PoK activist Shabbir Choudhary | Photo Credit: ANI

New Delhi: Kashmiri political activists from all over Europe gathered in Birmingham, the UK to take part in International Kashmir conference on Peace, Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism during which they discussed atrocities committed by Pakistan and its military on people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan.

Voicing their concerns about the persecution of the locals by the Pakistani government the activists sought freedom for the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit and also urged the United Nations and world human rights bodies to intervene to break the chain of violence and victimization of local people by Pakistani forces.

Speaking on the issue, PoK activist Shabbir Choudhary said thought the region is called Azad Kashmir but there is no Azadi. He further said that the situation is getting from bad to worse, especially with the diversion of rivers.

“They are creating enormous problems for the locals and people may be forced to migrate in the near future,” added Choudhary.

The activists slammed Pakistan for violating freedom of expression and speech, freedom of associations and freedom of peaceful assembly.

According to a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) routinely arrests pro-independence activists and also carries out massive surveillance operations to muzzle their voice.

Many activists have disappeared after their arrests and it is believed that they are neutralized by the Pakistani military establishment and the ISI.

Brad Adams, who serves as the executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch, was quoted by a 2006 HRW report titled ‘Pakistan: ‘Free Kashmir’ Far From Free’ saying: “Although ‘azad’ means ‘free,’ the residents of Azad Kashmir are anything but free.”

The report further accuses the government of Pakistan of suppressing the freedom of expression in PoK and not allowing the creation of independent media in the territory “through bureaucratic restrictions and coercion so as to control the dissemination of information.

“While militant organizations promoting the incorporation of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state into Pakistan have had free rein to propagate their views, groups promoting an independent Kashmir find their speech sharply, sometimes violently curtailed,” the report says.

According to the 1974 constitution of Azad Kashmir, anyone who wants to contests in the local election has to support Kashmir’s union with Pakistan and has to sign a “pledge of loyalty to Pakistan”, while people who support independence face persecution.

The hypocrisy of Pakistan can be gauged from the fact that though it criticizes India for human rights violations in neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir it regularly persecutes and mistreats refugees from J&K.

Kashmiri refugees are particularly harassed through constant surveillance, arbitrary arrest and custodial torture.