UN should ensure right to self determination of Kashmiris: FO
 

ISLAMABAD: After over a month of creating awareness and sensitising the international community to the deteriorating situation in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK), which is seeing unarmed Kashmiris being killed on a daily basis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) finally awoke to the grim reality and offered to send fact finding missions to both the IHK and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK).

Sources said it will be a challenge for New Delhi which, if it has **thing to hide, should **t shy away from allowing the UN into the Valley. Also excuses of the uprising being an ‘internal’ part of India best avoided.

Pakistan says: “It is time that India was reminded by the UN and international community to ensure the realisation of the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.”

This development comes at a time when New Delhi finally on Thursday officially confirmed that it had responded to the offer made by Pakistan for a meeting of the two foreign secretaries.

“The ball is in Pakistan’s court **w. They had made an offer, we have responded to the offer. It is up to them to carry it forward,” the Spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs commented.

However, the spokesman at the Foreign ****** here refused to confirm if India had responded to the proposal and for the time being the ministry is keeping its cards close to its chest while others indulge in a guessing game.

Asked about any conditions India had put before them for starting the dialogue, the spokesman said Pakistan had proposed that Kashmir should be the focus of the talks.

But the unkindest cut came from former chief minister of IHK Omar Abdullah, who says Pakistan was ‘**t the architect’ of the present crisis in the valley.

In a press conference in Srinagar, Abdullah, together with other Kashmiri opposition members, blamed the Indian government for the situation in Kashmir saying, “They are **t architects of the problem and are **t keeping it alive. It is our inability to address this anger that is keeping it alive.”

Meanwhile, the UNHCR responded after a month to a request by Pakistan to send a fact-finding mission to the IHK, and by this time, “in the past 40 days, more than 80 in**cent young Kashmiris have been killed, 6,000 wounded and 120 blinded as a result of brutal action by the Indian security forces to suppress peaceful protests. There has been constant curfew during this period in the IOK and a complete media blackout,” the spokesman at the Foreign ****** told the weekly media briefing.

It is mind-boggling as to why the UNHCR took over a month to respond while the humanity was being taken out on a daily basis.

Pakistan welcomed visit by any UN team that the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights might want to send but made it clear that ‘we can**t accept equating the rampant human rights violations in the IHK with the situation in the AJK. In fact, today the contrast between the grim reality in the IHK and the peaceful situation in the AJK could **t be more stark. It is, therefore, essential that the UN fact finding team must visit the IHK”, the spokesman added.

“It should come as ** surprise to the UNHCR that the AJK is an area open to everyone and is frequented by foreign tourists and members of the diplomatic community in Pakistan, including representatives of the United Nations, where they have observed recent elections and met cross section of people. Access to the OHCHR has been denied by India to the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has never prevented UN officials from traveling to Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” reminded the spokesman.

Pakistan is taking its time and **t responding immediately to a letter by Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar which was delivered for his counterpart Aizaz Chowdhury on Wednesday.

Indian spokesman at the MEA told the media that it was for Islamabad to decide on readiness to discuss the issues of cross-border terrorism, vacation of illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and closing down terror camps.

In a response to his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry’s offer for talks on Kashmir, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said discussions should focus on cessation of terrorist activities in J&K and ending incitement to violence and terror in the valley. Deliberations should also focus on denying safe haven, shelters and support to terrorists in Pakistan who have escaped Indian law, Jaishankar said in his letter.

The response also conveyed that detaining and prosecuting internationally recognised Pakistani terrorist leaders who have been publicly active in exhorting and supporting such violence in that state should be part of the talks besides closing down terrorist training camps, Swarup added.

The Indian foreign secretary said he looked forward to discussing with his Pakistani counterpart the “earliest possible vacation of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of the Indian state of J&K”.

In his letter, the foreign secretary also underlined the importance of bringing to justice all those guilty in Pakistan for the attacks in Mumbai and the Pathankot air base.

“He said his visit should provide the opportunity to receive a briefing from Pakistan’s foreign secretary on progress in this regard,” said the spokesman.

“The world is aware that Pakistan has a long history of violence and terrorism against India, as also in the broader region,” he said adding that talks between the two countries must be held as per the framework of the Simla agreement of 1972 and Lahore Declaration of February 1999.

“The Indian State of J&K has been its particular target. This record began with the Government of Pakistan sending armed raiders into J&K in 1947 and was repeated in 1965.

“More than three decades later, displaying a similar attitude, military personnel were infiltrated across the Line of Control in Kargil in 1999. This approach to India was reflected in support for terrorist activities in Jammu & Kashmir that continues to the present day.

“These acts were initially denied by the Government of Pakistan and attributed to local population, only to be admitted later by Pakistan’s leaders who directed and organised such cross-border attacks on India, and assaults on the local people,” he said.

Referring to the Lahore Declaration of February 1999, he said the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had reiterated Pakistan’s determination to implement the Simla Agreement in letter and spirit.

He also talked about the assurance given by the then President Pervez Musharraf in January 2004 that he will **t permit any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism against India.

Pakistan meanwhile is **t giving up and said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be taking up the issue of Kashmir at the UNGA next month.

“We participate every year at the highest political level in the UNGA session. The prime minister will lead the delegation next month. Every year, we raise the issue of Jammu & Kashmir, which is an outstanding issue on the UNSC agenda. Last year also, in the prime minister’s address to the UNGA we vigorously pleaded the case of Kashmiri people. Similarly, this year also there will be strong references on the Kashmir issue with particular reference to the ongoing atrocities. The UNGA session is an important platform to raise the outstanding issue of Jammu & Kashmir, and Indian atrocities with the international community,” he pointed out.



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