The Indian-controlled Kashmir has been in a state of turmoil and uprisings for far too long as the local population continues to see New Delhi as occupier of their land.
The ruling India’s BJP government’s hard line approach to the decades-old Kashmir dispute and frequent clashes between Indian security forces and freedom activists have resulted in widespread human rights abuses. India’s use of pellet guns to quell the uprising in Kashmir got widespread condemnation this year.
In a loud reminder of the grave situation, two human rights activists from the Indian-held Kashmir were awarded this past weekend the prestigious Rafto Prize for courageously highlighting the rights violations in Srinagar and other parts of the valley.
The work of the two rights defenders in Jammu and Kashmir was recognized at a ceremony held in Norwegian city of Bergen on Saturday.
It was just days after October 27 – which Kashmiris all over the world observe as Black Day as it marks Indian occupation in 1947 – that the two champions of human rights were recognized.
Both activists have been striving for protection of human rights for a long time in the conflict zone, a UN-accepted disputed territory where people still await an opportunity to determine their future – whether to join Pakistan, India or be independent.
Ms. Parveena Ahangar founded the Association which supports parents of missing and disappeared persons in the Indian occupied Kashmir. Imroz Parvez is a Kashmiri lawyer, civil rights activist, and founder of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Norway, selects the most distinguished individuals in the fields of human rights and democracy from around the world for conferment of the prestigious Rafto Prize.
While the Rafto Prize to Kashmiri activists is encouraging for defenders and champions of human rights in the valley, as indeed elsewhere in the world, the larger question of the fate of the Kashmiris and Indian reign of terror and suppression remains to be resolved.
In Washington D.C., a seminar on Sunday highlighted the need for the international community to stop Indian brutalities in the occupied territory.
Washington DC: Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry delivered opening remarks at a Seminar
Speaking at the seminar on “Kashmir: The Seventy Years’ Struggle,” at the Embassy of Pakistan, Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry called upon the international community to take notice of the human rights violations perpetrated by Indian occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the people of Kashmir remains steadfast in the face of Indian brutalities. He assured the Kashmiri community that Pakistan would continue to lend moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmir at all international fora.
Kashmiri American Committee Secretary General Sardar Zulfiqar Khan, former member Azad Jammu & Kashmir Council Sardar Sawaar Khan and George Washington University professor Dr. Imtiaz Khan also spoke on the occasion, highlighting the plight of the innocent Kashmiris, the Pakistani embassy said.
Former diplomats, Ambassador Touqir Hussain and former Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan drew the attention of the international community to numerous UN Security Council resolutions under which the people of Kashmir have been promised the right to self-determination through a UN-mandated plebiscite.
The two speakers also emphasized that both governments in India and Pakistan need to resume dialogue to arrive at a political solution in accordance with aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
