Kashmiri Nationalist human rights activists, thinkers, politicians and other renowned diaspora personalities gathered in Leeds, UK under the aegis of UKPNP which organised the International Kashmir Conference to discuss the rights situation in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
The Conference, which was held on July 28, declared that the erstwhile state of J-K is one political entity and its unification, stability and prosperity is the ultimate goal.
Speakers emphasised that the right to assemble and protest is a fundamental human right which cannot be suppressed or snatched from the masses. It was stressed that the people of PoJK protesting against the injustice, skyrocketing inflation, lack of electricity and heavy taxes cannot be silenced by the gun.
The conference affirmed that the people of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir have remained the victim of aggression, violence and extremism since 1947 by Pakistan. The suffering of separation must come to an end.
The conference strongly condemned the land grabbing in PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) by the military and influential non-State actors.
The plundering of the natural resources and damaging the ecosystem of the Himalayas by constructing mega dams and diverting the flow of rivers is causing huge resettlement among the masses of PoJK and GB and also causing hardships to the locals who are long deprived even of the water resources.
The conference vehemently condemned the brutality carried out by the Pakistani troops over unarmed peaceful protesters against the high prices, lack of electricity, lack of clean drinking water and systematic exploitation of their natural resources.
It was also observed in the Conference that China is not a party to the J-K dispute but a huge chunk of land (Aksai chin and Shaksgam Valley) is in their occupation and control since 1962-63.
They also said the occupational forces of Pakistan and China need to vacate J-K and get a peaceful resolution of the dispute. (ANI)
In his video message, Waseem said that these properties belong to non-Muslim Hindus and Sikhs and that they should come back and reclaim what is theirs. He has also call upon Modi to help him…writes Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza
A video has gone viral on social media where a Kashmiri refuge by the name of Malik Waseem from Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir and currently living in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), can be seen begging Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rescue him and his family from the “zulm” (cruelty) they face from the PoJK government.
Here is the story of this hapless man. In 1947 his family migrated to PoJK and were allotted a house in Muzaffarabad. At the time there were thousands of empty properties that originally belonged to those Hindus and Sikhs who were either massacred during the 1947-48 communal genocide or had somehow managed to escape to Jammu.
These properties were confiscated by the government and a department of Matrooka Emlak or abandoned properties was set up. It was in these properties that the Kashmiri refuges were housed and over a period of a few years were given ownership rights.
Over decades the prices of these properties soared from a few thousand ruppees to crores. Influential people are allegedly bribing the local government officials who deal with real estate to change the ownerships of the properties to a middleman and then buy it of them.
When the local police came to evict Waseem and his family the police produced a document that said the property was under the ownership of a different person.
On January 18, Waseem was forcefully evicted from his property along with young children and women members of the family. At the time of writing this article they had been sitting by the road outside their house for more than 60 hours, amidst the freezing cold. I have been informed that Waseem’s young daughter has taken ill and has been admitted in a local hospital.
In his video message, Waseem said that these properties belong to non-Muslim Hindus and Sikhs and that they should come back and reclaim what is theirs. He has also call upon Modi to help him.
I can assure you that it takes a lot of guts or only when in a state of utter despair that someone living in the PoJK would record such a statement and then share it on social media. To call India for help is high treason in Pakistan. But here you have a man in his early 40s who has become so desperate that he does not even think about the consequences of his appeal.
People living in PoJK are by default Indian citizens. Their plight puts us in a very tight spot. The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had signed an instrument of accession with India on October 26, 1947. However, by then Pakistan Army had already occupied large swaths of the state and only after a bitter and prolonged war did we manage to regain what is today known as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
For 74 years my people have been deceived by successive governments both in India and Pakistan regarding our future which still remains in a limbo. Although it was not until the BJP government of Modi came to power in 2014 that India started to act on a comprehensive policy to counter Jihadi terrorism in the Valley, but it yet needs to pay enough attention in resolving the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that PoJK and Pakistan occupied Gilgit-Baltistan are constitutional part of the Indian Republic. Likewise let there be no qualms about our claim to the territories occupied by Pakistan. In this light a bold statement made by our government on January 26, which happens to be our Republic Day would encourage my people to look in the eye of the devil.
