Daily Times

Welcoming a letter written by the UN human rights experts to the Indian government regarding the human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), AJK President Sardar Masood Khan Sunday said that the situation is far worse than mentioned in the letter.

He said that the UN rapporteurs have confined their report to mentioning only the violation of some of the rights of Muslims and other minorities, while we believe that the Modi government of India is engaged in hatching conspiracies against the very existence of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir. They want to turn the Muslim majority into a minority and make the territory of Kashmir a complete Hindu state.

“India is trying to reduce the occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir to a political nonentity, reinforce religious and colonial othering of its people and finally strip off their defences. Well, Kashmiris will never cease defending themselves,” the president said.

Five United Nations human rights experts, through a letter to the Indian government, have voiced their concern over India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status and enact laws that could curtail the political participation of Muslims and other minorities.

The special rapporteurs were for minority issues, promotion, and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; and the special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

President Khan strongly condemned the latest restrictions imposed by the Indian government on Kashmir based journalists for reporting facts about the incidents of violence in IIOJK, he appealed to the global journalist’s bodies to raise their voice against the unjustified restrictions on journalists and media outlets in IOJK.