NEW YORK, August 6(ABC): Pakistan’s Consul General in New York, Ayesha Ali, has urged the world community to pressure India to end human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and help in the peaceful settlement of the decades-old dispute based on United Nations resolutions.
“The reticence of international community is a question mark over the international conscience,” she told a large gathering of members of Pakistani-American community at the Pakistan consulate in New York on Friday evening to mark Youm-e-Istehsal – the third anniversary of the Indian siege of occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
“The ideals of democracy, morality and justice in occupied Kashmir are being sacrificed at the alter of economic interests and geo-political considerations,” Ayesha Ali added. Other speakers at the meeting, including Taj Mohammad Khan, also condemned India atrocities in occupied Kashmir and called for the the exercise by the Kashmiri people of their of UN-pledged right to self-determination.
In her remarks, the consul general called for holding India accountable for it’s violations of international law in occupied Kashmir, including the continued denial of Kashmiri people’s fundamental rights, especially their inalienable right to self-determination.
Ayesha Ali also urged the U.S. government to use its influence with India to “halt its gross human rights violations against innocent Kashmiris, including extra-judicial killings; halt and reverse the demographic changes; release all political prisoners and allow unhindered access to the UN and international community’s independent investigators to Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.” The community members also went round an exhibition of photographs depicting the continuing Kashmiri people’s struggle for their right to self-determination in the face of Indian atrocities.