World must notice Indian repression of Kashmiris, says acting Pak HC in Canada

Acting High Commissioner for Pakistan to Canada Mr. Shahbaz Malik has urged the world to take notice of the ongoing brutal state repression in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and stop India’s illegal settlement and colonization of the valley.

“The world must come forward to demand India comply with its international legal obligations,” he said while speaking at a webinar arranged by the Kashmir Committee of National Capital Region-Ottawa to mark the completion of an unprecedented 24-month long military siege and draconian curbs on fundamental freedoms in the IIOJK.

In his address to the webinar, Mr. Shahbaz Malik said Youm-e-Istehsal was a reminder of India’s illegal and unilateral actions of revoking special status of the IIOJ&K on 5 August 2019 as well as of its continued repression and colonization of through Kashmiris through an assault on their culture and identity, rapid expropriation of land, heightened economic marginalization and accelerated settler-colonialism.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s support and solidarity with the Kashmiris and called upon the United Nations Security Council, its Human Rights Council, and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help stop the killing of defenseless civilians in the name of terrorism in the IOJ&K.

Speaking on the occasion, Joel Harden, NDP politician and MPP, Legislative Assembly of Ontario said the seven million Kashmiris had been living under lockdown for the last two years and it was binding on all Canadians, regardless of their political considerations, to speak up for the human rights and self-determination people of Kashmir who deserve self-respect and dignity denied to them by the Indian government. He said it was time to summon all our spiritual and intellectual capacities to remind all of us that we have to stand against colonialism and the systems of government that refuse humanity, and the Modi government had just done that by continuing to dehumanize the people of Kashmir.

Prof Chinnaiah Jangam of the Department of History at Carleton University Ottawa told the participants that Kashmir had become a highly militarized zone after being stripped of its special autonomous status by the right-wing Modi regime which had put its political and cultural identity under jeopardy. “This has pushed the Kashmiris into a life and death situation, subjecting them to a subservient position,” he said.

Prof Rehana Hashmi, human rights defender, activist and teacher at the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University Ottawa urged the Canadian government to move from its position of being an observer to an active player in stopping the human rights violations against the people of Kashmir who had suffered for decades at the hands of occupation Indian forces.

Meanwhile, a pictorial exhibition was also arranged by the Pakistan High Commission Ottawa to mark the Youm-e-Istehsal and highlight the Indian atrocities in IIOJK. Earlier in the day a truck painted with pictures depicting human rights abuses and calling for end to Indian repression in the IIOJK plied the main roads in Ottawa as a mark of solidarity with the people of Kashmir and their right to self-determination.

Ottawa,

August 6, 2021