Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan’s teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday called on the United Nations (UN), the international community, Pakistan and India to work together to halt atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK).

“The Kashmiri people, like people everywhere, deserve their fundamental human rights. They should be allowed to speak, communicate and congregate freely. They should live free of fear and repression,” Malala said in a letter, a copy of which was shared on the social media website Twitter by Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai.

“I call on the United Nations, the international community and India and Pakistan to work together with utmost urgency to right these wrongs, providing the people of Kashmir with the dignity, respect and freedom they deserve.”

“During my 19 years of life, I have learnt with increasing distress about a critical issue never resolved during Pakistan and India’s 69 years of independence – the decades-long suffering of the people of Kashmir. My 14 million Kashmiri sisters and brothers have always been close to my heart,” the teenage rights activist said in the letter.

She wrote that in recent months in IHK, dozens of unarmed protesters had been killed and thousands wounded, including hundreds of people blinded by pellet guns used to put down demonstrations. “Kashmiris are trapped in weeks-long curfews. Many schools have been closed because security forces commandeered schools, keeping children away from their classrooms,” she said. “I stand with the people of Kashmir.”