The Panun Kashmir (PK), an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Hindus, on Thursday submitted a memorandum to UN Secretary General António Guterres urging him to ask the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) to correct its recent one-sided report accusing India of “human rights violations in Kashmir”.
The memorandum sent by PK chief Ashwani Chrungoo and Sanjay Kaul, overseas chairman of PK, pointed out that the UNHRC had based its report on a one-sided story of the Kashmir situation fed to them by separatist elements.
Newly appointed UNHRC chief Michelle Bachelet had soon after coming to office endorsed the report of her predecessor Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accusing India of human rights violations in Kashmir. India has rejected the UNHRC report.
The memorandum brought to the notice of the UN that the terror groups inspired by Islamic religious extremism also made non-Muslims, particularly the minority Hindus, targets in the hilly areas of Jammu region and conducted a large number of organised massacres there. A large chunk of these hapless Hindus also continue to live as displaced people outside their historical habitat. The minority community of Pandits in Kashmir have been victims of hate crimes and crimes against humanity at the hands of the terrorists in Kashmir.
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“Under the backdrop of information provided, we request your office that the United Nations along with the UNHRC and UNHCHR take a correct position regarding the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir State and in working with the Government of India create conditions so that the perpetrators of crimes against Kashmiri Hindus supported by Pakistan wind up their terror infrastructure forthwith,” the memorandum said.
The PK also urged the UN that a special session on the plight of the indigenous people of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits, be organised at UNHRC level so that “our representatives create awareness about our issues at an appropriate level”.
The memorandum pointed out that the reports of various human rights organizations had clearly pointed out the atrocities that were being committed on the minority Hindus by Islamic radicals who are backed by Pakistan.
Kashmiri Pandits have been living as refugees in their own country for the last 29 years, having witnessed genocide and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir. Mass exodus was inflicted upon the members of the community in 1989-90 by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. The theocratic and extremist goals of the fundamentalist and terrorist organisations of the Kashmir valley shunted seven hundred thousand Kashmiri Pandits into exile.
“Pakistan’s open sponsorship and support to the three-decade old terrorism and mayhem in the state of Jammu and Kashmir has brought destruction and ruin to the unfortunate victims of terrorism. Their brazen interference has strangulated the life of minorities in Kashmir,” the memorandum added.