UN must act on Kashmir, world’s oldest dispute: Farooq Rehmani
Islamabad: On the eve of the 78th year of India’s invasion and occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, former Convener of All Parties Hurriyat Conference AJK chapter, urged the United Nations to fulfill its long-standing commitment to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with its own resolutions.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Rehmani said that the UN’s failure to implement its pledges remains a serious question mark on its credibility and its promises to the Kashmiri people. He said while Pakistan has always shown readiness to comply with UN Security Council resolutions, India has deployed massive troops in the territory and continues to commit grave human rights violations.
Rehmani said that since the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status in 2019, India has accelerated demographic engineering by granting domicile certificates to thousands of non-locals and allowing outsiders to purchase land and property in the occupied region. He highlighted that draconian laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) have left thousands of innocent youth languishing in jails, while political leaders face prosecution under inhumane conditions without legal recourse.
He lamented that many Kashmiris have fled abroad due to threats to their lives, while others have been dismissed from jobs and had their properties seized on flimsy grounds. “India is ruling the territory with an iron fist, branding the inhabitants as foreign agents and curbing their basic freedoms,” he said.
Rehmani added that an “iron wall” of black laws and an extensive surveillance network have cut off people in IIOJK from their relatives, and harassment by intelligence agencies has become a permanent feature of Modi’s rule. He deplored that human rights, women’s rights, and political freedoms remain in peril, while the region suffers from deep-rooted corruption and misgovernance.
He said Delhi’s so-called elections over the past seven decades have only served to mask its direct control over the territory. The current administration, he added, is powerless and lacks both the will and dignity to defend the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people.
Rehmani urged the UN to take serious note of how the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir are marking the 78th year of India’s invasion and occupation of their homeland.
