Speaker Ayaz Sadiq forcefully highlights Indian atrocities in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir at OIC Parliamentary Forum; Ankara Declaration reaffirms Kashmiris’ right to self-determination

ANKARA, 18 October 2016: Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Speaker of the National Assembly, has forcefully highlighted the gross and systematic violations of human rights in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOK), reiterated the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s call for sending a Fact Finding mission to IOK, and pressed for enabling the Kashmiri people to exercise their fundamental rights including the inalienable right to choose their own future in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

The Speaker was addressing the 36^th Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Union of Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) in Ankara today. The meeting’s outcome document -- “Ankara Declaration” -- strongly reaffirmed the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

In his statement, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq blasted the Indian attempts to equate the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination with terrorism, noting that these had been repeatedly and categorically rejected by the OIC Member States as well as by the international community. As part of his extensive expose on the brutalities being perpetrated against the Kashmiris by Indian Occupying forces, he highlighted the draconian “laws” that enable them to carry out such atrocities with complete impunity.   

A moving documentary and pictorial slide-show were shown during the statement of the Speaker, vividly capturing the Indian state-terrorism in IOK, including the impact of pellet guns against the defenseless Kashmiris, particularly women and children; deaths and injuries caused by live ammunition fire at peaceful protestors; effect of torture; as well as discovery of mass graves in IOK. The documentary’s crescendo was the ubiquitous chants of “Azadi” (freedom) by Kashmiri women in IOK that echoed in the meeting hall of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

DVDs containing exhaustive material including a report, entitled ‘Buried Evidence’, by an Indian Occupied Kashmir based NGO, exposing Indian occupation forces’ atrocities and India’s blatant lies about cross-LoC infiltrations and fake encounters, as well as a documentary on mass graves in IOK were shared with the participants.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq highlighted that Indian atrocities and human rights violations had not only been condemned by the international community, and independent human rights watch-dogs, but also by numerous voices within India. He stressed that in its desperate attempts to divert attention from the strong indigenous Kashmiri uprising, India was resorting to highly provocative rhetoric and violations of the Line of Control (LoC), jeopardizing the peace and security of the entire region. He, however, made clear that the people of Pakistan would not countenance any aggression and remained ready to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity at all costs.

The Speaker thanked the OIC Secretary General for his unequivocal condemnation of the wide-spread atrocities being carried out by the Indian Occupation forces to quell the indigenous uprising of the Kashmiri people.

The Executive Committee adopted the Ankara Declaration that, inter alia, reaffirmed support for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people, underscoring that the issue of Jammu & Kashmir remained the core dispute between Pakistan and India. The Declaration also called for the just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions that call for a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the UN.

The Executive Committee adopted the agenda of the upcoming 12^th PUIC Conference, to be held in Bamako, Mali. A new agenda-item proposed by Pakistan, entitled “Ongoing Human Rights Violations in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir” was included in the agenda of the upcoming Conference, in addition to the already existing item on the Situation in Jammu & Kashmir.

Earlier, in his inaugural address, Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Ismail Kahraman expressed support for the just and legitimate cause of Kashmir while speaking of the range of issues calling for urgent attention of the international community including Palestine and Cyprus.

At the meeting’s conclusion, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had the honour to read out the message of thanks and appreciation on behalf of the Chairman and entire membership of the Executive Committee addressed to Turkey’s President H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan.