ISLAMABAD: Pakistan welcomes that the UN Human Rights High Commissioner (UNHRC), Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has raised in his opening statement the issue of the use of excessive force by Indian authorities in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), to the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council that started on Thursday in Geneva. We strongly support the High Commissioner’s position that an OHCHR team should visit Indian-held Kashmir to independently investigate the grave human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian forces, resulting in the killing of more than 90 civilians and 8,000 injured, including those with severe pellet gun injuries. The visit by the OHCHR team would help to end the culture of impunity, which is prevailing for more than 68 years in IHK, in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions, said a statement of the FO. Pakistan has expressed its readiness for the visit of any UN team sent by the UN high commissioner for Human Rights to Azad Jammu and Kashmir together with the Indian-held Kashmir, even though there is no comparison whatsoever between the situation in AJK and the rampant human rights violations and oppression in IHK, it said. “We note the high commissioner’s statement that he awaits a formal letter from India for access to IHK. We urge India to respond to this request,” it added.