Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The legal fraternity of Pakistan said on Friday that UN and international community’s silence on the brutalities of the Indian security forces against the innocent and unarmed Kashmiris in Indian-held Kashmir was tantamount to criminal negligence.

Representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Lahore High Court Bar Association, Lahore Bar Association, Kashmir Committee of the Lahore High Court Bar Association and Human Rights Committee of the Lahore High Court Bar said that senior lawyers from Pakistan should be allowed to visit the bar associations in Indian-held Kashmir.

More than 60 peaceful Kashmiri protesters were killed brutally in violent protests after the Indian security forces tried to stop people from attending funeral prayers for Burhan Wani, young separatist commander who was killed by the Indian security forces in a suspicious encounter a couple of weeks ago. The killing of Wani, 22, triggered violent clashes in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

On Friday, members of the legal fraternity submitted a memorandum to Vittorio Cammarota, director of the UN Office in Islamabad, highlighting the Indian brutalities against Kashmiris. They called upon the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to stop the Indian government immediately from using deadly weapons against the innocent Kashmiris. The memorandum stated that more than 5,000 Kashmiris had lost their eyes due to the use of lethal weapons by the Indian occupation forces against the unarmed Kashmiris and many more were suffering from skin and chest diseases.

They said that due to a continuous curfew, illegal raids, arrests and harassment, economic activity in Indian-held Kashmir had come to a grinding halt. They said that businesses of Kashmiris were being deliberately destroyed. They said that Kashmiris were facing an acute shortage of food amid the ongoing curfew in the occupied valley.

They said that emergency services needed to be started in Indian-occupied Kashmir immediately. They sought access for international and Pakistani rights groups to Indian-Occupied Kashmir. They said that India must restore mobile phone and internet services in the occupied region and lift a ban on publication of local newspapers in Kashmir.

They said that international media must be allowed to enter Indian-Occupied Kashmir to report the situation on the ground in a transparent manner. They urged the UN to help Pakistani lawyers get Indian visas because they wanted to visit Kashmir.