Srinagar
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the United Nations on Thursday to investigate ‘atrocities’ in Kashmir and play its role in stopping them, Dawn reported.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan called UN Secretary-General António Guterres to express deep shock and concern at the grave human rights violations by forces in Kashmir and underscored UN’s role to end these violations,” Dawn quoted a statement issued by the PM Office.
According to a report published by Dawn news said, Khan’s conversation with Secretary General Guterres was in the wake of killings in Kharpora Sirnoo village of Pulwama district. The killings led to widespread protests across Kashmir.
The report quoted Khan reminded Guterres that the UN had a responsibility towards Kashmir and it should act accordingly.
He asked the secretary general to implement the recommendations of the then high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who after launching the first-ever United Nations report on the human rights situation in Kashmir in June, had asked the Human Rights Council to consider establishing a commission of inquiry on rights violations in the occupied valley. A ‘commission of inquiry’ is the UN’s highest-level probe.
It should be recalled that the secretary-general has in the past voiced his support for the Kashmir report that pointed to impunity for rights abuses and lack of access to justice in Kashmir. “As you can imagine, all action of the Human Rights High Commissioner is an action that represents the voice of the UN in relation to that issue,” Guterres said in July.
Khan, according to the Pakistan PM Office, asked the UN to urgently dispatch the Commission of Inquiry to Kashmir for probing the aggravating situation there. He further called for the appointment of a special UN representative for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, Dawn reported.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has also written a letter to the UN secretary general, reported Dawn.
