Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) Thursday appealed to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Special Rappateur to Kashmir to inquire into the grave use of military force against unarmed civilians, resulting in at least 38 deaths and injuries to about 1800 people, in Kashmir.In a statement issued to KNS, the spokesman said that at a special meeting chaired by its chairperson Hameedah Nayeem in Srinagar today, the civil society group demanded that the Special Rappateur must be sent to Kashmir at the soonest, and besides meeting the affected population, should also liaison with the Srinagar-based UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) for unhindered access to the affected areas to obtain first hand information about the current situation.
Expressing its deep anxiety on the grave humanitarian situation in Kashmir, KCSDS has noted that over seven million people of Kashmir remain under a lockdown with no or bare minimum access to daily basic survival needs for six days now. KCSDS has called upon the UN Secretary General to mandate the Special Rappateur to look into all the matters related to the use of military force against unarmed civilians. It has, in particular, asked for inquiring the brutal use of pellets and the resultant injuries and disabilities inflicted upon a large number of unarmed civilians. KCSDS has also taken strong exception to the bogey being propounded by a section of the media about growing ‘religious radicalization’ being responsible for the latest street demonstrations in Kashmir. Kashmir’s civil society believes any degree of tendency towards radicalization among a small population of the youth could be explained by the failure of addressing the genuine political aspirations of the people – a phenomenon that has global parallels. It is, therefore, paramount for the international community, including the United Nations, to address the latest situation in Kashmir and also its larger pending political question. (KNS)