International Kashmir lobby group holds webinar on IOJK situation

International Kashmir lobby group holds webinar on IOJK situation because the entire world has forgot oppression of Kashmiris in occupied territory.

Indian troops have killed four more Kashmiri youth in Shopian and Kishtwar districts on Friday.

Under that scenario, Youth Forum for Kashmir (YFK), an international Kashmir lobby group organized a webinar.

The event brought together Kashmir experts to explore steps to avoid the possibility that a global focus on COVID-19 pandemic might take attention away from the situation in Kashmir.

International Kashmir lobby group holds webinar

According to Kashmir Media Service, the webinar was titled ‘How to avoid Kashmir de-focus amid pandemic concerns’.

Altaf Hussain Wani, Chairman, Kashmir Institute for International Relations, Dr Waqas Ali Kausar, Head of Department of Governance and Public Policy at NUML, Prof. Shagufta Ashraf, University of AJK at Kotli, Advocate Pervez Shah from APHC, and Ahmed Quraishi, Director, YFK participated in the discussion.

During the discussion Dr Kausar dismissed the notion that the current pandemic would strike Kashmir from the headlines.

The conflict in Kashmir, he argued has seen highs and lows over the past seven decades and the occupation forces in that territory had failed to suppress the freedom movement.

The Kashmiri freedom movement was resilient and the global focus on the pandemic would not hurt coverage of the situation, Dr Kausar said.

Altaf Wani endorsed the assessment and cited the example set by Pakistan’s permanent representative to United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Khalil Hashmi, who, on April 9 during an informal video-link meeting of Human Rights Council with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, highlighted that pre-COVID-19 human rights abuses perpetrated by India against Kashmiris had exacerbated amidst this pandemic.

India kills four more Kashmiris

In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh acts of state terrorism martyred four Kashmiri youth in Shopian and Kishtwar districts.

The troops martyred two youth each during cordon and search operations at Dairoo Keegam in Shopian and in Dachan area of Kishtwar. The operations in both the areas continued till last reports came in.

The spokesman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference in a statement in Srinagar said that at a time when prisoners were being released across the world to save them from coronavirus, India continued to subject the illegally detained Kashmiris to political vengeance by prolonging their detention.

He appealed to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, world powers and human rights bodies to ensure the release of incarcerated Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League and the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Social Forum in their statements said that the Kashmiri people would not allow the sacrifices of their Kashmiri martyrs go waste and would accomplish their mission at all cost.

A 70-year-old person died of coronavirus at Soura Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar, today, raising the number of such deaths in the occupied territory to five.

GTV