India must come out of state of denial: Fawad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday expressed concerns over the alarming death toll of Kashmiris due to Indian barbarism in the held territory.

In a statement on his official Twitter account, the minister said, “India must come out of [its] state of denial.” While highlighting the worsening condition of human rights abuse, he wrote, “Kashmir is now a human catastrophe.”

The information minister urged India to “forget politics” on Kashmir issue and adopt an approach which has more to do with “humanity” rather than territorial strategy.

India must come out of State of DENIAL, Kashmir is now a human catastrophe forget politics and territory think in terms of Humanity…. Zulm jab had se berhtha hai tou mit jaata hai…. https://t.co/aVfM397Rsz

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 2, 2019

According to a report compiled by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, Indian troops conducted 2,939 cordon and search operations across the disputed territory during 2018.

The report, which was released yesterday, said that Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) continued to witness grave human rights violations during the year 2018 as Indian forces in their barbaric acts of state terrorism martyred 375 Kashmiris.

The martyrs included highly qualified youth like Professor Dr Muhammad Rafi Butt, Dr Manan Bashir Wani, Dr Sabzar Ahmad Sofi, Dr Aijazud Din Khan and Dr Abdul Ahad Ganai. Those killed also included Hurriyet leaders Mir Hafizulla, Tariq Ahmad Ganie, Mohammad Yousuf Nadeem and Hakim-ul-Rehman Sultani.

A journalist, Shujaat Bukhari was among those killed by unidentified attackers. Of the martyrs, 21 were killed in custody.

As a result of these atrocities, 34 women lost their spouses and 78 children were orphaned while 75 women were molested by the men in uniform. Indian forces destroyed 605 residential houses as the vision of 1302 people was affected by pellets fired by the troops on peaceful protesters.