Hindutva ideology behind CAA, Article 370 revocation: Maleeka Bukhari

LONDON: Pakistan’s Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice, Barrister Maleeka Bukhari, has said that Modi government’s decision to revoke Article 370 in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) is part of the Hindutva ideology, which believes in extermination of all other ideologies and identities in India.

Barrister Maleeka Bukhari was addressing a press conference at Pakistan High Commission with Nafees Zakaria, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Ms Bukhari was in the UK to attend a seminar on Kashmir human rights situation in the House of Lords. The seminar was organised by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC to condemn Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.

She said Pakistan has a commitment to the people of Kashmir and it will continue to highlight the issue before the international community. She said nearly eight million people have been imprisoned for more than 150 days since August 5.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice said, “We informed the conference that India has broken international treaties and UN laws. The UK government has a major role to play in this case by intervening in favour of Kashmiri people for a favorable solution. Modi’s August 5 action is not an independent incident. It’s a strategy the BJP government is pursuing, which is reflected also through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This is a policy of genocide. Independent organisations working against genocide have said that Modi’s actions against Muslims and others in India are tantamount to genocide and Muslims are about to be exterminated in India.”

Nafees Zakaria said that for seven decades, India has denied to Kashmiri Muslims their basic right to self-determination. He said that Modi government has turned Kashmir into a vast prison camp of nearly eight million people.

Zakaria said that Pakistan, at the House of Lords conference, drew attention towards the fact that documented evidence exists of atrocities of the last seven decades perpetrated by successive Indian governments. He referred to Amnesty International’s report, which documented thousands of victims of pellet guns and mass blinding by Indian occupation troops. He said that evidence exists that Indian occupation forces kidnapped Kashmiri youth illegally and then killed them in fake encounters.

Barrister Maleeka Bukhari, answering a question, said that PM Imran Khan’s anti-corruption narrative has proved to be right. She said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has recovered nearly Rs150 billion, which shows that public office holders were involved in corruption. She said that the government believes in freedom of media but irresponsible journalism and fake news were a danger to the society. She said the government is looking at the ways to provide safe online environment to users.

British parliamentarians Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Lord Qurban Hussain, Steve Baker MP, Mark Eastwood MP, Imran Hussain MP and Schona Jolly QC spoke at the conference and shared their concerns over the prevailing humanitarian crisis in occupied Kashmir.