Islamabad
The All Parties Group on Kashmir in the European Parliament (APGK) was re-launched to continue the parliamentary work on Kashmir.
A statement issued in Brussels by the APGK members said that from 2004 to 2014, the European Parliament (EP) had an APGK to highlight the Kashmir dispute especially the issue of human rights violations by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir and to bring together key actors from the region. The statement said as most of those Members of European Parliament (MEPs) were from the UK which has now left the EU, it was necessary to re-launch that APGK, Kashmir Media Service reported.
Therefore on Tuesday during a luncheon meeting, MEPs from different countries and different political groups came together in the European Parliament to continue the parliamentary work on Kashmir through the re-launch of an informal group, the All Parties Group on Kashmir, European Parliament (APGK), the statement said.
This included MEP Klaus Buchner, MEP Mohammed Chahim (represented by his assistant Bauke Brouwer), MEP Maxette Pirbakas, MEP Carles Puigdemont and MEP Bernhard Zimniok, joined by Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo (Organization of Kashmir Coalition, OKC), Professor Josep Lluis Alay and former-MEP Frank Schwalba-Hoth, it said.
The statement said that it was decided that the APGK should serve as an umbrella informal group to facilitate and co-ordinate all the work and efforts to protect human rights of Kashmiris including the right to self-determination.
Keeping this as the focal point, it was decided to nominate MEP Klaus Buchner as President of APGK, to cooperate with the “Organisation of Kashmir Coalition (OKC)”.—APP
