By APP
NEW YORK: Senator
Mushahid Hussain Sayed and MNA Dr Shezra Mansab Ali, who are currently visiting
the United States as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s envoys on Kashmir, met UN
General Assembly president Peter Thomson on Wednesday and handed him a dossier
about human rights violations in India-held Kashmir.
The two briefed Mr
Thomson about the grave threat to peace and security posed by the deteriorating
human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir as a result of India’s suppression
of Kashmiris’ freedom movement.
Dr Ali informed Mr
Thomson about the killing of peaceful Kashmiri demonstrators by Indian
occupation forces.
She said that the use
of pellet guns had blinded hundreds of children, women and men.
Senator Sayed informed
Mr Thomson that India had stoked war hysteria to distract world attention from
its brutal action to suppress the legitimate demand of Kashmiri people for
their right to self-determination.
He stressed that the
ongoing movement of Kashmiris was indigenous and it had been sparked by the
extrajudicial killing of Kashmir leader Burhan Wani.
He said India had
closed all doors to bilateral dialogue, scuttled a regional summit and at the
international level it had refused to implement the Security Council
resolutions. The Indian attitude, he said, posed an imminent threat to peace
and security in the region.
The UNGA chief
expressed his concern at the situation and assured the visiting envoys that he
would do everything possible to foster peace. He said that he would get an
update on the current situation from the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations (DPKO).
Senator Sayed also
informed Mr Thomson that India had raised the temperature on the Line of
Control (LoC) and this escalation was a threat to peace.
The special envoys,
accompanied by Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi,
also briefed the DPKO officials on accelerating tensions along the LoC. They
reiterated Prime Minister Sharif’s proposal to expand operations of the UN
Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan to avoid such situations.
The DPKO officials
informed the envoys on the continued noncooperation by the Indian side,
hampering the mandated work of the UN mission.
They were greatly
appreciative of Pakistan’s cooperation with the mission, and its role as one of
the world’s top troop contributors to the UN peacekeeping missions.
The two
parliamentarians earlier had an interactive session with representatives of the
Kashmiri Diaspora. Senator Syed assured them of Pakistan’s continued moral,
political and diplomatic support to the Kashmir cause in their quest for their
right to self-determination.
Published in Dawn,
October 14th, 2016
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