Human Rights Council of Pakistan delegation visits APHC-AJK office in Islamabad
Islamabad : A high-level delegation of the Human Rights Council of Pakistan (HRCP), led by its Chairman Jamshed Hussain, visited the office of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir chapter in Islamabad and held a detailed meeting with APHC-AJK Convener Ghulam Muhammad Safi and other Hurriyat leaders.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the meeting discussed the Kashmir freedom movement, the prevailing political and human rights situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), India’s continued repression in the territory, grave human rights violations and the need for a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions.
The Hurriyat leadership briefed the delegation on the situation in IIOJK, stating that India had for years been pursuing policies aimed at depriving the Kashmiri people of their fundamental political, human and religious rights. They said arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, curbs on freedom of expression and the media, restrictions on religious freedom and attempts to alter the demographic composition of the territory constituted blatant violations of international law and UN resolutions.
Speaking on the occasion, Jamshed Hussain said the Kashmiris’ struggle was a just movement for freedom, human dignity and fundamental rights, and supporting it was the moral responsibility of every justice-loving person. He reaffirmed the HRCP’s continued moral, legal and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri people’s internationally recognized right to self-determination and the protection of their fundamental human rights.
He urged the international community, the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other international human rights organizations to take immediate notice of the grave human rights situation in IIOJK, dispatch an independent international fact-finding mission to the territory and ensure that India complies with its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.
Ghulam Muhammad Safi thanked Jamshed Hussain and his delegation for their visit and solidarity, saying the support of Pakistan’s human rights activists, lawyers, intellectuals and civil society was a source of encouragement and strength for the oppressed people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Among those present on the occasion were Mahmood Ahmad Saghar, Advocate Parvez Ahmad Advocate, Sheikh Abdul Mateen, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoob, Haji Sultan Butt, Syed Gulshan Ahmad, Sheikh Abdul Majid, Syed Mushtaq, Manzoor Ahmad Dar, Zahid Ashraf, Muhammad Ashraf Dar, Muhammad Shafi Dar, Abdul Majeed Mir and Imtiaz Wani.
The HRCP delegation included Vice President Munis Akhlaq, Joint Secretary Sadia Mirza, General Secretary Hammad Abbasi and President Mashal Muhammad Ali.
At the conclusion of the meeting, special prayers were offered for the elevation of the ranks of the late Ameerul Azeem, Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, and for patience and fortitude for his bereaved family.
