JKLF seeks commonwealth nations’ help in Kashmir settlement
ISLAMABAD, (MILLAT ONLINE+ APP):Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Indian occupied Kashmir has urged the Commonwealth countries to constructively engage with India, Pakistan and Kashmiris for a durable and amicable resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the head of the JKLF Diplomatic Affairs in the UK, Professor Zafar Khan, in an open letter to the leaders of 54 Commonwealth nations, attending their biennial meeting in London, urged them to set up a mediation panel to engage with India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris for the settlement of the lingering dispute.
The letter maintained that the people of Jammu and Kashmir desired peace, and wished for their territory to become a bridge of peace and amity between India and Pakistan, and not a perpetual bone of contention in South Asia.
It reminded the Commonwealth nations that the Kashmir conflict should not be seen as a bilateral or territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but as an international issue, which concerns the inalienable right to self-determination of 20 million Kashmiris.
The letter informed the leaders of the Commonwealth that New Delhi has no legal or moral basis for the claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.
It urged the leaders that India must answer for the 8000 missing persons and more than 7000 unmarked graves in occupied Kashmir.
The letter called upon the Commonwealth member countries to take note of the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is the most heavily militarised region in the world, mainly due to the fact that India alone has deployed 700,000 troops there and these troops have killed over 100,000 people in occupied Kashmir during the past around 30 years.
The letter called on the Commonwealth nations that the militarised violence, the massive violations of human rights, and victimization of political opponents in occupied Kashmir must stop and the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) must not be deprived of its democratic right of free speech, of assembly and the right to engage with masses in all parts of occupied Kashmir.
India must allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) access to occupied Kashmir, to investigate excesses against civilians and political activists by the Indian armed forces in the occupied territory, the latter added.
Meanwhile, Professor Zafar Khan in a statement urged the Kashmiri diaspora in Britain to protest in London during the Commonwealth meeting against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and atrocities committed by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.