Geneva, March 28, 2023 (PPI-OT): Zaffar Qureshi, Chairman Kashmir Campaign Global, has said that people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir need urgent attention of the United Nations Human Rights Council to attain the right to self-determination, the basic human right. While addressing the 52nd session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, Zaffar Qureshi said, “Since 2019, when India unilaterally scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, New Delhi has drastically intensified repression of rights in the occupied territory.” He said, reports have noted how political activists, civil society at large, journalists, human rights defenders and lawyers are facing relentless interrogation, imprisonment and even custodial deaths.

“Access to justice or human rights bodies is non-existent,” he deplored. “Clampdown on dissent, guides of tax rate, foreign funding regularities, financial irregularities, facilitated by the draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) are used to curb the political voices,” he informed the UN HRC participants. Qureshi said, “Freedom voices like Khurram Parvez, Massarat Aalam Butt, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and many others have been imprisoned under these false allegations”. Rape, he said, is used as a weapon of war with over 10,000 women have been raped by Indian troops without being delivered justice. He also mentioned the Kunanposhpora mass rape and gang-rape of a minor child Asifa Bano by these extremists.

“Freedom, justice and peace, which are core fabric that bind a democratic society together, are non-existent in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Zaffar Qureshi said and added that humanity, development and prosperity cannot exist without these values enshrined in a democracy.

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