‘Bid to hold G20 moot in occupied Kashmir a flop’

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry and British MP Mirza Khalid Mehmood have said the G20 working group meeting being held by India in Srinagar has failed because key members of the group, including China, have categorically refused to attend the conference.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday, they claimed that along with China many other members of the group would skip the meeting. Referring to the Indian government’s nefarious designs to use the high profile event to achieve its strategic objectives, they said the G20 nations’ decision to skip the conference being held in the disputed region was a clear indication that they had refused to become brand ambassadors of India’s so-called normalcy narrative on Kashmir.

They said India’s main motive behind organizing the G20 summit in IIOJK was meant to hoodwink the international community by creating a false impression that everything was normal in Kashmir.

Highlighting the delicate situation in the region, they said the political and human rights situation in the held territory had further worsened since the Modi government stripped the region of its special status on August 5, 2019.

They said on one hand India had intensified human rights violations while on the other a massive onslaught to change the region’s demography and its political landscape was launched to convert the Muslim majority of the state into a minority.

Voicing their grave concern over the abysmal situation in the region, they said, “It is high time that the international community should take effective cognizance of the matter and pressurize India to stop bloodshed and violence in Occupied Kashmir”.

Citing the United Nations Commission on Human Rights report, they said that the commission had released a detailed report on the human rights situation in the IIOJK in 2018 and called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the ongoing human rights violations being committed by the Indian occupation forces.

They said that it was imperative that the world community should influence the government of India to allow a fact finding mission to visit the occupied territory and implement the recommendations of the report the Commission had released in 2018.

President Chaudhry further said that on his call protest demonstrations were being held all across the globe, especially in the influential world capitals including Washington, London, Brussels, Geneva, Paris and other places.
The main purpose of these protests was to register People’s anguish and resentment against India’s decision to hold a G20 conference in Kashmir, which happens to be a disputed territory.

He said that the international community needs to realize that the key to peace in the region lies in the settlement of the long standing Kashmir dispute.

He said that India wanted to mislead the world about Kashmir by holding the G20 conference and wanted to give the impression that Occupied Kashmir was a peaceful area.

On this occasion, British Member of Parliament Mirza Khalid Mehmood said, “We will continue our efforts to raise the issue of Kashmir at the international level”.

They also appreciated the Chinese leadership for taking a principled stance on holding G20 summit in the disputed territory.