UN report on Jammu Kashmir heartening but should be followed by concrete steps to resolve the basic issue of Jammu Kashmir. Killing of senior journalist and intellectual Syed Shujaat Bukhari is unfortunate. This was stated by the chairman of Jammu Kashmir liberation front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik in a press statement issued today.Earlier JKLF chairman along with a senior delegation of JKLF visited Kreeri Pattan and participated in funeral prayers of senior Kashmiri journalist and intellectual Syed Shujaat Bukhari who lost his life yesterday in a horrific attack at Press enclave in Srinagar. JKLF chairman on the occasion met with his bereaved father and expressed solidarity with him and the bereaved family. While praying for his heavenly abode, JKLF chairman also prayed for the patience of his bereaved family.Meanwhile JKLF chairman has hailed the United Nations report regarding Jammu Kashmir and termed it as an encouraging gesture towards the oppressed people of Jammu Kashmir. JKLF chairman said that at a time when oppressed Kashmiris felt to had been abandoned by the international community, this report highlighting their miseries has actually came as a ray of hope to the suppressed people of Jammu Kashmir. JKLF chairman said that Kashmiris are facing the wrath of colonial India from last seventy plus years during which every harsh measure and every evil tactic has been employed by the illegal occupant to legitimize its occupation and suppress our voices.
He said that from seven decades, Kashmiris are being killed, maimed, jailed, tortured, humiliated and denied their birth right of freedom and right to self-determination. India takes Kashmir as its occupied colony and therefore believes that no one has any right to question its illegal occupation and oppression unleashed on the subjugated people of Jammu Kashmir. It is therefore imperative upon the UN to follow their positive report with concrete steps to help Kashmiris realize their national self-determination and address the long pending question of Jammu Kashmir which is a case of incomplete decolonization in south Asia.He said that peace, progress, prosperity and democracy are all good mottos but it is only the resolution of Jammu Kashmir issue, ending military occupation and granting people the right to decide about their future that can guarantee these valued mottos. JKLF chairman urged upon UN and its members to enhance their efforts for finding honorable solution to the Jammu Kashmir issue, try to end military occupation on it so that sufferings of humans in this region are ended. He said that unless occupation ends, people of Jammu Kashmir will continue to suffer and hence UN and its constituents need to take positive steps to make the lives of people in this region peaceful and prosperous.