New Delhi (KMS): Veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani has reiterated that a plebiscite supervised by the United Nations and end to India’s forcible occupation of Jammu and Kashmir is the only viable and amicable solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Addressing India Today Today Enclave 2011 in New Delhi, Syed Ali Gilani said that India not only took the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations but was also a signatory to its resolutions, which guaranteed right to self-determination to the Kashmiris.
He maintained that the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru had also promised plebiscite to the Kashmiri people at the historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar but neither the resolutions nor the promises had been implemented yet, keeping the dispute lingering.
“Kashmiris want freedom from India’s forcible occupation. It is high time for India to fulfil its broken promises and give right to self-determination to the Kashmiris under the supervision of UN. This is the only amicable and viable solution to resolve the dispute,” he said.
Stating that Indian troops are committing gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, the veteran Hurriyet leader said that the troops had killed one lakh people, raped 7,000 women and subjected more than 10,000 youth to enforced disappearance. “There are 50,000 orphans, 30,000 widows and 1,000 half-widows in the Valley besides presence of 2700 unidentified graves in which nearly 3000 persons are buried. Our youth are being subjected to third degree torture and most of them have been maimed. India claims to be one of the biggest democracies of the world, however Kashmiris are yet to see its democratic face,” he added.
Maintaining that settlement of the dispute is in the best interest of New Delhi, Syed Ali Gilani said, “There is a tension between India and Pakistan due to Kashmir. Forty per cent of India’s population is living below the poverty line. It is in the interest of India to resolve Kashmir by granting the Kashmiris their right to self-determination.”
