ISLAMABAD – Indian journalist Aarti Tikoo Singh has said she was “set up”by pro-Pakistani US congress in congressional hearing on Kashmir. Aartisaid the hearing was biased as the speakers spoke in favour of Pakistan andcriticised India. She also expressed her disappointment on the US Congresspanel gagging her during the hearings.
Speaking at a hearing on human rights in South Asia held by the House ofRepresentatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in Washington, theEconomic Times quoted her as saying, “The United States House of ForeignAffairs Committee hearing was prejudiced, biased and it was set up againstIndia and in favour of Pakistan.”
During her speech, Aarti Tikoo Singh also hurled criticism over Pakistan’srole in Jammu and Kashmir but she also admitted the fact that Indian forcesare involved in human rights abuses in the held valley.
Two other speakers of Indian descent, Nitasha Kaul and Angana Chattrjee,gave testimony critical of India. They highlighted the grave situation inOccupied Kashmir and the Indian government’s hostile policies.
Speaking over the situation in Occupied Kashmir, Singh maintained thedenial of democratic rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir affects not onlythe residents but also those living outside India and overseas. Sheadmitted the Western and Indian press presented a “distorted reality ofKashmir”.
Kashmiri Muslims have suffered most from terrorism, a truth ignored byWestern media and rights groups.
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She was quoted as saying by The Economic Times: “In the last 30 years,terrorists killed more Kashmiri Muslim civilians than the members of anyother community in Kashmir.”
“There is no human rights activist and no press in the world that feels itis their moral obligation to talk or write about the victims of Pakistaniterror in Kashmir,” Singh remarked.
“While they are rightly highlighting the instances of violations committedby the Indian security, the story is often presented without context thathelps the perpetrators and not the human rights abuse in Kashmir,” sheadded.
She said that although she grew up in destitution as one of the KashmiriPandit refugees, she was appearing at the hearing not as a representativeof her community but as a “conscientious journalist who believes that theduty of a journalist is to be watchdog of society”.
