PoK activist wants representation for Gilgit-Baltistan in Indian Parliament
12 Sep 2019
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Pakistan’s false allegations of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir received a fresh jolt after an activist from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) told the United Nations that the PoK comprising the terrorist-infested Gilgit-Baltistan region is very much a part of India.
“Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of India. The members of the United Nations need to realise that Pakistan has become a huge stumbling block for the last 70 years,” Senge H Sering, an activist from Gilgit-Baltistan and the Director of the Institute of Gilgit Baltistan Studies in Washington DC, said at the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.
Sering had last month demanded that India must provide representation for the Gilgit-Baltistan region in the Indian Parliament to bolster its claim on the territory.
He said Islamabad was just pretending solidarity with the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, but the world, especially the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, are aware of the fact that Pakistan has been abusing and using the people of J&K for their own benefit.
Colonel (Retd) Wajahat Hasan from Gilgit Baltistan had told the 42nd session of UNHRC in Geneva that people of the Gilgit-Baltistan region have been kept under the cockpit of Kashmir for so long era that people don't know about Gilgit-Baltistan's importance and its link with the J&K state overall.
Senge Sering said Article 370 had become a tool in the hands of few in J&K which gave them veto power over other ethnic and religious groups. People who were benefitting from it became allies of Pakistani military and were promoting Pakistan's strategic interests in J&K.
The Gilgit-Baltistan region was created by Pakistan as a separate territory out of Jammu and Kashmir as per the Karachi Agreement in 1949, sans any deliberations with the local community and leadership.
Even as Pakistan creates a global uproar over India’s decision to abrogate Article 370, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and integrating the Valley with the rest of the country, the Islamic nation blatantly ignores the fact that it had unlawfully grabbed power from the Gilgit-Baltistan leadership a year ago.
Sering had last month demanded that India must provide representation for the Gilgit-Baltistan region in the Indian Parliament to bolster its claim on the territory.
UN human rights observers should visit Pakistan, not India: MQM founder
Altaf Hussain, founder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has alleged wholesale violation of human rights by Pakistani government and claimed that Indians who had moved to Pakistan during Partition, were tortured and arbitrarily detained in the Muslim nation, which comes as a damning indictment of the Pakistan government.
He accused Pakistan military of committing atrocities in PoK and demanded that that UN observers should visit Pakistan, not India.
Altaf Hussain, who has been living in exile in London, said there was an urgent need for the United Nations to send observers to Pakistan and not India.
He said Pakistan, instead of raking up alleged human rights abuses by India, should first give answers about the killings in Balochs and Pashtuns in Pakistan.
"The UN should be sending observers to Pakistan and not to India. India is doing very well," Hussain told The Times of India.
Hussain's remarks came as Pakistan accused India of human rights violations at the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. Pakistan claimed that India was committing 'genocide' in Kashmir.
Hussain said in Pakistan's Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, there were enforced disappearances and human rights violations.
He claimed that Indians, who had moved to Pakistan during Partition, were tortured and arbitrarily detained in the Muslim nation.
The MQM leader had on Tuesday tweeted and accused the Pakistani security forces of committing atrocities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "I strongly condemn atrocities of PK security forces against peaceful pro-independence protestors in Pakistan held Kashmir. @UNHumanRights should immediately send its fact-finding mission in Pakistan held Kashmir. Deep state’s brutal media black-out & hypocrisy can’t work anymore," he said.
Hussain had last month called on the people of PoK not to trust the Pakistan military and the government. "I appeal you all that for God's sake, stop trusting the Pakistani military establishment and the government of Pakistan. Both the civil and military governments have been duping you for the past 72 years and continue to this date," the MQM founder had said.
