India losing international support on KASHMIR
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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 13 (APP): India is losing the international diplomatic support on Kashmir as curfew and unrest continues in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) for more than two months.
UN Human Rights Chief has slammed India on the Kashmir issue in his recent statement. Earlier Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) has also condemned the Indian atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
READ MORE: Kashmir Human Rights Council takes Kashmir issue to the UN
The deteriorating situation in Indian-held Kashmir has now made it crucial to establish an "independent, impartial and international mission," the UN human rights chief has said, while regretting India's lack of response to his request for access to its controlled part of the disputed state.
High Commissioner Zeid Raad Al-Hussein told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council that he received a letter from the government of Pakistan on Sept. 9 formally inviting a team from his office to visit Azad Kashmir but only in tandem with a mission to the Indian side. "I have yet to receive a formal letter from the government of India. I therefore request here and publicly, from the two governments, access that is unconditional to both sides of the line of control," he said.
"Two months ago, I requested the agreement of the governments of India and Pakistan to invite teams from my office to visit both sides of the line of control: in other words the India-Administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir," Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein said in remarks delivered on Tuesday at the opening session of HRC.
READ MORE: UN fact finding mission invited by Pakistan to visit Azad Kashmir
"We furthermore received conflicting narratives from the two sides as to the cause for the confrontations and the reported large numbers of people killed and wounded. I believe an independent, impartial and international mission is now needed crucially and that it should be given free and complete access to establish an objective assessment of the claims made by the two sides," he said.
The top UN official also said that they continue receiv ing reports of Indian forces using "force excessively against civilian population under its administration." Clashes between Indian security forces and Kashmiri protestors erupted after a popular Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani was killed by in a military operation in July.
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Despite brutal tactics used by Indian troops to crush the uprising, protests have continued for 66 days. More than 80 people have been killed, over a hundred blinded by deadly pellet guns and thousands more wounded in one of the bloodiest summers the region has witnessed in the last five years.
In spite of a lockdown, anti-India protesters have called for a march to the UN office in Srinagar. Tensions have been further heightened due to Eid-ul-Adha, with heavy deployment of Indian troops across the valley even though there is a continuing ban on public assembly this year.
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The opening statement of the UN high commissioner for human rights at the HRC focused on issues of access of the UN to troub led areas and the growing trend of an increasing number of countries to refuse to grant access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and/or other human rights mechanisms to their countries or specific troubled regions.
Governments accuse the OHCHR of "interfering" in the internal affairs of sovereign states when violations of human rights are pointed out to them and his statements referring to these violations are termed "biased", "irresponsible", "misleading" or based on "false" premises, Zeid said in a hard-hitting statement.
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