The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has offered to send fact-finding missions to both Indian-administered Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
According to Foreign Office, on July 15 this year, Pakistan had requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to send a fact-finding mission to Indian Occupied Kashmir to report on the gross violations of human rights since July 8, 2016.
Since that letter was written, the situation has deteriorated further. In the past 40 days, more than 80 innocent young Kashmiris have been killed, 6000 wounded and 120 blinded as a result of brutal action by the Indian forces to suppress peaceful protests.
As the High Commissioner is aware, Pakistan-administered Kashmir is an area open to everyone and is frequented by foreign tourists and members of the diplomatic community in Pakistan, including representatives of the United Nations, where they have observed recent elections and met cross section of people.
Access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has been denied by India to the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Pakistan has never prevented UN officials from travelling to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
However, while welcoming any UN team that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights may wish to send to Pakistan-administered Kashmir, we cannot accept equating the rampant human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir with the situation in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In fact, today the contrast between grim reality in Indian-administered Kashmir and the peaceful situation in Pakistan-administered Kashmir could not be more stark. It is, therefore, essential that the UN fact-finding team must visit Indian-administered Kashmir.
