EU's sub-committee has asked India to halt atrocities in Kashmir: FM Qureshi

Sub-committee is officially committed to address the human rights situation in Kashmir, said Qureshi

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said that European Union (EU) sub-committee on Human Rights has asked India to immediately halt atrocities in Kashmir. The minister took to Twitter and posted that the sub-committee is officially committed to address the human rights situation in Kashmir and has called for the full implementation of Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report.

EU Sub Committee on Human Rights has asked India to immediately halt atrocities in Kashmir. The sub-committee is officially committed to address the human rights situation in Kashmir and has called for the full implementation of OHCHR report.

— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) February 23, 2019

Earlier, Qureshi said that it is not Pakistan, but India, which is flaring up tension in the region through its jingoism following the Pulwama attack. He said Pakistan seeks cooperation and dialogue for resolution of all outstanding disputes. The minister said that he has written a letter to the UN Secretary General to play its role in defusing the current tension. A letter was also written to the President of the UN Security Council drawing his attention towards the tension in Pak-India relations after Pulwama attack. He said Pakistan has comprehensively presented its stance before the world body and expressed the confidence that the Security Council will play its role. European Parliament, at a public hearing recently, has urged India to stop human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, Qureshi added.  

Pulwama attack

At least 44 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed on Thursday in Indian-occupied Kashmir in one the deadliest attacks. The attack saw explosives packed inside a van rip through buses in a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying some 2,500 members of the paramilitary CRPF.

Two blue buses carrying around 35 people each bore the brunt of the massive blast, heard miles away, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the city of Srinagar on the main highway to Jammu.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence. Rebels have been fighting for an independent Kashmir, or a merger with Pakistan, for 30 years.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade, with rights monitors saying almost 600 Kashmiri people died, most of them civilians. Thousands more have been maimed in recent years by pellet-firing shotguns used by Indian forces.