Mirwaiz terms statement of Chidambaram irresponsible

Pakistan Times Jammu & Kashmir Desk

SRINAGAR (IHK): The All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has described the recent statement of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram as irresponsible wherein he asserted that Kashmir was part of India, reports KMS.

Addressing a gathering at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Friday the APHC Chairman said, Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognised disputed area and the Kashmiris have yet to decide their fate.

He urged India to eschew its intransigence and include the dispute over Kashmir in the forthcoming talks between foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India.

APHC leader Ghulam Ahmed Mir addressing a function in Rajouri said that the people of Kashmir were determined to continue the mission of their martyrs. The function was organised to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of prominent liberation leader Muhammad Maqbool Butt.

The Chairman of JKLF-R, Farooq Ahmed Dar in a media interview in Srinagar condemned the arrest of party senior Vice Chairman Javed Ahmed Mir.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement issued in New York has said that the Indian authorities should investigate and appropriately punish any senior officer of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) implicated in the killing of a teenager, Zahid Farooq, in occupied Kashmir.

The HRW said that the arrest of a constable of the BSF on charges of the killing could be an important step to curtail the human rights abuses by Indian forces in the occupied territory.

Meenakshi Ganguly, senior South Asia researcher at the HRW said, Now they should go a step further to see if senior officers were also responsible. However, she added that it was extremely rare for the authorities to punish the troops involved in the rights abuses in the territory.

The BSF had admitted the killing of 16-year-old Zahid Farooq in Srinagar on February 5 by Lakhvinder Kumar of the BSF's 68th Battalion. The killing led to widespread protests across Jammu and Kashmir.

The killing of Zahid Farooq followed the death of 14-year-old, Wamiq Farooq on January 31, who died when he was struck by a tear gas canister of the police in Rainawari.

Human Rights Watch has documented a large number of cases of serious human rights abuses as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, provides the troops immunity from prosecution. For years, the security forces have protected their members from prosecution for human rights abuses, Ganguly said.