Islamabad, May 12, 2022 (PPI-OT):Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has voiced its serious concern over Indian advisory banning Kashmiri students from pursuing higher education abroad, and termed it a deliberate move on part of the Indian government to keep Kashmiris at bay from education.
The DFP acting chairman, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar in a statement issued in Islamabad on Thursday described the Indian higher education authorities’ notification as a conspiracy to keep Kashmiris’ backward and uneducated. He said that after snatching from students their right to seek education in Kashmir and inside India, the BJP government was now hell bent on closing doors for Kashmiris to travel to Pakistan to pursue higher education despite the fact that students from SAARC countries travel freely from one country to another to materialize their right to education.
The BJP government he said was punishing Kashmiri students by denying them the opportunity to travel to Pakistan as it portrays every Kashmiri visiting the country either to pursue education or see their relatives a threat. Kashmiri Muslims, he said, were being victimized for their firm support to the ongoing struggle for right to self-determination.
Saghar appealed to the international institutions to take cognisance of the situation and pressurize Indian government to shun its inhuman practices and persecution of Kashmir in the disputed territory.
Meanwhile the DFP leader also voiced his concern over the unilateral court proceedings initiated by a Delhi court against JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik and termed the one-sided trial, which us against the basic principles of justice.
APHC-AJK leader Altaf Hussain Wani while underling the Indian government’s motive behind the ban on Kashmiri students to travel to Pakistan for pursuing higher education in a statement termed the violation of the international law. He said, the advisory is akin to criminalizing and colonizing education to instill a sense of inferiority and disempowerment among the Kashmiris. The notification, he said bears the racial imprints that go in synch with the BJP’s belligerent and hostile policy towards Kashmiris. “Baring aspiring students to travel abroad is a well-thought-out conspiracy to deprive Kashmiris of their inalienable right to education”, Wani said.
Referring to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said, “The UDHR affirms that education is a fundamental human right for everyone”. The right to education, he said, was legally guaranteed to all without any discrimination.
APHC-AJK leaders, Syed Aijaz Rehmani, Engineer Mushtaq Mehmood, Zahid Ashraf and Mushtaq Ahmad Butt in their separate statements also expressed outrage at the 22nd April notification issued by the University Grants Commission of India whereby anyone seeking higher studies in Pakistan has been rendered ineligible for any employment or higher studies on the basis of any acquired degree in Pakistan.
They said due to communal and anti-Kashmir atmosphere created within India, few Kashmiri students, mostly from deserving families, eager to continue their professional studies in Pakistani institutions. Instead of facilitating Kashmiri students and ensuring their safety in Indian institutions, the Indian govt decided to close doors of employment on students in Pakistan.
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