Maleeha warns UN officials over deepening crisis in IoK

NEW YORK (92 News) – Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN Maleeha Lodhi updated the United Nations high officials on the deepening humanitarian crisis in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Pakistan is busy to fight for the Kashmiri’s freedom in every platform of the world. The Pakistani envoy informed UN Security Council (UNSC) President Joanna Wronecka over bigger humanitarian crisis in IoK. She also briefed two senior world body’s humanitarian officials on the acute suffering of the people languishing under military lockdown for the past 26 days. Maleeha Lodhi told Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock that over 14 million Kashmiris were facing a grim situation since August 5 when India annexed occupied Kashmir, sparking off the crisis. She said New Delhi’s draconian measures have led to shortages of food, medicine and essential supplies for over a million Kashmiri people with no end in sight. She further informed the UN officials that this was only the tip of the iceberg. “The humanitarian situation will become clearer once restrictions are lifted by the Indian authorities. This is not a crisis waiting to happen, there is an even greater crisis waiting to erupt,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said. She said that the occupied territory has been turned into a large open-air prison, grossly violating human rights of the people. During her meeting with UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman, the Pakistani ambassador said that systematic human rights violations are being committed by Indian security forces. “Young boys are being abducted from their homes and being tortured and women and girls were being sexually harassed, molested and dishonoured. Sufferings of the Kashmiri children do not see any sign of abetment,” she told the UNICEF official. “Hundreds of children have lost their eye sights due to the pellet gunshots fired by the Indian occupying forces, including children as young as 4 years old, not only losing their sights but with it their futures and dreams,” she added Referred to Reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of the year 2018 and 2019, she further accentuates that children are being arrested under the Public Security Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA) in complete neglect to the International human rights obligations enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ambassador Lodhi also said that sexual violence in Jammu and Kashmir covers a range of crimes, including harassment, abuse, molestation, abduction and rape, and seems to be rife in the state.