Daily Times

Pakistan has urged United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres to ask India to drop fabricated charges against the leader of Kashmiri organisation Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Asiya Andrabi, and to provide her complete legal protection. In a letter to the UN chief, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram, said that India’s systemic crackdown on the legitimate and indigenous freedom movement in Kashmir cannot be given a free pass. The Pakistani envoy wrote that with Indian judiciary showing little proclivity to stand up for the rights of Kashmiris, there is an imminent and real threat to the life of Ms. Andrabi, and her associates, who are staring at a real possibility of a judicial murder. In a separate letter, Pakistan has called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to push India to release Aasiya Anrabi, a detained Kashmiri rights defender and political activist, who faces an imminent risk of conviction by a “sham” court on January 18. “Your timely intervention may help prevent miscarriage of justice; assist in breaking the vicious cycle of impunity and human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and send a strong message of hope to the Kashmiri people, especially women leaders and human rights defenders,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi said in a letter to the UN rights chief.