ISLAMABAD – Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM)organized Genocide Memorial Day (GMD) event at Selongor InternationalIslamic University College, Malaysia. This year the theme topic wasGenocide in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
MAPIM – an umbrella organization of 200 Islamic NGOs – focuses onhumanitarian relief, education, socio-economic uplift, da’wah and humanrights advocacy. The GMD is an annual event organized by MAPIM to raisepublic awareness especially amongst the youth. This year, the objective wasto highlight the incessant plight, denial of right to life, genocide andethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims at the hands of Indian troops inoccupied Kashmir. The Pakistani High Commissioner, Mohammad Nafees Zakaria,was invited as guest speaker.
Mohammad Nafees Zakaria appreciated organisers’ (MAPIM’s) constant supportto and solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir, their concern overthe grave human rights situation there and choosing Kashmir as the themefor the ‘Genocide Memorial Day’. He said that the choice of theme reflectedthe deep concern and understanding among the brethren in Malaysia overchallenges faced by the Muslim Ummah, particularly the Kashmiris.
The High Commissioner said that the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir wasinternationally recognized. There are UN Security Council resolutions thatcall for a UN-supervised plebiscite to enable Kashmiris to exercise theirright to self-determination, he said. He deplored that the UN SecurityCouncil and UNCIP Resolutions on the Kashmir dispute remain unimplementedfor the past seven decades which have made the Kashmiri people to suffer.He said, the Government of Pakistan extends diplomatic, political and moralsupport to the Kashmiris and wishes to resolve the longstanding Kashmirdispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions onKashmir.
Nafees Zakaria highlighting the arbitrary arrests and disappearances inoccupied Kashmir said that in 2009, a local NGO International People’sTribunal (IPTK) issued a report on thousands of unnamed and unmarked massgraves, which the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) andIPTK discovered.
The High Commissioner referring to the Amnesty International’s appallingaccount entitled ‘Losing Sight in Kashmir – The Impact of Pellet FiringShotguns’ said that since 9th July 2016, Kashmiri youth were beingtargeted. “Hundreds of defenceless students, girls and boys, young men andwomen, and even children have been martyred and over a thousand have beenblinded, either fully or partially, by the use of pellet guns. Tens ofthousands were injured, some critically while medical facility was deniedsimultaneously to aggravate their pain. Each account of AmnestyInternational’s report of pellet victims is a story of pain, expression ofhelplessness and reflection of life full of darkness,” he said.
Nafees Zakaria presented the salient points of the 14 June 2018 reportissued by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) whichinter alia called for an independent inquiry commission’s visit to occupiedKashmir. “The report has highlighted lack of access to justice to victimsand impunity enjoyed by Indian troops. The OHCHR report termed the use ofpellet guns as the most dangerous weapon,” he pointed out.
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The High Commissioner informed the audience about deep concerns echoed inthe British House of Commons, where extensive debates were held inSeptember 2010 – after the discovery of unnamed mass graves in IOK – and inSeptember 2014 and January 2017. The atrocities and human rights violationswere also highlighted from the platform of All-Party Parliamentary Group onKashmir in the British Parliament, of late, he added.
“Pakistan has been highlighting the sufferings of the oppressed people ofoccupied Kashmir at global level and stressing upon the world communityincluding the UN, OIC and human rights organizations to help end dailykillings and bring the perpetrators to account for the crimes againsthumanity committed with impunity,” he maintained. Nafees Zakaria emphasizedthat the bloodshed in occupied Kashmir must stop immediately and theKashmir dispute be resolved on priority basis.
The MAPIM President expressed concern over the sufferings of Muslims acrossthe globe. He condemned the silence of the international community over theatrocities committed by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. He pledgedMAPIM’s constant support to the people of the occupied territory.
A declaration on ‘Genocide Memorial Day 2019’ was issued at the end ofevent. The declaration denounced the genocide of Kashmiri people by theIndian occupational forces.