Brussels, July 02, 2021 (PPI-OT):The Chairman of Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU), Ali Raza Syed has hailed the United Nations Secretary General for his recent statements against violations of children’s rights in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It is important to mention that according to a recent UN report, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over grave violations against the children in IIOJK and has asked the Indian government to end the use of pellets against children.

Praising the UN report, the KC-EU Chairman said, the right step has been taken by the UN Secretary General but the World Body needs to take practical measure to stop human rights abuses, especially violence against the children committed by the Indian forces in the occupied territory. Ali Raza Syed said, the Indian forces have extensively used shotgun pellets to subdue Kashmiri protesters, many of them young men and teenagers. Specially during the large scale protests in 2016, more than 1,100 people were fully or partially blinded because of pellet guns, in what was characterised by many as the “world’s first mass blinding”.

He called upon the UN Security Council to take immediate action to protect children in conflict zones, particularly in Indian-administered Kashmir. Beside the UN, the European Union also should use its good offices to put pressure on India to stop human rights violations including violence against children and teenagers in IIOJK, he added. Ali Raza Syed concluded that EU was being considered as champion of human rights, and for that it has moral duty to take action to protect rights of the children in the occupied territory and hoped that EU will take serious steps about rights of Kashmiri children under “EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict”.

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