Ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar, Shahzad Ahmad, addressing the event at Pakistan Embassy.
DOHA: To express solidarity with people of Indian-held Kashmir, an event was organised at Pakistan Embassy on Sunday which was attended by international media and a large number of civil society.
A documentary was shown which highlighted the plight of ‘people of Indian-held Kashmir’. The documentary also shed light on the recent wave of killings of innocent Kashmiri people in their struggle for the right to self determination, said a statement issued by the embassy.
Ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar, Shahzad Ahmad, said that the government of Pakistan has declared April 6, 2018 as an additional Kashmir Solidarity Day in light of the deteriorating situation in Kashmir, especially in light of the unjustified killing of 20 innocent civilians by Indian security forces.
He further said that since partition in 1947, Pakistan has given moral, diplomatic and political support to the cause of Kashmiri people, for their right to self determination, as enshrined in the United Nations resolutions on the issue.
He said: “Today’s event serves as a reminder to the international community of their obligations to the Kashmiri people. The right to self determination, the right to self expression, and the protection of human rights, are universal rights accepted in modern society and should be available to all. Yet this is not the case in Indian-held Kashmir.”
He further added that the world had chosen to ignore the plight of the Kashmiris who were being subjected to arbitrary detentions, disappearances, killings under the guise of faked encounters, rape, torture and many other atrocities committed by the Indian security forces.
“Today the situation in Shopian and Anantnag is dire. Communication services have been suspended, with a view to silence the voice of the Kashmiri people and hide the atrocities being perpetrated which would otherwise be circulated for the world to see,” the ambassador said.
He said that the Government of Pakistan had urged the international community to take cognizance of the gross and systematic human rights violations of the Kashmiris in the ‘India-occupied Kashmir’ and had requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to send Fact Finding missions.
He further added that the Prime Minister of Pakistan had also requested the UN Secretary -General to appoint a Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir with a mandate flowing from the unimplemented UN Security Council resolutions. “We ask the world to take note and not forget the plight of the Kashmiri people who are fighting for their basic and fundamental rights.”
