UK Parliamentary report calls for ban on pellet guns
Srinagar: A report compiled by a UK parliamentary body has called for an immediate ban on the use of pellet guns against innocent unarmed civilians
The comprehensive report, prepared by the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG), has highlighted “the draconian laws”, including the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act, “under the garb of which forces are allegedly committing ‘human rights’ abuses in Kashmir”.
The APPKG report “calls for an immediate ban on the use of pellet guns against innocent unarmed civilians” in the valley by the forces.
The report recognized “the massive human rights violations and atrocities” committed by forces in Kashmir”, Dawn News TV reported on Monday.
On October 31, after the APPKG had released its report, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal had termed the report’s observations as an “indictment” of India’s “gross human rights violations in the valley”.
Radio Pakistan quoted Dr Faisal as saying that the APPKG report echoes the findings of the UN’s OHCHR Report published on June 14.
Furthermore, the report “condemns the illegal detentions, enforced disappearances” in Kashmir, and calls for the “prosecution of armed forces personnel”.
The APPKG, chaired by MP Chris Leslie, demands in the report that a “comprehensive public investigation into the identities of the bodies in mass and unmarked graves” should be made.
The parliamentary body observed that its findings, which come “on the heels of the UN’s OHCHR Report on Jammu and Kashmir”, are a “damning indictment against human rights violations in Kashmir and stark proof of increasing international focus on the nature of this dispute”.
KV Network
