WASHINGTON: Speakers at a webinar, organised by the Pakistan embassy in Washington, reaffirmed their unflinching support to the people of occupied Kashmir in their just struggle for the right to self-determination, and called for ending the unparalleled atrocities being committed by the Indian forces.
The webinar — A Day to stand up in solidarity with Kashmir — was participated in by Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Asad Majeed Khan, British MP Afzal Khan, retired ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, US-based Kashmir rights activist Danielle Khan, and Wes Martin, a political analyst.
The speakers said the Indian-occupied Kashmir faced a human rights catastrophe and demanded that India should immediately repeal draconian laws, end the military siege, stop demographic changes in the occupied region, lift the communication blockade and release all political prisoners.
Saluting the courage and steadfastness of the people of Kashmir in the face of the worst rights violations, they refuted New Delhi’s narrative of Kashmir being India’s internal matter and pledged to continue to raise their voice for the basic human rights of the people.
The speakers also highlighted the state-sanctioned discrimination against Muslims and other minorities in India as well as in Jammu and Kashmir and emphasised that urgent international intervention was warranted to hold the BJP government to account.
In his remarks, Ambassador Khan thanked the speakers for highlighting various aspects of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and expressing solidarity with the people.
He said that the Indian-occupied Kashmir was today witnessing the heaviest concentration of security forces anywhere in the world, which were committing unprecedented atrocities against the people with impunity.
He also expressed deep concern over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) long-term project of altering the disputed state’s demography and called on the international community, especially the United States, to play their due role and urge India to cease its human rights violations there and take meaningful steps to resolve the dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.
