Gilgit leader seeks UN help to break free from Pakistan
Pakistan Telegraph (ANI) Monday 22nd
August, 2016
Brussels (Belgium), Aug. 22 (ANI):
Taking a strong exception to "grave" human rights situation in
Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB), Balawaristan National Front (BNF)
chairman Abdul Hamid Khan has appealed to the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC), the U.N., and the European Union (EU) to exert pressure on Pakistan to
end the "illegal occupation of Gilgit-Baltistan" and withdraw its
civilians and forces by fulfilling its obligations to the United Nations
Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolutions - which, he says, is the
first step to "establish local authority".
In a letter to U.N. Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon last month, the BNF chairman, who is living in political asylum
here, urged: "The U.N. should also ask Pakistan to end its illegal
occupation of Chitral and Shenaki Kohistan (in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), allowing
the local people to rule their motherland as their birth right."
"If Pakistani atrocities against
indigenous people continue uncontrolled, South Asia and rest of the civilised world,
eventually, will have to face serious environmental and geopolitical
consequences, besides human catastrophe, warned Khan, adding that two-million
people of this disputed land have no way out, but expect and request
Your Excellency to intervene.
Presenting facts to buttress the grave
human rights situation in Gilgit-Baltistan, the northernmost administrative
territory, under Pakistan's illegal occupation, Khan claimed, "PoGB has
been neglected by the U.N. since it had passed the UNCIP resolution on April
28, 1949, which asked Pakistan to withdraw its citizens and military within the
period of three months.
"Due to this negligence on the
part of U.N., Pakistan got emboldened to increase its violation of UNCIP-stated
resolutions and committed more and more atrocities against two-million people
of PoGB on one side, and raised hue and cry after sending its terrorists
against the innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir on the other."
"Needless to mention that the
whole Jammu and Kashmir issue, including PoGB, is political and not religious
one under Pakistan's "illegal occupation," he added.
The BNF chairman then went on to
present some excerpts derived from the official records of the UNSC on
Gilgit-Baltistan and Jammu and Kashmir, under the UNCIP, which states:
"All persons (other than citizens of the state), who on or since August15,
1947 have entered it for other than lawful purposes, shall be required to leave
the state; there is no threat, coercion or intimidation, bribery or other undue
influence on the voters in the plebiscite; no restrictions are placed on
legitimate political activity throughout the state. There shall be freedom of
press, speech and assembly and freedom of travel in the state, including
freedom of lawful entry and exit; all political prisoners are released;
minorities in all parts of the State are accorded adequate protection; and
there is no victimisation."
Khan further said UNCIP Truce Terms
also provided that "they should be without prejudice to the territorial
integrity and the sovereignty of the State of Jammu and Kashmir".
Quoting 177 Part III of the truce
terms, which contained various general provisions, he said it established that
"the territory evacuated by the Pakistan troops will be administered by
the local authorities under the surveillance of the commission.
"However, instead of initiating an
immediate withdrawal of its citizens and forces, Pakistan has settled its
citizens and multiplied its military personnel in the region by thousands of
times more. Further, the people of PoGB have no right of vote in the 21st
century. This is the plight of U.N.-declared disputed Gilgit-Baltistan under
Pakistani illegal occupation, where political leaders are being treated as
terrorists and real terrorists are actually free to torture and even kill
political and religious opponents, who dare not to obey the enslaving orders of
the occupying forces and their intelligence agencies," he alleged.
Khan contended that Pakistani laws
cannot be legitimately applied to those who are not even Pakistani citizens by
international law and by Pakistan's own constitution.
Alleging that there is no freedom of
speech, right to peaceful political assembly, right to free travel and
political activities, the BNF chairman claimed, "Nationalist political
parties, which do not follow the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) guidelines
are not allowed to perform political activities. Issuing death threats and
intimidation to politically-affiliated human rights activists in the region has
become a daily routine of the Pakistani occupation regime.
"Instead of releasing innocent
detainees, who have no criminal records, Pakistan arrests, tortures and
imprisons hundreds of political and religious activists and awards them death
sentences and life imprisonments without giving them any access to a fair and
lawful judicial system (like high court and Supreme Court). Occupation regime
forces are awarded and promoted if they kill any indigenous person on religious
or political basis."
Accusing Pakistan of violating
territorial integrity and the sovereignty of the State of Jammu and Kashmir by
giving 2,500 Sq mile area of Shimshaal, Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan to China in
1963 to construct the Karakoram Highway (KKH) for its own military benefits,
Khan said alleged that Pakistan annexed areas of PoGB bordering with
Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, Chitral and Kohistan.
He also accused Pakistan of hatching a
conspiracy to sell out the whole Gilgit-Baltistan to China under the pretext of
China Pakistan Economical Corridor (CPEC) without taking the U.N. or the people
of Gilgit-Baltistan into confidence.
"All the natural resources,
including mines (Uranium and Gold etc.), forest and water resources and land
have been snatched from the people by force and given to Pakistani citizens,
Pakistani Army, ISI and Chinese by violating the UNSC resolutions," he
alleged.
At the end, he stated,
"Two-million people of this disputed land have no way out, but expect and
request Your Excellency to intervene." (ANI)
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