Syed Faiz Naqshbandi
26 January, India’s Republic Day, the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiris living across the globe, are observing this day as a Black Day. The observance is intended to draw urgent international attention to the continuing Indian atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a United Nations-recognised disputed territory that has remained on the agenda of the UN Security Council for more than seven decades.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir reiterate their demand for the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that guarantee their inalienable right to self-determination through a free, fair, and impartial plebiscite under UN supervision. Despite its legal and moral obligations as a UN Member State, India has persistently refused to implement these resolutions and instead claims the disputed territory as an integral part of India, while intensifying repression and military control.
This refusal has resulted in systematic, widespread, and grave human rights violations in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Indian armed forces and paramilitary units continue to commit atrocities with impunity, posing a serious threat to peace and stability in South Asia. Numerous reports by United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the UN Human Rights Council, as well as international human rights organizations and independent civil society institutions, have documented massive arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence, and the excessive use of force against civilians in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Thousands of innocent Kashmiris, including women and children, have permanently lost their eyesight due to the indiscriminate use of pellet-firing shotguns by Indian forces. Restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of religion, peaceful assembly, and political activity have turned the occupied territory into one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world.
The unilateral measures imposed on 5 August 2019, followed by policies of demographic engineering through changes to domicile, land ownership, and settlement laws has made life there miserable. These actions aim to alter the demographic structure of the occupied territory and constitute serious violations of UN resolutions and international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, threatening to permanently undermine the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people. The heavy Indian military deployment is serious threat to regional peace and security.
In this context, the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir urge the United Nations to play a decisive and effective role in ensuring the implementation of its Security Council resolutions. They also demand unhindered access for UN human rights mechanisms and independent international observers to investigate ongoing atrocities and prevent further loss of innocent lives.
A just, peaceful, and durable resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the aspirations of its people and relevant UN resolutions, remains indispensable for regional and global peace and security.
The author is senior leader of All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) and legal expert of international law. He can be reached at [email protected]
