By Muhammad Luqman
A six-member delegation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the umbrella organization of 57 Muslim countries , has arrived in Islamabad to visit Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Line of Control.
The team led by OIC Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir Yousef al Dobeay is visiting Pakistan till March 6, Foreign Office spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui said in a tweet.
She added that the delegation will visit the Line of Control to get first-hand knowledge about the loss of lives and property caused by the indiscriminate firing of Indian forces.
“OIC has extended its steadfast support to the Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination,” she said. “Kashmiris and Pakistani people value the OIC’s role promoting the cause of Kashmir at the international level.”
Last year, OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) condemned New Delhi for its ongoing human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK), and said the systematic violations have a well-defined pattern that tantamount to ethnic cleansing and genocide of Kashmiris, according to media reports.
The commission held an open meeting to review the worsening human rights situation in the occupied valley during its recently concluded 16th Session in Jeddah. The meeting was attended by all commission members and a large number of representatives of the OIC member and observer states.
“The Commission was appalled to note that the Indian government in an attempt to quell the Kashmiris struggle for the right to self-determination, has resorted to relentless political, economic and communication blockade in IoK,” a statement said.
The body said that since August 5, the Indian government’s deployment of over half a million security personnel in the disputed territory has “practically turned IoK into the biggest open prison”.
The commission reiterated that India’s move to abrogate Articles 35A and 370 was illegal and void. The OIC’s body also stated that the move aims to change the “demographic composition of Indian Occupied Kashmir” by making the occupied Muslim population a minority within their homeland.
The commission stated that the move was a clear violation of the relevant human rights treaties and conventions and Articles 27 and 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, its Additional Protocol.
