Pakistan raises 'missing persons issue' in Indian Occupied Kashmir at UNSC

UNITED NATIONS: Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, has raised the ‘missing persons issue’ in Indian Occupied Kashmir at UNSC.

The Pakistani diplomat told the UN Security Council that the “acute” matter of missing persons in armed conflict was persisting like a “silent crisis”, as he underscored that absence of such individuals from their loved ones was “a wound that never heals”.

“The issue of missing persons is particularly acute in conflict zones and occupied territories from Palestine to occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said during a discussion in the 15-member Council on the implementation of its Resolution 2474, which addresses that “critical issue”.

“They are fathers who never returned home, mothers separated from their children, young boys who disappeared in the dead of night, and daughters whose fates are sealed in silence,” he said, adding, “Their absence is a wound that never heals, leaving families trapped in an endless cycle of hope and despair.”

In this regard, the Pakistani envoy said that despite calls for investigations and accountability, the plight of missing persons continues to exacerbate in Indian-Occupied Kashmir, pointing out that after India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, thousands of young boys were abducted and many still missing.

“The recent terrorist incident in Jammu and Kashmir was used as a pretext to round up more than 2,000 people with the view to further oppress Kashmiris’ struggling for their legitimate right to self-determination,” Ambassador Asim highlighted.

Referring to the unmarked and unknown graves of thousands of victims that have surfaced in recent year, the Pakistani envoy said, “From the investigations held so far, it has been revealed that these victims are first disappeared by Indian occupation forces and then tortured to death or summarily executed.”

The occupying power, he said, continues to be in denial about the thousands of enforced and involuntarily disappeared persons from Kashmir and is reluctant to conduct forensic investigations into the 7,000+ unmarked mass graves.

He said that Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in its two reports of 2018 and 2019 on Kashmir, had recommended to “ensure independent, impartial and credible investigations into all unmarked graves” in occupied Kashmir.