Azad Jammu Kashmir president Sardar Masood Khan condemns unprovoked Indian shelling along LoC

Azad Jammu Kashmir president Sardar Masood Khan condemns unprovoked Indian shelling along LoC

MIRPUR (APP, 14 June 2020)  Describing the frequent unprovoked Indian firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) as an attempt to divert world’s attention from grave human rights abuses in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoJK), Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Saturday urged the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to inform UN secretary general about the deteriorating security situation in the region.

The president condemned Indian shelling on unarmed civilian population in different sectors of Azad Kashmir that killed an elderly woman in Haveli sector and wounded two others in Goi, Tatapani sectors of Kotli district and destroyed several residential houses, AJK Presidential Secretariat said in a statement.

Sardar Masood Khan called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take serious notice of the rising incidents of firing by Indian troops from across the Line of Control (LoC).

The president said that the international community must compel India to abide by the 2003 ceasefire agreement, and added that the Indian occupation forces had committed over 1,000 ceasefire violations in the current year, which had left eight civilians martyred and 100 others injured.

Urging UNMOGIP to effectively monitor ceasefire violations, President Khan expressed his dismay over the silence of UN Secretary General and failure of the Security Council to take cognizance of such violations regularly reported by UNMOGIP.

The AJK president described the unprovoked Indian troops’ firing in different sectors of LoC as a cowardly act of terror and an attempt to divert attention of the world from the worst human rights situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and in India.

He termed fresh spate of shelling from across the LoC as India’s war hysteria that is threatening peace and security in the region. Earlier in an interview with a news web portal, the president outlined that a set of international laws specifically prohibited what the BJP-RSS regime was doing in IoJK.

He added that the crimes they were committing fell in the categories of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

President Khan emphasized that actions against these crimes were listed in the Charter of the United Nations, the two International Covenants, Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol-I, and International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute, as well as numerous conventions on the rights of the child, elimination of racial discrimination, discrimination against women, torture and enforced disappearances.

Indian soldiers and occupation authorities in the state, he said, were in fact committing genocide of the people, but India got away because of its political and economic clout.

The will of the member states and states parties to the conventions and treaties has waned over the years in dealing with difficult issues.