UN Human Rights Commission misled on Kashmir event

By K N Pandita

On December 1, Al Jazeera published a longish write-up of one Rifat Fareed on the arrest of Khurram Pervez, the so-called Kashmiri Human Rights activist by the NIA for his involvement in terrorist related funding and links.

Like many more India bashing pseudo-intellectuals, media persons and human rights activists, the writer of the piece has heaped all possible accusations and imaginable charade against the administrative machinery, security forces and army who are running the affairs in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The crux of these accusations is that India presently governed by the rightist and pro-RSS government is a committed anti-Muslim government. To substantiate its argument, the writer picks up an out of context sundry case and projects it as an example of government’s deliberate attempt to oppress the Muslims of India.

The writer attributes a statement to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) which runs as this: “We are deeply concerned at the arrest of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez under Indian counter-terrorism legislation, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA),” If this is really the statement of the office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, we would like to ask the Commissioner where was he when Kashmiri Pandits made scores of interventions at the UN Human Rights Commission/Council over a period of two decades that this miniscule religious minority of Kashmir had been subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing of the entire community of four hundred thousand souls, why did not the UN High Commission for Human Rights issue a word leave aside a statement about the violation of human rights of an entire community? If his statement about Khurram Pervez is a fact, then the head of this prestigious institution is a biased person and functions as a partisan officer of the UN thereby undermining the fundamental principal of the United Notations’ Charter of meting equitable justice to all.

A reputed channel like Al Jazeera should have ascertained the facts pertaining to the arrest of Khurram Pervez – the self-styled human rights activist of Kashmir – before shooting the write-up for publication. We are aware of the strong motivation for maligning India that is holding sections of international media in its tight grip. Mercenary media can go to any length of tarnishing its image thoughtlessly believing that what they do is beyond the comprehension of ordinary observers.

Indian society is a mosaic of faiths, languages, cultures and life styles. It comprises adherents of almost all major faiths in the world. That has made the Indians adopt a secular and non sectarian constitution. Muslims in India comprise the second largest Muslim populated country of the world. Despite that they are number one in the list of national minorities of India. As such they are the beneficiaries of all the privileges provided by the constitution. It is absurd for a country which has suppressed its co-religionists in all other provinces except the Punjab to bring a blame of discrimination to India instead of accounting for the reduction of its Hindu religious minority from 29 per cent in 1947 at the time of partition of India to barely 1.7 per cent today after a lapse of 74 years.

India is a country where the law of the land prevails. It is not Pakistan where a foreigner and of non-Muslim faith is lynched by fanatical mobs and his dead body set ablaze on the roadside for the alleged reason of blasphemy thereby showing to the world that there is a country where people take the law into their hands and where the mad mobs can inflict cruel and barbaric punishment for an alleged crime which is neither sent for judicial adjudication nor treated under the international law. The unfortunate Sri Lankan citizen was not the first case of barbaric treatment. The former Governor of Punjab was gunned down by his guard for paying a humanitarian visit to a Christian lady prisoner who was being tried under blasphemy law and waiting for her execution through a court order. The unruly and fanatical mobs glorified the killer of the Governor as the pillar of Islamic faith.

The Al Jazeera does consider it important to highlight the blatant human rights violations in Pakistan and inhuman oppression of the Muslim ethnic groups of that country like the Baluch who have openly declared a war of liberation from the clutches of parochial regimes in Islamabad. In Zarb-e Azab operation of Pakistan army against the Tehreek-i-Taliban-i-Pakistan (TTP) no fewer than 78,000 Pukhtoons of North Waziristan were killed by the Pakistan army according to the confessions of Pakistan army sources. Where was the office of the UN Human Rights Commission then? Where not these victims human beings and did not they enjoy the right to life? By ignoring them and turning aside from the denial of right to life of these unfortunate people, the Office of the UN projects, High Commissioner has lost its credibility and impartiality in the eyes of the impartial and unbiased observers.

Now coming to the case of Khurram Pervez, though the Indian security agencies including the NIA have only said that they have proof to show that this man was involved in setting up a fake NGO, and collecting large donations for phoney humanitarian projects, some interesting material has come to light through independent researchers which shed light on the dark acts of the man and the network he had set up with international connections with the sole purpose of spreading lies and canard against India and the Indian security forces in Kashmir to malign and defame them and thus strengthen the cause of the Theo-fascists sponsored by Pakistan and abetted by seditionist and disruptive forces in Kashmir.

Emaad Makhdoomi is a valley-based columnist and founder of Trailblazers Research Foundation. In a piece of writing titled Khurram Parvez – The Man Who Traded Blood of Kashmiris for His Benefit, and published in the News 18 of 4 December, has given an insight into the black deeds of Pervez Khurram arrested by the NIA to be prosecuted under the law of the land.

Emaad opens the well written piece with a sensible generalization: “In today’s world, usage of the phrase ‘human rights violation’ has become a fad as some individuals like Khurram Parvez, now arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), have been using this as a veil to spread anti-India agenda. Khurram Parvez is the programme coordinator of JKCCS (Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society). This so-called federation of human rights groups and activists was founded in 2000 by another so-called human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz, who himself seems to be a tainted conflict entrepreneur. Under the cover of JKCCS Khurram Parvez has played a pivotal role in spreading concocted stories about human rights violations in Kashmir and has looted money from foreign human rights groups and visiting international delegations under the facade of financial aid for victims. These organizations never documented the reality and the gory details of Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

JKCCS has been planting false and fabricated stories against some honest police officers with envious record of service thereby endangering their lives and career. In November 2008, Khurram Parvez and Parvez Imroz together jeopardized the state election process in Bandipora. They instigated the general public in a polling booth with pro-freedom rant to vitiate the opinion of voters and exhort ting them to stay away from voting.

Khurram Parvez is not the isolated case of a pawn that Pakistan’s ISI has forged. Pakistan has planted Khurram Pervez among others as a frontrunner in the guise of human rights organizations in European countries. These organizations are then used as platforms to distribute money illegally to their associates, collaborators and projects across the globe for running anti-India propaganda. Working as puppet in the hands of the Pakistani authorities, the fake human rights NGOs of Kashmir never have had qualms of conscience in bringing death and destruction to the toiling masses of Kashmiri people. How shocking and sad it is!