Prime Minister’s Special Envoys on Jammu and Kashmir call for plebiscite in Kashmir on the pattern of East Timor

Prime Minister’s Special Envoys on Jammu and Kashmir call for plebiscite in Kashmir on the pattern of East Timor

Today, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and MNA Dr. Shazra Mansab, in their capacity as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoys on Jammu and Kashmir held a meeting with Ambassador Richard Olson, the US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan and other senior officials at the US Department of State. Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani accompanied the Special Envoys.

Senator Mushahid Hussain and MNA Dr. Shazra Mansab apprised the US officials that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were exercising their democratic right to protest against the continued suppression of their legitimate right to self-determination promised by the United Nations Security Council in multiple resolutions. The US side was informed that the ongoing people’s movement in Kashmir was completely indigenous and spontaneous. It gained further momentum after the extra judicial killing of a young Kashmiri freedom lover Burhan Wani.

Prime Minister’s Special Envoys shared the carefully documented evidence of Indian brutalities and the systematic human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian forces against the innocent civilians in occupied Kashmir which was the most heavily militarized zone on earth. It was highlighted how the use of pellet guns and other prohibited weapons were being used by the Indian authorities to suppress the voice of the Kashmiri people. Besides, several other fundamental rights of Kashmiri civilians including their right to assemble, worship and practice their faith were being denied.

Reminding the US officials that it was India which took the case of Jammu and Kashmir to the United Nations in 1948, the Special Envoys argued that present struggle of the people of Kashmir was a result of their frustration and disappointment over lack of fulfillment of their legally and diplomatically promised right of plebiscite to determine their future. The United States, being permanent member of the UN Security Council, was both legally and morally bound to play its role in ensuring that the people of Kashmir are able to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination in the same spirit granted by the international community to the people of East Timor a few years ago. The Special Envoys also stressed the need for activation of the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the ceasefire violations on the India side.

The US officials took note of the Indian human rights violations in Kashmir and informed that such excesses were also being documented and reported in their annual global report on the situation of human rights. The US officials further informed that the report regarding human rights violations in India constituted one of the longest part of the US global report.

In wake of the heightened tension in South Asia, it was agreed that early solution of the Kashmir dispute was necessary for lasting peace and stability in the region.

October 03, 2016
Washington D.C