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Letters | Instead of objecting to India’s actions in Kashmir, Pakistan should look within
I write with reference to “Pakistanis in Hong Kong condemn Modi’s move to strip Indian-held Kashmir of autonomy” (August 17). I am also concerned about Kashmir, particularly Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Human Rights Watch reported in 2006 on the plight of Kashmiris there. For example, leaders of groups that do not support Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan are thrown in prison and severely abused. Since then, the situation has worsened.
The recent United Nations (UN) report on human rights violations in Kashmir notes that the UN Refugee Agency has “received credible information of enforced disappearances of people from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, including those who were held in secret detention and those whose fate and whereabouts continue to remain unknown”. It adds: “In almost all cases, victim groups allege Pakistani intelligence agencies were responsible for the disappearances.”
It is unfortunate that Hong Kong’s peace-loving Pakistanis remain ignorant of the deception their country perpetuates against India.
While Pakistan is protesting India’s division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two parts, Pakistan separated a major portion of the part of Kashmir it administers into another state, Gilgit-Baltistan. Worse, they “gifted away” 6,000 sq km of it to China.
Many Indians in Hong Kong are ecstatic over the repeal of Article 370, as it will bring equality and justice to all the communities in the state, not just the Sunnis of the Kashmir Valley.
India is a secular, democratic country, not a theocratic state like Pakistan. Even India’s permanent ambassador to UN, who defended the country’s interests brilliantly, is a Muslim.
Dr Kailash Singh, Pok Fu Lam
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