News Desk
ISLAMABAD: The international community is today observing Human Rights Day to commemorate the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10th 1948.
Available in more than 500 languages, the UDHR is a milestone document, which proclaims the inalienable rights entitled by all human beings – regardless of their race, colour, religion, sex, language, national or social origin, political or other opinion, property, birth or other status.
The theme of Human Rights Day 2022 is ‘Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All’.
Pakistan reiterates call to stop Indian Human Rights Violations in IIOJK
Pakistan on the occasion of International Human Rights Day has once again urged the world to stop India’s blatant human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), especially after August 5th, 2019. Since the illegal revocation of IIOJK’s special status, the Indian fascist regime has unleashed an unprecedented wave of oppression and violence against the Kashmiris residing in IIOJK.
The President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the eve of Human Rights Day urged the world community to look at the atrocities committed by occupying Indian forces in IIOJK.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Human Rights Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Advisor on Kashmir Affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira in a joint press conference demanded India to immediately withdraw its troops from IIOJK as well as lift all the illegal restrictions imposed there since 2019. They also called on the international community to fulfill its responsibility to uphold the sanctity of law and human rights in both IIOJK and Palestine.
Extra-judicial killings
According to various rights groups, at least 100,000 civilians were killed by Indian occupying forces since 1989, out of which a very large number is of women and children. After the revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A, Indian forces have stepped up extra-judicial killings, particularly of the Kashmiri youth. Between August 2019 and May 2022, Indian forces killed more than 609 innocent Kashmiris in staged encounters.
Violence against women and children
Indian forces have sexually assaulted more than 11,000 women in IIOJK during the past three decades, while 2,342 women were martyred as well, according to various reports. Moreover, at least 23,000 women were also widowed in violence committed by Indian forces, Kashmir Media Service (KMS) said in one of its reports.
The Indian forces have also used harassment and molestation as a weapon of war to not only suppress Kashmir’s liberation struggle, but also to deter activists and leaders from their campaigning against the occupying forces.