Let us send Malik Waseem, and hundreds of thousands of Bharti ‘nagriks’ (citizens) living under the oppression of Pakistan, a ray of hope from the Lal Qila in Delhi when our Prime Minister makes his annual address.
like Prof. Sajjad Raja, Chairman of the National Equality Party Jammu Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan & Ladakh (NEP JKGBL)
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) slammed the Imran Khan-led government for continuing with the policy of subjugation of the Gilgit Baltistan region … reports Kaliph Anaz
The National Equality Party (JKGBL) is organising a march in front of Pakistan High Commission in London on Thursday (10 June 2021) at 12:30 pm to protest against the human rights violations in Gilgit Baltistan & Pak Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The organisor’s said the maximum number allowed at gather is 30 and appealed all the supporters to wear face masks.
People at Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are in the receiving end since the new government under Imran Khan came to power. Prominent politicians from the region like Prof. Sajjad Raja, Chairman of the National Equality Party Jammu Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan & Ladakh (NEP JKGBL) and rights activist Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza are seeking the help of British politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene.
Prof. Raja said that his party is concerned with the fact that the people of PoJK and Gilgit Baltistan experience gross violation of their basic human rights as guaranteed by article 20 of the Declaration of Human Rights and as reinforced by Article 21 of ICCPR.
“In Pakistani occupied areas people continue being subjected to arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and enforced disappearances by authorities,” he was quoted as saying.
The National Equality Party (JKGBL) is organising a march in front of Pakistan High Commission in London on Thursday (10 June 2021) at 12:30 pm to protest against the human rights violations in Gilgit Baltistan & Pak Occupied Jammu and Kashmir
“In Kashmir Valley, Human Rights violations were unheard of before 1990 until Pakistan started sending in her armed militants who plunged Kashmir into a living hell; any human rights violations there stem from Pakistani infiltration,” said Prof. Raja. The political activist from PoK said, “We are gravely concerned that the world has never paid any attention to the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people of Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan living under Pakistani occupation where people have no constitutional rights to demand for other rights. Instead, laws such as the National Action Plan, ATA and Schedule 4 are used ruthlessly to stop people from taking part in any peaceful assembly”.
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, a human rights activist based in Glasgow has written a letter to Prime Minister Johnson to intervene in the issue.
“I have written a letter to PM Boris Johnson and requested him to intervene in the issue that is of great concern to us,” Dr Mirza said. “The Pakistani Supreme Court has directed the Pakistani government to make an amendment in the Gilgit Baltisan order in 2018 and conduct elections in the region. During the election period, they have asked the Pakistani government to form an interim government in the region.”
He said that Pakistan Supreme Court ruling is illegal since Gilgit Baltistan is not a constitutional part of Pakistan.
“Gilgit-Baltistan has its own legislative assembly and an election commission hence there is no justification for meddling with its electoral process. They can decide on when they want to have an election. To conduct an election through Pakistani Election Commission is an infringement on the rights of Gilgit Baltistan people,” said Dr Mirza.
Dr Mirza also said that Pakistan is plundering the natural and mineral resources of Gilgit Baltistan which include gold, marble, emerald, copper sulphate, iron, antimony, uranium 238, ruby, topaz, quartz, Sulphur and oil.
“The people if Gilgit Baltistan have no freedom of speech. Anyone who braves to raise his or her concern about the well-being of the people or the dangers to the environment are charged under the Anti-Terrorist Act also known as Schedule Four.”
He said that scores of our human rights activists and environmentalists who have been vocal about Pakistan’s injustices and exploitation of the natural recourses are serving long jail terms.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) slammed the Imran Khan-led government for continuing with the policy of subjugation of the Gilgit Baltistan region. Lamenting the disenfranchisement of people in Gilgit Baltistan.
