‎Kashmiris stage protest outside UN office in Geneva seeking early resolution of Kashmir dispute

‎Spokesman Report
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‎Geneva: The Kashmiri delegation, currently in Geneva, staged a powerful protest demonstration outside the UN headquarters seeking the international community’s deeper engagement in resolving the long running Kashmir conflict that has been the main cause and consequence of continued bloodshed and human rights violations in the region.
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‎The protest demonstration was attended and addressed by members of Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora communities settled in Europe, UK and other countries.
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‎Expressing their deep concern over the worsening political and human rights situation in the Indian occupied territory of Kashmir the speakers mentioned that in the aftermath of 5th August 2019 India government used draconian laws such as PSA and UAPA more consistently and aggressively to crush all kinds of dissent in the region.
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‎These laws, they said, have not only enabled large-scale detentions of political and human rights activists but also paved the way for shifting PSA detainees to far-flung areas with no access to their families.
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‎”Such measures have created a climate of fear and anxiety among the region’s majority population, which feels increasingly alienated, disempowered, insecure and marginalized under the BJP’s iron-fisted rule”, they said.
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‎”The hardships faced by the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir have intensified since the revocation of its special status in 2019, particularly after the Pahalgam attack, which the Indian government used as a pretext for collective punishment against Kashmiris, especially the youth”, the speakers said.
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‎They pointed out that, following the Pahalgam incident, thousands of civilians—mostly young boys—taken into preventive custody continue to languish in distant jails, with little or no access to their families.
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‎“Journalists and human rights defenders have increasingly been targeted for speaking out against India’s belligerent attitude and mistreatment of ordinary Kashmiris,” they said, adding that arbitrary detentions continue, public assembly remains prohibited, and thousands—including minors and hundreds of political leaders—remain in preventive custody
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‎The black laws prevalent in the region, they said have been misused against the Kashmiri population.
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‎They also voiced serious concern over the continued and illegal detention of Kashmiri leaders and human rights activists, describing their prolonged detentions as a colonial-era tool to suppress political dissent and an attempt to render the Kashmiri struggle leaderless
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‎The speakers also criticized the Indian government for its nefarious designs aimed at changing the region’s demographic complexion and turning its Muslim majority into minority. They stated that Indian apartheid regime’s plan to balance populations in Kashmir through illegal settlement of outsiders was part of the this grand conspiracy.
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‎”Modi government’s attempts to change the demography of Occupied Kashmir by granting citizenship rights to non-state subjects, constructions of Sanik colonies and separate townships for Kashmir Pandits in the valley constitute a grave threat to Kashmiris’ identity”, they added.
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‎Describing these actions as a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, the speakers urged the international community to fulfill its obligations and take urgent measures to ensure the protection of Kashmiri people’s identity, safeguard their political freedoms, and uphold the principles of self-determination.
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‎Terming the long-standing dispute a serious threat to peace and stability in South Asia, the speakers called on the international community, particularly the UN, to pressurize India to reverse the constitutional changes introduced by the Government of India since 2019, repeal all black laws granting sweeping impunity to occupation forces, and release all political leaders and activists arrested before and after August 5, 2019, including Massarat Alam Bhat, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Ms. Asiya Andrabi, and others
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‎They also urged the powerful world governments in intervene and contribute to the peace and stability through encouraging a meaningful dialogue between India, Pakistan and the representatives of Kashmiri people to find out a durable solution to the lingering conflict.