Altaf Hussain Wani seeks UNHCR’s urgent attention towards simmering situation in IoK

GENEVA, Mar 09 (SABAH): World Muslim Congress has asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) to influence the government of India to establish a commission of enquiry as recommended by the OHCHR report on Kashmir to investigate the human rights violations being committed by its forces in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

While speaking on behalf of the WMC, Altaf Hussain Wani in his statement under agenda item 2 stated that the government of India was brazenly violating international law by unleashing a reign of terror in Kashmir.

“The Indian government has employed different forms of strategies to suppress the peaceful resistance of the people of Indian occupied Kashmir”, he said, adding that the policy of repression ranges from excessive force, draconian laws, extra judicial and custodial killings, rape, torture and arbitrary detentions.

Altaf Hussain Wani pointed out that indigenous people of Kashmir were being deprived of all rights, including the right to life.

He said that under the guise of draconian laws, the occupation authorities were rendering people landless, jobless and homeless in their own home land.

Referring to the ongoing demolition drive in Indian-occupied Kashmiri, he said, “Under the grab of encroachment drive, houses are demolished and lands seized”.

“Demography is changed and delimitation of assembly segments was carried out to serve the interests of BJP, the ruling party of India, and to disempower the Muslim majority”, he added.

He said that to showcase normalcy in occupied territory, India was planning to hold a G-20 meeting in Kashmir to white wash its crimes against humanity.

The WMC representative also welcomed the Council for its oral updates and expressed gratitude to the high commissioners for showing their concerns over the fast deteriorating situation in Kashmir.

He urged the council to establish a commission of enquiry as recommended by the OHCHR report on Kashmir 2018 and asked the office to release a third report on the Human Rights situation in the Indian-occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir.