LONDON – Trade Chief MEP, Sajjad Karim, Today raised the use of pellet gunsin Indian-administered Kashmir (IAK) with the EU’s Trade Commissioner.
In a question posed to Commissioner Malmstrom during an International Trade(INTA) Committee meeting within the European Parliament, Dr. Karim askedfor an update on the stalled EU-India Free Trade talks in relation to theatrocities being committed in IAK.
Speaking in the Committee, Dr. Karim said: “First of all, some months agoPresidents Juncker [Commission] & Tusk [Council] made their way toIndia to try and revive the EU-India Free Trade Agreement. Ever since thenthings have fallen absolutely silent and when things fail silent it worriesme because it means either nothing is happening or something is happeningthat I don’t know about.
“The fact that you’ve been silent today on this as well prompts me to putthat question to you, but one thing I must say is my mailbag is absolutelyfull of representations about the situation that’s unfolding in Kashmir atthis stage, where pellet guns are being used in order to blind, maim andkill people.
International human rights organisations are giving a lot of accounts ofwhat is happening, but they are being denied access there, so it isparticularly important that we have an update as to where those talks havearrived at” Commissioner Malmstrom’s response addressed all the issuesraised by the British MEP on the EU-India Free Trade talks except on themost important point of Kashmir and the human rights abuses. She said the“progress is being made” and that there is “constructive willingness” fromthe Indians, but the two sides are still not at “the same level ofambition”.
The British MEP also added: “There is a very strong feeling in the EU thatBritish Kashmiris weakened Europe by supporting Brexit. This is a falseassertion peddled by Brexit supporters who ultimately are harming theKashmir issue here.”
Dr Karim has been a prominent voice on the Kashmir issue over the years,co-hosting an annual conference- Kashmir-EU Week – in conjunction with theKashmir Council-EU, a Brussels based NGO, which aims to raise awareness ofthe issue each year.
He also chairs the South Asia Trade Monitoring Committee within theEuropean Parliament and was the Parliamentary rapporteur for the EU-Indiafree Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006 and 2009, where specific clauses wereadded and adopted by a full plenary session of the parliament at the time,as well as Chairing the Friends of Pakistan Group.