Kashmiri outfit rejects human rights violation report by UN

New Delhi: The All-India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS) on Monday rejected the human rights violation report of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) issued on June 14. In a memorandum to the UN, the AIKS said the international organisation’s report was neither based on facts nor does it reflect the realities existing in Jammu and Kashmir.

“UNHRC, over the last 30 years, has turned a blind eye to the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits. In 1989-90, this microscopic minority, along with many non-Muslims living in Kashmir, were cleansed out of Kashmir after they were subjected to ruthless violence by armed hordes sponsored by Pakistan,” AIKS general secretary MK Pajan said.

Late freedom fighter and poet Sarwanand Koul Premi’s son, Rajendera, was 30 years old when the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits took place. Recollecting the dark night of April 29, he said: “Our faith on Kashmiriyat was shattered on April 29, when three militants barged into our house and looted everything from precious books to jewellery. We were all called in a room and were coerced to hand over all the precious things to them.

“Alas, they asked my father to come out along with my younger brother with a promise of their safe return. However, after two-three days of agony and suffering, our worst nightmare came to existence. Both my father and brother were killed.”

Sarwanand Koul Premi had participated in both the “Quit India Movement” as well as the “Quit Kashmir Movement” against the tyrannical regime of the British Empire and Maharja Hari Singh. He was a poet, who read the Koran and the Gita daily with equal reverence and translated the Bhagwad Gita and Tagore’s Gitanjali into Kashmiri.

“The UN had never even gone to the ground and the report does not have its roots in truth. Most importantly, they have let Pakistan off the hook,” said Col Tej K Tikoo, who had served in the Army for nearly three decades.

According to him, the UN has lost its credibility with this biased documented report and the international organisation should be ashamed for not even meeting the Kashmiri Pandits, who are a major stakeholder of Kashmir.

“If the Indian Army decides to leave the Valley to its fate tomorrow, it is guaranteed that Pakistan would send its troops to infiltrate the Valley. The situation will then become similar to that of Syria and Yemen,” he said.

He, however, was hopeful that peace measures will bring a difference to the turmoil in the Valley.