The HRCP said the 2018 order annulled the Gilgit Baltistan Council which had local representation, and gave too many powers to the country’s Prime Minister.
This is not the first time that social justice activists and dissidents in Pakistani Occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) are faced with victimisation and it will most definitely not be the last, writes Amjad Ayub Mirza
At a hurriedly called press conference in Nakyal on May 6 in Pakistani Occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK), Awami Workers Party leader Nissar Shah advocate criticised the local Assistant Commissioner, Omar Farooq, for launching what Shah called a vindictive FIR against Shamsher Ali Sher advocate of Samaj Badlo Tehreeks (Change Society Movement) and a candidate in upcoming general elections.
This is not the first time that social justice activists in PoJK are faced with victimisation and it will most definitely not be the last. In the past, student activists of Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) have faced arrests and torture at the hands of the occupation forces.
Shamsher Ali Sher hails from a respected family of professionals in Nakyal in Kotli district. He is campaigning for the construction of safety walls at blind corners along the Nakyal-Kotli road which is a main cause for frequent road accidents. On December 31, 2020, a Nakyal bound van carrying a family who were travelling back from Gujranwala in Punjab lost control and fell hundreds of feet down into a ravine instantly killing three women and a man.1
PoJK(wikipedia)
Another accident that took place on April 11, 2021, five members of the same family lost their lives. They were travelling from Nakyal to Kotli city. “These loss of lives could have been averted provided there was a safety wall build at the dangerous parts and blind corners of the Nakyal-Kotli Road”, says Sher. And now he himself fears for his life and rightly so.
In the past, Arif Shahid social activist from PoJK paid with his life for raising voice against social injustice. He was allegedly killed by an ISI hitman outside his house in Rawalpindi on May 14, 2013. Arif Shahid campaign against the increase bar on political parties to participate in general elections unless they signed a document pledging allegiance to Pakistan.2
In 2011, a doctor and a human rights activist from PoJK was gunned down allegedly by the Pakistani secret service the ISI.3 Most recently Afzal Sulehria, a high profile political and human rights activist and leader of Kashmir National Party, allegedly became yet another victim of the ISI. Sulehria was a towering figure in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of PoJK. He vigorously campaigned against the diversion of Rivers Kishan Ganga (Neelum) and River Jhelum, and in December 2020 had written a letter to the Pakistan army chief demanding all
Under construction hydropower projects to be brought to an instant halt and deals made between the gover1. https://www.dawn.com/news/15255333
2. Adams, Brad. “Pakistan: ‘Free Kashmir’ Far From Free”. Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2013-03-14. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
Choudhry, Shabbir. “PAKISTAN: Another Azad Kashmiri becomes the victim of ISI butchery”. Asian Human Rights Commission. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-04-14.
Under construction hydropower projects to be brought to an instant halt and deals made between the government of Azad Kashmir and Chinese construction companies be made public. In February 2021, less than two months after he had written to the Army Chief, Sulehria died of a mysterious heart attack. No autopsy was carried out.
It is not uncommon for human rights and political activists such as Shamsher Ali Sher advocate to face persecution after being involved in campaigns that attempt to address issues regarding public interest in PoJK. Those who have raised their voice against the colonial rule of Pakistan, since October 1947, when Pakistan attacked the state of Jammu and Kashmir and forcefully annexed western parts of Jammu province as well as Gilgit Agency, unfortunately share the same fate.
Human Rights Watch report sums up the ordeal we face in PoJK most convincingly as follows: “the Pakistani government in Islamabad, (read military establishment), the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence services (Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI) control all aspects of political life in Azad Kashmir (PoJK)… Azad Kashmir is a land of strict curbs on political pluralism, freedom of expression, and freedom of association; a muzzled press; banned books; arbitrary arrest and detention and torture at the hands of the Pakistani military and the police. Singled out are Kashmiri nationalists who do not support the idea of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.”
(Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK.)
