USA should ask India to give Kashmiris right to self-determination: Ali Raza Syed

BRUSSELS, June 28 (SABAH): Chairman Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) Ali Raza Syed has urged that United States of America (USA) should ask India to give right to self-determination.

Commenting on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the USA, Chair of KC-EU Ali Raza Syed said, India is not fulfilling its promise to give right to self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for last 75 years.

USA and other western powers should understand that New Delhi which is involved in a huge violation of human rights in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and violence against the minorities in India is not a reliable partner. He added that not only the Kashmiris, there is a shrinking space for Muslims and other religious communities in India under the Hindutva regime of India led by Narendra Modi.

He said that the religious places in the occupied Kashmir are also being insulted by the India occupation forces, a violent assault on a Pulwama mosque took place, where Indian troops broke into the mosque and forced the worshippers to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the loudspeaker before the morning prayers.

Kashmiris based in Azad Kashmir are also not safe from the Indian atrocities as Indian troops fired without provocation across the Line of Control separating Indian and Pakistani Kashmir on Saturday, killing two civilians of Azad Kashmir and injuring another.

Ali Raza Syed said, Indian democracy is a sham and New Delhi claim of the world’s largest democracy is a fraud because protection of democratic principles and human rights in India rapidly moving towards a decline in the last nine years of Modi in power.

Treatment with the Indian Muslims has been worsened as a report by Human Rights Watch documented said, many of the Muslims were killed by the Hindu fanatics because they (Muslims) were suspected of possessing beef, consuming it, or trading cows. There are also reports that Muslims find it hard to buy or rent property, are denied permission to build mosques in many cases, and prevented from praying in opening places.

The inhuman caste system of social hierarchy imposed on people by birth still exists in many aspects of life in India where the low caste people are not having basic rights live in the severe miseries. Christians are being also discriminated by the Hindu extremists as the mobs fuel by false accusations of forced conversions—attacked Christians, destroyed churches, and disrupted religious worship services. In many cases, authorities did not prevent these abuses and ignored or chose not to investigate pleas to hold perpetrators accountable.

India should be forced by the world powers including USA to give equal rights to the minorities of that country, Chair of KC-EU said. Ali Raza Syed continued, the world community should pressurize India to withdraw its forces from the occupied Kashmir and let the Kashmiris to decide their political future freely under international supervision.

Chair of KC-EU also said, it is “deeply concerned” over the planned transfer of advanced military technologies from the western counties to India, saying such steps would not prove helpful in succeeding peace and prosperity in South Asia.