The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has said that India is trying to mislead the world and befool ordinary Indian people about the ground situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, the APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar said that there were massive killings, house raids and cordon and search operations in the occupied territory after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. He said normalcy in IIOJK is self-deception and blatant lies. If normalcy has returned to Kashmir then why the Indian BJP government and its regime have turned it into a military garrison, he added. The spokesman said if India’s claims are true then it should allow the international human rights organisations to visit occupied Kashmir and assess the ground situation. He said India has also arrested dozens of human rights defenders and journalists in the territory. He said repeal of IIOJK’s special status on 5th August 2019 is a painful tragedy as Kashmiris were deprived of all political, economic, social, and religious rights and it was the worst attack on the unique identity and culture of Kashmiris. He deplored that over eight million Kashmiris had been under constant military and police siege since August 2019.

This action, which is a brazen violation of international law, has paralyzed everything in the besieged valley and people are in a state of shock and mourning, he added. The APHC spokesman said the August 5 action has devastated the already crippled economy in IIOJK and thousands of Kashmiris have lost their jobs. Education, health, electricity and other sectors have become defunct and the future of Kashmiri children has become bleak, he lamented. He further said India has ruined everything in the territory and it has become a torture centre for its inhabitants. He said lands and government services of Kashmiri Muslims are being snatched on different pretexts by Hindutva BJP/RSS establishment of India while domiciles were given to non- Kashmiris to change the demography of the territory. The APHC spokesman said local Kashmiris are sacked and outsiders are granted high posts in the occupied territory. He also said India is following the Israeli model to deprive Kashmiris of their lands. He said systematic genocide, mass arrests and other atrocities have intensified manifold since 5th August 2019 and urged the world powers to take concrete steps for resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)