Jammu
Mohammad Azmi Abdul Hamid, President of Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations (MAPIM), has expressed concern over the continued blackout of the internet by Indian authorities in occupied Kashmir.
Mohammad Azmi Abdul Hamid in a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur called upon the United Nations to do more than just a narrative of events on India’s shutdown of the internet in the occupied territory.
“It is deplorable to know that after the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, India now wants to isolate the Kashmiris from the world,” he added. This, he said, is against the Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). “India has gone to the extreme on its clampdown on the press and hunting down journalists to curtail press freedom on the issue of the rights of the Kashmiris.” He maintained that India was using the COVID-19 outbreak to intensify its lockdown in the Kashmir Valley. “This is nothing more than another annexation plan to take in Kashmir forcibly into the grip of India.”
“We object to the abusing of the COVID-19 pandemic as a basis to bar the internet connection for Kashmir,” he further said. Cutting off digital access will hamper the many essential needs of the people in health, economic and educational services he said and added that health professionals, school teachers and university students need to have access to internet.
The UN has referred, Azmi said, the India’s measure as “collective punishment” but stop short of indicating any clear action to pressure India to comply with the UDHR. “The UN should not only issue statements of concern but must prevail upon India to stop the digital oppression.—KMS
