The Sunday April 1st killings in Shopian district and in other south Kashmir areas expose Indian army’s design; that it is using demographic and psycho-graphic profiling to decimate the youth of Kashmir, Dr Syed Nazir Gilani, Secretary General of the London-based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR) told Daily Times from London.
The manner of killing and the news – that chemical weapons have been used to burn down the buildings – has shaken every human soul in Kashmir, and elsewhere around the globe to the core.
Gilani also disputes the characterisation “militants and terrorists” used by Indian officials and many Kashmiris for those Kashmiris killed in encounters. They are state subjects and hence very much within their right to challenge “forces of occupation,” he asserted.
Dr. Gilani is a major proponent of the jurisprudence of the Kashmir dispute and insists that Pakistan go back to the UN Resolutions and the mutually agreed demand for a plebiscite to determine the future status of the state.
Gilani think that there is an urgent need to revisit the delayed time table for Plebiscite, which he reminds, the United Kingdom had officially proposed to be arranged between April and October 1948 (that in view of weather conditions of Kashmir). United Kingdom had demanded that UN Commission and Plebiscite Administrator should start work within a month, that is, May 1948. Pakistan needs to go back to the demand for plebiscite to reinforce its moral and political support for Kashmir.
Published in Daily Times, April 8th 2018.