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Saturday, January 15, 2011

UN HR team to visit Kashmir on Jan 19


Details: http://jkmpic.blogspot.com
Srinagar, January 15 : The United Nations rapporteur on human rights, Margaret Sekaggya will visit Srinagar on January 19 to assess the condition of human rights defenders in occupied Kashmir.

Sekaggya would file a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report is likely to be submitted in March, a UN official said.

Sekaggya, the special rapporteur on human rights defenders, appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, has arrived in India on January 11.

Meanwhile, pro-freedom leaders have strongly rejected the statement of Indian Home Secretary, Gopal K Pillai, regarding 25 percent troops’ cut and demanded complete withdrawal of Indian troops from the territory.

Veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Sheikh Yaqoob, in a statement issued from Muzaffarabad, termed Pillai’s statement as a bid to hoodwink the world community and reiterated his demand of complete withdrawal of troopers from occupied Kashmir, which was vital to create conducive environment for talks to settle the Kashmir dispute. “These so-called troop cuts are not going to improve the ground situation,” he added.

He said that the occupation forces were perpetrating gross human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley. “The troopers are occupying 2,800,000 kanals of land, wiping out forests and unleashing a reign of terror on the local population in the territory,” Sheikh Yaqoob  maintained.

Senior APHC leader, Shabir Ahmad, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said, "We have heard similar announcements in the past but the situation on the ground remained unchanged.”

Al-fatha leader, Tariq Kashmiri asked India to withdraw its troops and stop gross rights abuses in the Valley. The Chief of 11th August Foundation  in occupied Kashmir, Sheikh Issa, in a statement, said that his party wanted complete withdrawal of troops and rejected Indian Union Home Secretary’s statement.(Writer-South Asia)