PRESIDENT AJK THANKS EU PARLIAMENT FOR HOLDING FORMAL DEBATE ON KASHMIR
Sardar Masood Khan
The AJK President, Sardar Masood Khan while welcoming the European Parliament’s decision of holding a debate on Tuesday (September 17) on the situation in Kashmir at the Strasbourg plenary session has said that the decisions reflects growing concern in Europe over the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Kashmir,
Addressing a conference on Kashmir jointly organized by Friends of Kashmir Group in the European Parliament and the Jammu-Kashmir Self-Determination Movement, at the European Parliament here on Friday, he warned about prolonged siege turning into genocide. He said that all the developments in
the Indian Occupied territory fit into the definition and criteria of genocide and called for swift action by the international community.
He briefed the audience about the implications of India’s unilateral decision to revoke articles 370 and 35-A. The AJK President called upon the international community to take firm steps to check the abhorrent human rights violations at the hands of Indian forces in the held territory.
He stressed that trade relations with India should be linked to the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir.
Sardar Masood Khan thanked the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee for holding an in-camera meeting on Kashmir on the 2nd of this month, and expressed his gratitude to the subcommittee of the Human Rights Committee for holding an open hearing on the report on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir released by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in February this year.
He also thanked the EP for taking proactive initiatives on Kashmir and raising awareness about the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in the territory of Kashmir besieged by India. He informed that food stocks are being exhausted as India continues to show no signs of relaxing the curfew imposed after August 5.
