Masood urges UK MPs to help put a stop to atrocities in Kashmir

MIRPUR: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has urged British parliamentarians and British civil society to have a dialogue with 10 Downing Street, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to help put a stop to the sexual violence, killings, torture and land grab in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that that the UK government should avoid “diplomatic escapism” and not term the Kashmir dispute a bilateral issue. The president made these remarks while addressing a webinar titled “Twin Lockdown in Kashmir and Global Response”, organised by Tehreek-e-Kashmir-UK, the AJK President office told media on Saturday.

The event was attended by academics and leading members of parliament belonging to the Conservatives, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats. Masood said concrete steps should be taken to help stop the egregious human rights violations, killings, torture, rape and incarcerations taking place under the twin lockdown imposed in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Labour MP Liam Byrne said that the UK has to drop the pretence that this disputed issue must be resolved bilaterally. There should be impartial third-party mediation for the resolution of the issue in accordance with the UN SC resolutions on Kashmir.

He added that there is a risk of war if the situation escalates amongst the two neighbours. He also condemned the growing sectarian polarisation in India and termed it as a degradation of the secular character of India.

MP Nadia Whittome (Labour) demanded the withdrawal of troops and an end to human rights violations in IOJK. She also said that Articles 35-A and 370 should be immediately restored.

MP Stella Creasy from the Labour Party vowed to raise the issue of Kashmir with parliamentarians from all parties.

MP James Daly, Chairman Conservative Friends of Kashmir, Vice-Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group in Kashmir committed to standing for the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

MP Jim McMahon (Labour) said that despite the fact that almost a year has come to pass since the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had released its second report on Kashmir on July 8, 2019, no progress has taken place and instead the situation has deteriorated even more.

The AJK President in his address said that the situation n IOJK is fast deteriorating and there is a humanitarian and human rights crisis. Referring to the recent Sopore shooting incident where 65-year-old Bashir Ahmed Khan was gunned down by CRPF personnel and images of his three-year-old grandson wailing atop his bloody lifeless body was a harrowing reminder of the atrocities taking place in IOJK.

The President said that a twin lockdown, firstly in the shape of a siege imposed in August last year and now, adding to it, a Covid-19 pandemic lockdown has made the lives of Kashmiris a living hell. “In April this year, they [India] went a step further and introduced the New Domicile Rules.”

Under these rules, India has done away with the Kashmiris’ exclusive right to livelihood, acquisition of property, employment and educational scholarships. The President likened India’s actions taken to reoccupy the territory and further bifurcating as an act of imperialism and settler colonialism.

Transformation of the demography, he maintained, accounts for grave human rights violations under the Geneva Convention, ICC statute and UN Security Council resolutions. He added that in a matter of days, 25,000 Hindus from all over India have been given domiciles of IOJK; and in the same manner, in which Muslim Indians have become second class citizens, Kashmiris have to run from pillar to post just to prove that they are State subjects.

“If we don’t stop this now, IOJK won’t be a recognisable entity like it is today. Two million Hindus will be brought in over the coming years. Help us stop this land grab,” he said.

Speaking on the religious divide and discrimination against Muslims all over India and IOJK that has been witnessed under the BJP-RSS regime, the President said that these actions are akin to the steps taken by Hitler’s Nazi party in the last century.

The AJK President said that currently, the whole territory of IOJK is under an occupational lockdown. Hundreds of Kashmiris have been killed in the past 11 months and thousands of young Kashmiris are in jails. The head of the Jammu and Kashmir police has acknowledged that 22 “militants have been killed in the past two months. India is carrying out genocide, ethnic cleansing and committing war crimes in IOJK”, he said.

President Masood Khan said that the resolution of Kashmir dispute is essential for regional peace. The recent standoff between China and India posed a very real risk of a nuclear war between the three nuclear nations — Pakistan, India and China. “That would be nothing less than a nuclear armageddon,” he added.

The President said that a few months back the international media along with leading parliamentarians had spoken up in support of Kashmiri but now the world’s attention has been diverted due to Covid-19. He added that even though we still have a groundswell of support from parliamentarians from all over the world; governments around the globe are still woefully silent due to their strategic and economic interests with India.

Masood said that anodyne statements made by the UN Secretary General do not impact India. India continues its rampage in IOJK and it is imperative for the UNSC to take cognisance of the situation in Kashmir as it is an active item on their calendar. The AJK President urged his audience to initiate debates on Kashmir in the British parliament. He said that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, UK should also raise the issue on the floor of the Council.

He cautioned the participants that India, now a non-permanent member of the UNSC, might avail this opportunity to take one of three damaging steps: firstly, to delete the agenda of Kashmir from the UN SC calendar; secondly, stop any debates on Kashmir; or thirdly, cut funding or undermine the mandate of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

“Appeasement of this fascist BJP-RSS Hindu-supremacist regime in India is not an option. Last century, we witnessed the consequences when the Nazi Party was appeased. We cannot let this happen again”, maintained the President.

The event was attended by Chairman Conservative Friends of Kashmir & Vice Chair APPG on Kashmir James Daly MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Jim McMahon OBE MP, Liam Byrne MP, Former Member of European Parliament Phil Bennion, Brenden O’Hara MP, Nadia Whittome MP, Alex Norris MP, Christian Wakeford MP, Stella Creasy MP, Rachel Maskell MP, Danish Writer Jane Teller, Senior Kashmiri Hurriyat Leader and Chairman Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement Altaf Ahmed Bhat and Chairman Kashmir Institute of International Relations Altaf Hussain Wani.