Indian troops are not even sparing hospitals and injured protestors in their killing spree – a catastrophe big enough to move any conscientious human being but unfortunately the global community is observing the same callous insensitivity as it has been adhering to over the past many decades over the plight of Kashmiri people.
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Police said Tuesday that the death toll from the street violence had reached 28, after three young men died overnight. Still, crowds ignored curfews to demonstrate in several places around the region.
One of the youngsters said that he had been injured when paramilitary troops opened fire towards him and a group of his friends with pellet guns as they walked out of a mosque in Srinagar on Friday evening.
They said the restrictions were imposed to maintain law and order in the Valley.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern about the violence. A statement said Ban “calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further violence and hopes that all concerns would be addressed through peaceful means”. Responsibility also rests with the United Nations to take notice of the heinous and awful massacre of Muslim populace in occupied Kashmir and take genuine steps towards the just resolution of the lingering dispute as per the aspirations of the local population. Mobile Internet services continued to remain suspended since Saturday.
The conflict dates to 1947, when India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain but disagreed on which country would get Kashmir.
On the Indian side, numerous 12 million residents resent the Indian troop presence and back rebel demands for independence or a merger with neighboring Pakistan.
Since the 1990s, more than 68,000 people have been killed in Kashmir’s uprising against Indian rule and the subsequent Indian military crackdown.
Radio Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying that the “massacre of citizens by Indian forces and use of brutal force against Kashmir is regrettable”.
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In his meeting with Bambawale, Pakistani foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhary said “the use of excessive force against innocent civilians protesting peacefully over extra-judicial killings is deplorable and a blatant violation of the right to life, right to freedom of expression and opinion, right to peaceful protest, right to peaceful assembly and other fundamental rights”.
