, intimidation and judicial harassment against activists and jour-nalists, and other mass human rights violation in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”, he said.
Regarding the Indian government’s willful de-nial not to adhere to international obligations the KIIR chief said, “India’s institutional com-plicity and cover-ups is an open secret now but New Delhi is still uninclined to refrain from hiding its crimes”.
He said that on one hand, the Delhi-based jin-goistic media channels were being facilitated for distorting facts and spreading lies about Kashmir while on the other the voices of Kashmiri are muz-zled for not toeing the pro-India line.
About abuse of draconian laws aimed at silenc-ing the independent voices in Kashmir, he said, “On September 8 the police in Jammu and Kashmir raided the homes of four Kashmiri journalists – Hilal Mir, Shah Abbas, Showkat Motta, and Azhar Qadri – and confiscated their phones and laptops and passports”.
These raids he said were part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s escalating crackdown on freedom of expres-sion, association, and peaceful assembly since coming to power in 2014.
The Indian authorities, he said, have brought politically motivated criminal cases, including under broadly worded terrorism and sedition laws, against political leaders of Kashmir In-cluding Shabir Ah-med Shah, M. Yasin Malik, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Massrat Alam Butt Asyia Indrabi, and others lan-guishing in Indian Jails without trial.
He said that it was high time that the council should step up its efforts to establish a com-mission of inquiry in line with the recommen-dations of OHCHR to investigate past and on-going human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir—KMS
