EU role to resolve Kashmir dispute urged
MUZAFFARABAD:Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry said that the European Union should appoint its special representative on Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully.
He expressed these views, while addressing members of the European Parliament, the Belgian Senate and the Belgian Parliament, at a dinner party hosted in his honour by the Kashmir Peace Forum International Belgium in Brussels on Tuesday, said a press release issued here.
Referring to former US President Clinton’s statement, he said, ” Kashmir is the most dangerous region in the world where two nuclear powers stand face to face.”
While highlighting the European countries’ significant contribution in defending human rights and seeking settlement of world disputes, Barrister Chaudhry said that there was a dire need of reviving the Kashmir committee in the European parliament that had been almost dis-functional since the UK’s separation from the European Union.
The European Union, he said, happens to be the largest organization after the United Nations based on 27 member countries.
“We hope that the European Union can play its important role in resolving the Kashmir dispute and establishing peace and security in South Asia,” the AJK president said.
Seeking EU countries’ urgent attention towards the simmering situation in the held territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the AJK president said that India had intensified its oppression against Kashmiris resulting in an increase of violations of human rights in the region.
“The people of Kashmir are facing a serious and agonizing situation,” he said, adding that it was imperative that the international community, especially the European Union, to play their role to resolve the Kashmir dispute that had been the main cause of bloodshed in the region.
Referring to the Indian government’s ban on BBC documentary, the AJK president said that the ban on televising documentary had exposed the India’s claim to be the world’s largest democracy and secular state.
The BBC documentary, he said, had revealed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s real face before the world.
Besides the other dignitaries, the dinner party was attended by Shiraz Naqvi of the Pakistani Embassy in Belgium, Member of the European Parliament including Michael Gahler, Member of the European Parliament Joron Virginie, Member of the European Parliament Herve Juvin, Member of the Belgian Parliament Latifa Ait Baala, Member of the Belgian Saint Bertin Mampaka.