Human Appeal-Kashmir Blockade Starves Millions

[BATMAN]

Human Appeal-Kashmir Blockade Starves Millions

Kashmir Watch, August 19

Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan

The ever worsening human rights situation obtaining in India-held parts of Jammu and Kashmir wrought about by the recent development of economic strangulation by Indian authorities in addition to killings by Indian occupation forces, atop rape, arson, abduction, custodial killings, discovery of unknown graveyards prompt me to make this urgent appeal to the Heads of State, Government and Human Rights Organizations of the world, urging for immediate intervention to save millions of lives — men, women and children even thousands of pet animals from systematic annihilation from region to region and cities/towns to villages and localities. Dozens of innocent people including a well known political figure Sheikh Abdul Aziz have been killed by the berserk occupation forces. Saddest still is the killing spree, which is continuing.


The communalist extremists of Jammu region have started an organized inhuman campaign to starve the people of Kashmir Valley by blocking the intra-region trade and travel roads, routes and highways.


For the past seven weeks a worst type of economic blockade bas been imposed with the closure of Srinagar-Jammu into Indian occupied commercial highway.

Goods transportation has come to a complete halt, driving the people in the Kashmir Valley and its adjoining areas to starving deaths.


The intolerant communalist extremists of Jammu aided by extremists from Indian territory by blockading the Srinagar-Jammu highway have done an irreparable loss to the economy of the Kashmir Valley: the trade of fresh fruit has been crippled; fruits worth billions of dollars have perished; daily commerce and inter-regional trading today stands totally shut down to the extreme detriment of the commerce of the community of Kashmir. The trade and travel blockade has a specific design: to encage the civil population of the Valley of Kashmir and its adjacent regions to submit & surrender their religious, culture, economy and entire social structure.

The blockade has rendered the public life without foodstuffs, medicines and inflow and outflow of any consumable item of daily use.


Shops, medical stores, students study materials have gone out of the market as no supply is possible. The valley of Kashmir has been virtually turned into a big food- 9deprivation torture zone.


The communalist extremists of Jammu and India are in fact bent upon repeating the bloodbath the extremists had staged back in 1947 there when over 2,50,000 innocent Muslims were butchered, properties burnt, women in thousands abducted and their chastity violated; thousands made orphans and widows; the horrendous incidents exist in the records of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as Jammu and Kashmir stands registered as an international dispute by the UNSC.


The fast deteriorating human rights circumstances in parts of Jammu and Kashmir warrant urgent role of the international diplomatic and humanitarian community to arrest the situation from developing into an uncontrollable geo-human disaster, besides its multidimensional far-reaching implications. Besides, the most precious moves of peace process become a question mark. Reversion to the past dangerous and volatile situation will only be horrendous. Whatever little hope of peace had been generated also seems to be destroyed.



Therefore, in the interest of human and geographic security, peace and amity, I respectfully appeal for international help to ensure safety of life, honor and properties of the people in Kashmir now under Indian occupation forces.


The peace loving people of Kashmir are ready to cooperate with the international organizations to bring back peace by lifting the inhuman 2-month old continuous economic blockade of masses in Kashmir valley and its surrounding zones.


I, in the name of humanity, urgently appeal to the World powers and other international human right organizations to persuade India to have this stopped and manage to send human rights missions to the State of Jammu and Kashmir to help save human lives and terminate economic blockade. We duly recognize with gratitude statements of the UN Secretary General and the OI.C about the situation in occupied Kashmir.



The author is Supreme Head All Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference, Former President & Prime Minister of the State of AJ&K, Member Constituent Council Rabita-al-Alam-al-Islami, and Ex Chairman President's National Kashmir Committee Pak