Seminar on 'Kashmir Human Rights': British MPs ask India to stop HR abuses in IOK

LONDON: British members of Parliament (MPs) and other speakers here at a seminar on Tuesday night asked India to stop genocide, gross human right violations, and atrocities on the defenceless people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK) and give them their inalienable right of self-determination.

An overwhelming support and solidarity with the Kashmiri people was witnessed among the audience of the seminar on ''Kashmir Human Rights'' organised by All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Third World Solidarity here at the British Parliament.

Dave Anderson Chairman, Lit Twist MP, Victoria Schofield, Lord Qurban Hussain of Luton, Kumar Sarkar (Indian), Ahlam Akram, Habib Jan, Anis Nasir and Mushtaq Lasharie spoke on the occasion. Attendees from many communities across the United Kingdom included in APPG on the Third world Solidarity on Kashmir Angela Rayner MP, Tony Llord MP, Ian Murray MP, Sam Terry MP, Tan Deshi MP, Kevin Hollinrake MP, Bob Blackman MP, Barry Gardiner MP, David Amess MP, Kumar Sarkar, an Indian Hindu, Saundra Satterlee journalist from the United States, Ahlam Akram Palestinian, Councilor Rita Begum, Murad Qureshi, member of GLA from Bangladesh, Prof Victoria Goddard Argentinean, Julie Fox French, Dr Kathey Saugy Argentinean academics, Ruaidri O Donnel Adviser to Tony Lloyd MP on Ireland, Christopher MCHugh and many other British Pakistanis and Kashmiris, and human rights activists.

The speakers urged India to end lockdown and siege of the Kashmiri people, who had been demanding their right to self-determination, which was promised by the United Nations to them about seven decades ago. Lord Qurban, who belongs to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) said the Indian government, under its Armed Forces Special Act, had given a license to its occupation forces to arrest and kill the people of IOK. The honour of women in Indian Occupied Kashmir was not safe as thousands of them had been raped by the occupation troops, he said, adding even young boys of below 12 years of age were picked up from their houses and next day their dead bodies were thrown out.

Most of the women in the IOK were half widows as the whereabouts of their husbands, who were picked up by occupation forces, were not known, he added. Lord Qurban said some 30000 Kashmiri people had been put behind the bar. Freedom movement leader Shabbir Shah had been in prison for the past 25 years.

He said Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government, which was pursuing the fascist and extremist ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had made the lives of Muslims and other minorities across India and occupied Kashmir miserable. He said India’s move to abrogate Articles 35A and 370 of the constitution was illegal which was aimed at changing the demographic composition of the IOK and making the indigenous Muslim population a minority in their homeland.

He demanded of the international community, including UK, to pressurise India for allowing human rights organisations to visit the IOK for ascertaining on the ground rights abuses there. There was no restriction for such organisations to visit the Azad Jammu and Kashmir, he added.