Summary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office raised the issue with India.
SRINAGAR (Daily Dunya) - British government has took up the issue of use of pellet guns by Indian forces on innocent Kashmiri people with India.
According to Kashmir Media Service, this was disclosed by Baroness Anelay, Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, while responding to a volley of written questions submitted by House of Lords member, Lord Nazir Ahmed.
Lord Ahmed has asked about the assessment the government has made of reports on the use of high-powered pellet guns against protesters in Kashmir by Indian forces and what representations they have made to the government of India regarding this issue.
Baroness Anelay said that the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Alok Sharma discussed the use of pellet guns and alternative methods of crowd control in Kashmir with the Indian government’s representatives in October.
“The UK abides by its commitments under international law and expects all countries to comply with their international legal obligations,” said Anelay. “We engage with India on human rights matters and will continue to work collaboratively on the promotion and protection of human rights, she added.
The statistics released by the research section of Kashmir Media Service, Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred 303 innocent Kashmiris including nine women and 42 teenagers during the year 2016.
The data reveals that 39 of those martyred were killed in custody. The killings rendered 25 women widowed and 58 children orphaned. Indian paramilitary and police personnel subjected 19,011 civilians to torture, while 12,604 including Hurriyet leaders, activists, students and women leaders were arrested. 658 women were disgraced by the men in uniform.
Most of the killings and other incidents of human rights violations took place in the backdrop of killing of Hizbullah commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani by Indian forces on July 8, last year.
Tens of thousands of people came out on the streets to protest against the killing. Burhan’s martyrdom began a tumultuous phase in the recent history of Kashmir when forces used brute force to quell the uprising. They killed over 115 innocent civilians, injured 16,000 and blinded around 150 with pellets since July, last year.
The troops martyred eight Kashmiris including three in custody in December alone. As many as 233 people were injured due to use of bullets and pellets by Indian troops and police personnel on peaceful protesters during the month.
On the other hand, Indian interior ministry has took stern notice of waiving Pakistani and Daesh flag in occupied Kashmir and has sought a detailed report on it.
