ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly condemned the cowardly
arrest of Hurriyat Conference Vice Chairman Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar by Indian
occupation forces in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)
under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA).
Foreign Office spokesperson in a press release, Pakistan said arbitrary
arrests of Hurriyat leaders, political activists, human rights defenders,
and civil society members on orchestrated charges manifestly reflected
India’s frustration at the freedom struggle by the Kashmiri people that
continued unfazed despite increasing intimidation, harassment and reprisal
attacks by the occupation forces. Almost the entire Kashmiri leadership
including Masarrat Alam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik and
Aasiya Andrabi were either detained in crowded jails in India or under house
arrest on made-up charges.
He said the relentless witch-hunt of Hurriyat leaders and political
activists by the Hindutva driven RSS-BJP dispensation on motivated
allegations and their persecution on fictitious charges under draconian laws
was in clear violation of the UN Charter, UN Security Council and UN General
Assembly resolutions, and international human rights and humanitarian law.
Regrettably, the Indian occupation forces were yet to be held accountable
for the death of senior APHC leader and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir
Chairman, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, who was arrested last year on trumped up
charges under the oppressive Public Safety Act in IIOJK and remained under
illegal Indian custody till the time of his death despite his worsening
health condition, he added.
The spokesperson maintained that India must remember that no amount of
systematic brutality, unbridled use of force and atrocious clamp-downs
against Kashmiri leadership will suppress the Kashmir freedom movement nor
would it delude the world into accepting India’s false claims of ‘normalcy’
in the IIOJK and portraying itself as a victim of terrorism.
He said, “Pakistan calls upon the international community to compel India to
abjure its policy of state-terrorism in IIOJK and immediately release all
arbitrarily arrested Kashmiri political leaders and activists including
Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar.”
