Pakistan gives 'evidence' to US on 'human rights violations' in Kashmir

Pakistan has given evidence of "human rights violations" in Kashmir to the US, the Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

Pakistan's ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani on Monday gave evidence of "human rights violations in Kashmir" to US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Olson, the Foreign Office said in a statement here.

Jilani submitted a dossier containing evidence of Indian "atrocities" in Kashmir to Olson and called for the US to take action against "the human rights abuse" by Indian forces in the Kashmir Valley, Geo News reported.

He urged the US to exercise its powers as a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council to put an end to the "atrocities".

Jilani said Kashmiri people should be afforded their right to self-determination and further called on the international community to send human rights organisations to Kashmir to monitor the situation there.

Recalling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's recent statement that Kashmiris and Pakistanis were inseparable, Jilani reiterated that "Islamabad would continue to extend all possible moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir for realisation of their right to self-determination".

The meeting with Olson comes a day after Pakistani political leaders during an 'All Parties Conference' resolved to raise the Kashmir issue at various international fora and said they stood united against Indian "aggression" and violation of human rights in Kashmir.

The tension between India and Pakistan has been high since July 9, a day after top militant Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with Indian security forces. Islamabad has described Wani as a "martyr".

Relations between the two neighbouring nations further deteriorated after the September 18 attack at an Indian Army camp in Uri town of north Kashmir, which left 19 soldiers dead, and the Indian Army's surgical strikes to destroy seven terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-held Kashmir.

--IANS

py/dg