KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Ambassador Tehmina Janjua, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN in Geneva told the Human Rights Council that the situation in Kashmir is about the tragedy of the Kashmiri people being “bludgeoned and brutalized by India – the occupying power” so that they “give up” their just struggle for their inherent Right to Self Determination.
She added that when this most fundamental right is denied, then all their other rights are trampled upon.
While totally rejecting India’s “narrative” that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is “about terrorism”, Ambassador Janjua pointed out that over the past two months alone, Kashmiri mothers have buried more than a hundred of their sons and daughters.
Hundreds more have been blinded, and many others have been incapacitated for life. There is a general curfew over a major part of Kashmir with millions being deprived of access to even basic necessities.
She underscored that in Kashmir, “there is no right to peaceful assembly and association and no freedom of religion or expression. Instead, there is arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture”.
“This is what has happened in IOK. This is the daily experience of the Kashmiri people. Only the intensity of their misery differs at different times; the repression and brutality they face are constant,” she said.
Ambassador Janjua added that India should acknowledge that the only solution to the Jammu & Kashmir issue is a free, fair and impartial plebiscite that has been assured to the Kashmiri people by UN Security Council resolutions.
