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`Human Rights abuses in Kashmir’ Hurriyat (M) demands UN special representative

Kashmir Times. Dated: 3/16/2018 11:12:47 AM

SRINAGAR, Mar 15(Agencies): Hurriyat (M) Thursday claimed that it has demanded the “appointment of a UN Human Rights special representative to look into human rights abuses in Kashmir.”
In a statement issued today in Srinagar, the amalgam said that the demand was put forward by Hurriyat (M) convener Pakistan-Aministered Kashmir chapter Syed Faiz Naqshbandi while addressing a special meeting on the sidelines of 37th session of UN Human Rights Council currently in progress at the UN Headquarters in Geneva.
Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights attended the meeting, said the spokesperson of the amalgam, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
“Besides, 500 representatives of the civil society across the globe also participated on the occasion,” he said.
“While addressing the meeting, Naqshbandi raised the issues of extra judicial killings, fake encounters, enactment of draconian laws, indiscriminate use of pellet guns, and denial of right to travel for Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir,” he said.
He told the conference that “Indian forces enjoy complete impunity and this situation has drastically increased human rights violations in Kashmir.”
“He demanded the appointment of a Special UN Representative on the situation in Kashmir.”
Recently, Zeid Al-Hussein said that “Jammu & Kashmir to a formal list of urgent humanitarian crises, along with conflicts like Syria and Myanmar, in his policy statement in September 2016.”
In Geneva, the Hurriyat convener also met Adama Dieng Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide to highlight plight of Kashmiris.
“He further told him that fake encounters are staged to kill Kashmiris. On 4th March 2018, Indian forces again killed six Kashmiris at Shopian in a ‘fake encounter’,” Naqashbandi told Deing.
Meanwhile in Geneva, the spokesperson said that Naqshbandi also participated in a conference discussing ‘transitional justice to prevent atrocity crimes’.
Speaking on the occasion, Naqashbandi told the conference that there have been “18 systematic massacres by Indian forces in Kashmir where thousands of Kashmiris have been brutally killed,” said the spokesperson.
“Chairmen of both the Hurriyat factions Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani, JKLF chief Mohammed Yasin Malik and other resistance leaders are frequently put under detention. Draconian laws are in force in Kashmir that provides impunity to armed forces of India,” Naqshbandi said, in his address.