Hours after New Delhi officially took over the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region following its August 5 revocation of the regional autonomy, the United Nations Secretary General reiterated the world body’s concern over the precarious situation.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s expression of concern follows UN Human Rights Commission’s damning denunciation of India’s denial of human rights to Kashmiris in the heavily militarized region.
“Well, just to reiterate our basic concerns that the Secretary‑General has previously expressed his concerns about the situation in Kashmir,” Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman of the UN chief, said in New York Headquarters of the world body, when asked about the latest Indian action that divides the previously one region into two federally run territories.
Kashmir, the only Muslim majority territory under Indian control, has been under a curfew-like situation since August 5, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government placed the disputed territory under a harsh lockdown, depriving people of basic human rights to freedom of expression and movement.
PM Modi says the move is aimed at bringing development to Kashmir but the people of Jammu and Kashmir see it as a step toward changing demographics of the region and fear domination of the majority Hindu population.
In the UN comments, Spokesman Farhan Haq recalled that secretary-general Guterres met leaders of India and Pakistan in the wake of Indian actions in Kashmir and appealed to both sides to address the issue through talks.
“As we’ve made clear and, particularly, as the High Commissioner for Human Rights has made clear, the situation in Kashmir can only be solved with full respect for human rights,” the spokesman added.
Picture taken by Views and News of a poster exhibition on Kashmir at Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C.
In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement this week. “We are extremely concerned that the population In Kashmir continues to be deprived of a wide range of human rights and we urge the Indian authorities to unlock the situation and fully restore the rights that are currently being denied.”
New Delhi’s unilateral action has heightened Pakistan-India tensions, and both sides have exchanged heavy fire across the Line of Control in Kashmir which has resulted in killing of civilians and troops.
