Pak-sponsored terror in Kashmir 'ignored and overlooked' by human right activists: Aarti Tikoo

Senior Indian Journalist from Kashmir Aarti Tikoo on Tuesday outlined the concerns of Pakistani terror victims in Kashmir and asserted that the human rights activist and press in the world have completely overlooked the 30-years of terror in Kashmir.

Speaking during the US House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on 'Human Rights in South Asia', she said, "The fundamental point that I am trying to make is the victims in Kashmir are the ones who have been killed and massacred by Pakistani sponsored terrorists. The number of Kashmiri Muslims who have been killed in Kashmir is immense and they have been victimised by the Pakistani terror state".

"The 30 years of Islamic jihad and terror in Kashmir perpetrated by Pakistan has been completely ignored and overlooked by the world press," she added.

Tikoo, during the hearing, stressed that most of what is being written in the western press is "a distorted reality of Kashmir" and the story is often presented without proper context and a historical understanding.

"There are no human rights activist and press in the world which feels it's their moral obligation to talk about victims of Pakistani terror in Kashmir," she continued further.

The journalist also said that the current situation carried "a lot of certitude and righteousness of a narrative that helps the perpetrator and not the victim of human rights abuse in Kashmir."

"The victims of such perpetration are my Kashmiri Muslim friends, including Shujaat Bukhari, a senior journalist and a peace activist who believed in resolving Kashmir through dialogue between India and Pakistan. He went from city to city across the world trying to convince the powerful players that Kashmir needs peace. But on June 14, 2018, he was shot dead right outside his office in Srinagar by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the same terror outfit banned by the United States that also perpetrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks," Tikoo added.

"Why did they kill him? Because Shujaat wanted Pakistan to end violence and human rights abuse in Kashmir. They killed him because he wanted peace."

The journalist also talked about other victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, including the incident of Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir-- a Kashmiri businessman, who was shot dead on August 29 by Pakistani-sponsored terrorists because he had dared to open his shop defying the orders of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the same terror group responsible for the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. "Jaish, since the last two months, has been issuing posters, warning Kashmiri Muslims not to resume their normal lives," Tikoo told the Congressional hearing.