A report compiled by a UK parliamentary body has recognised “the massive human rights violations and atrocities” committed by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.
The report, prepared by the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG), has highlighted “the draconian laws”, including the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act, “under the garb of which Indian occupation forces are committing human rights abuses in IoK with impunity”.
On October 31, after the APPKG had released its report, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal had termed the report’s observations as an “indictment” of India’s “gross human rights violations in the valley”.
Dr Faisal said that the APPKG report echoes the findings of the UN’s OHCHR Report published on June 14.
The APPKG report “calls for an immediate ban on the use of pellet guns against innocent unarmed civilians” in the valley by the Indian army.
Furthermore, the report “condemns the illegal detentions, enforced disappearances” in occupied Kashmir, and calls for the “prosecution of Indian armed forces”.
The APPKG, chaired by MP Chris Leslie, demands in the report that a “comprehensive public investigation into the identities of the bodies in mass and unmarked graves” should be made.
The parliamentary body observed that its findings, which come “on the heels of the UN’s OHCHR Report on Jammu and Kashmir”, are a “damning indictment against India’s human rights atrocities in IoK and stark proof of increasing international focus on the nature of this dispute”.
