MUZAFFARABAD:
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has urged the international community and the United Nations to help end the most “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment of the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) by the occupation forces.
“We fully agree with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statement that torturers must never be allowed to get away with murder and that systems that enable torture must be dismantled or transformed,” he said in a statement. video message posted on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture observed around the world on Friday.
The AJK president stated that torture is a crime against humanity and is prohibited by international law and by all religions. “However, this crime is committed every day by Indian forces and authorities in the occupied territory, in the most brutal and systematic manner.”
He called on the United Nations not to generalize or diffuse attention on torture where it is widespread. In occupied Kashmir, he said, torture is more rampant and more egregious.
“The BJP-RSS regime has committed torture by reoccupying and colonizing Jammu and Kahsmir against the will of its 14 million people, dividing their state into two parts and enforcing decrees that the entire territory is now governed by a foreign capital , Delhi. “.
While criticizing the Modi-led government, President Masood said, “As we celebrate this day today, Kashmiri youth are persecuted and killed in cold blood in fake encounters, protesters are blinded and sexual abuse is used as a weapon of war.” .
Kashmiris, he went on to say, are being deprived of their homeland by bringing Hindus from all over India and settling them in the occupied territory through new domicile rules.
“Stripped of their permanent residency rights, Kashmiris are being stripped of their jobs, livelihoods, businesses and land. Systematically, the demography of the disputed valley is permanently modified.”
PM urges international community to hold India accountable for atrocities in IOJ&K
The AJK president said that what India is doing in the occupied region is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the ICC Statute and international humanitarian law.
Referring to the arbitrary arrest of political leaders and political activists, he said thousands of political detainees – illegally imprisoned – are being subjected to cruel torture that in many cases leads to death and disability.
President Masood demanded that the political prisoners in India’s Tihar jail – Yasin Malik, Asiya Indrabi, Shabbir Shah – be released immediately and that Syed Ali Geelani and other Hurriyet leaders – hundreds of them locked up in overcrowded jails – be brought to justice. in freedom.
Some 13,000 children, as young as 10, are caged in concentration camps where they are tortured and brainwashed, he said, calling on the international community led by the United Nations to play its role in their release.
He also demanded that India be asked to repeal all draconian laws that empower occupation forces to commit crimes with impunity.
“Kashmiris are citizens of planet Earth. Listen to their SOS cries. Save their bodies; save their souls. Silence is also a crime while such massive torture is carried out before our eyes.”
