ISLAMABAD – Members of the Kashmir delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has urged the United Nations to appoint a special international envoy to monitor the situation in Kashmir.
According to the sources, the suggestion came in a speech delivered by Hurriyat leader Ishtiaq Hameed. The head of the Kashmir delegation and All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) senior leader Altaf Hussain Wani briefed the world diplomats in his speech on India’s policy of paying cash reward to anyone who killed a ‘militant’.
“Indian government holds policy of incentive on extra-judicial execution by keeping reward money for killing people,” Wani said referring to a recent statement by the Inspector General of Occupation Police Javaid Mujtaba Geelani who announced that the increase of monetary rewards formed the maximum of $15000 to $19,000.
“This policy of giving the monetary reward for killing the innocent civilians and branding them militants has led to killings and disappearances of several civilians who are falsely dubbed as militants and killed to claim the reward,” Wani said.
Hurriyat Women Wing senior leader Shamim Shawl in her speech before the council reminded the world about the famous 2012 Dehli gang rape and murder incident. She complained that India had prevented the parents of a young Kashmir female student, Shaista Hameed, to register a police report. The victim was killed inside her home because of a stray bullet, most likely fired by Indian occupation soldiers while dispersing a peaceful protest nearby.
This deeply concerned the state of women, children and also college going male and female students in Kashmir, she said. Once a picturesque valley, Kashmir, after military occupation today was a state overloaded with orphans and half orphans where thousands of children were growing up without a parent, mostly a father, due to occupation army’s policy of enforced disappearances of Kashmiris, she said.
Human Rights activist Zartasha Niazi rebuked India for its poor treatment of the children in Kashmir. In her speech, she said, “The occupation army in Kashmir ignores child suffering, treats children as combatants and directly targets children and teenagers during peaceful assemblies. Niazi said, “Today, occupied Kashmir is one of the worst places in the world for children in terms of health, education and quality of life.”
The eight-member Kashmir delegation for UNHRC’s 31st session consisted of delegation leader and Kashmir Freedom senior leader Altaf Hussain Wani, APHC senior leaders Syed Faiz Naqashbandi and Ishtiaq Hameed, Kashmir Freedom leader Mir Tahir Masood, Kashmiri Leader Shamim Shawl, Youth Forum for Kashmir Executive Director Ahmed Quraishi, an international lobbying group for Kashmir, Human Rights Defender working with Women and Children Professor Shagufta Ashra and Human Rights defender Zartasha Niazi.
