Speakers at a webinar hosted by Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) in collaboration with World Muslim Conference (WMC) have urged the international community particularly the United Nations to take effective notice of impending genocide of Muslims in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The webinar titled “Impending Muslim Genocide in Indian occupied Kashmir” held on the sidelines of the ongoing 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was addressed by Phil Bennion (UK), former Member of the European Parliament; Ms Mary Scully, human rights activist, US; Robert Fantina, author and historian, Canada; Barrister Nida Salam, British-Kashmiri barrister and writer; Dr Waqas Ali Kausar, Professor National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad; and attend by several others including UN officials. The event was moderated by Chairman KIIR Altaf Hussain Wani. The UNHRC’s 50th session commenced on 13 June 2022 and will continue till 8 July 2022.
In his initial remarks the KIIR chief while referring to dire situation in IIOJK said international experts have already warned of impending genocide of Muslims in Kashmir. He said that in the aftermath of 5th August 2109, the apartheid regime launched a massive and multi-front political, social and cultural onslaught on the Kashmiris.
Citing the patterns and typology of genocide in the occupied territory, he said, “Erasing Kashmiris’ political identity, disempowering Muslim majority community to reduce them to 2nd class citizens, turning them into a political minority, minimizing their role in political decision-making process are the most vivid signs and processes of genocide that should serve as an eye-opener for the world community.”
He said that after unleashing a reign of terror in IIOJK, the racist Indian regime was now shamelessly playing the religious card to get its communal agenda implemented in the occupied territory.
Taking a leaf out of the former governor Jagmohan Malhotra’s rule book, Altad Wani said, “The BJP seems to be on the verge of repeating history”. He said that a certain section of the Kashmiri Pandit community under a nefarious agenda was ready to become pawns in the BJP’s chessboard of power and politics in India. He, however, observed that a silent majority of Pandits within and outside the Kashmir Valley knew fully well how the right-wing forces were using them as pawns.
Speakers pointed out that extremist Hindutva ideology being propagated by the Indian government poses a grave threat to regional peace. They said that Kashmiris have been killed, maimed, blinded, tortured, and forcibly disappeared by the Indian forces over the past 74 years. The Indian government, they said, has held Kashmiris hostage by the dint of force.
Indian governments, the speakers said, have always used colonial-era tactics to suppress the Kashmiris legitimate struggle. The Indian troops deployed in the territory, they said, have been operating under black laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act that have given them complete impunity. They further said that soon after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, the Indian occupation forces started the anti-Muslim pogrom in the occupied territory.—INP
