AJK President urges European Parliament for sharper focus on Kashmir dipute

BRUSSELS: President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan, while talking to members of the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Parliament, called for a sharper focus and a just and lasting solution on the Kashmir dispute.  

Masood Khan urged the European Parliament, which he said was the first international sovereign Parliament, to call for an end to the horrendous human rights violations in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

“Instead of showing cautious neutrality, the European Parliament and other world parliaments should speak up for the rights of the Kashmiri people”, he said.

The AJK President appealed to the European Parliament to side with the oppressed, and not the oppressor, by calling for an end to massive and gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity being committed in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

He said this could be done through passing a resolution on the situation in Kashmir, holding debates on the floor, and facilitating a peace process.

Masood Khan said the European countries have led the international community in evolving and universalising human rights standards, conventions and treaties.

“The international human rights law toady is being violated with impunity in Kashmir”, he said adding the European Parliament should play its role to prevent this outrage.

July; 11: Various clicks from #Brussels pic.twitter.com/5p6Qrrs3Zr

— Masood Khan (@Masood__Khan) July 11, 2017

The European Parliament, he said, should urge the United Nations to use its good offices to stop the ongoing human rights crisis and carnage in Kashmir.

“Most importantly, the UN Security Council should be asked to implement its own resolutions on Kashmir”, he emphasised.

The Kashmiris, he said, want a democratic exercise though which  they can realise their right to self-determination.

“Kashmiris abhor violence in all forms; they are a peaceful people who want freedom. The people of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan are striving for a peaceful, negotiated resolution of the dispute” he said.

He appealed to the international community to shed “apathy” and come to the rescue of the Kashmiris who were suffering grievously.

“There should be a shift from the so-called impartiality to a quest for justice in Kashmir”, he said adding that bigger countries should not be given a license to trample the rights of a people and get away with their crimes.

He told his interlocutors that Kashmiris are determined to get their rights and will continue their struggle until they get freedom.