Brussels: Kashmir Council Europe (KCEU), chairman, Ali Raza Syed, has appealed the European Union (EU) not to forget severe violations of human rights of the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir particularly in its upcoming summit with India.
Ahead of EU-India summit on 8th of May in Portugal, in its recommendations, the European Parliament has reiterated its support for stability and de-escalation between India and Pakistan.
In a statement, the EU Parliament calls on the EU to renew its efforts for rapprochement and restoration of good neighborly relations between India and Pakistan, based on principles of international law. As for the human rights’ situation in India, the EU parliament expresses concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in India, echoing comments by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and several UN Special Rapporteurs. This includes reports including UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights that human rights defenders and journalists in the country lack a safe working environment.
While reacting on the statement of European Parliament, the KCEU Chairman, Ali Raza Syed, said, “We generally appreciate the EU parliament’s statement at the threshold of the EU-India summit but unfortunately the statement did not specifically mention the worse situation of human rights in IIOJK, which is witnessing extra-judicial murders, continued killings of youth, rape of women and arrest and torturing of political figures and pro-freedom activists by the Indian forces for last seven decades.”
He emphasized that in its upcoming summit with India, the EU leadership should ask India to respect human rights of Kashmiris and hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir to enable them decide their fate by themselves. He said, this must be clear for EU that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the UN resolutions on the issue give right to the Kashmiris to decide their political future.
The KCEU Chairman said, we laud that UU parliament for mention in its statement the violent behaviour of Modi government with the minorities and other oppressed people in India but we want that European leadership should also raise the large scale violations of human rights committed by Indian forces in IIOJK. He said, for more than seven decades Indian authorities are violating the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and it is above one and half year now that India has increased abuses of the human rights in occupied Kashmir as it revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
He said, on one side, India talks with Europe but on the other, it violates the rights of the Kashmiris and oppressed minorities in India. “A number of Kashmiri political prisoners are suffering from hardships in the Indian jails and even it is hard for their poor relatives to meet them in the Indian jails situated in the areas far away from Kashmir. There are also severe threats for Kashmiri detainees in the Indian prisons including infamous Tihar Jail witnessing rapid spread of Covid-19 among the prisoners.
Ali Raza Syed expressed the hope that the EU would raise the issue of human rights of Kashmiris in its forthcoming dialogue with India as it is duty of international community including the EU to play their role for prevention of human rights violations in the occupied Kashmir.
