MUZAFFARABAD: A UK-based rights and advocacy organisation has urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask the government of India during his upcoming visit to New Delhi to honour its pledge made in 1947 to the then prime minister of Great Britain, the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the government of Pakistan as well as at the UN Security Council for withdrawal of Indian troops followed by a UN supervised referendum in the erstwhile princely state.

This and some other demands were made by the Jammu Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), with a consultative status at the UN, on behalf of Kashmiri people to Mr Johnson in a letter, a copy of which was emailed to Dawn on Sunday.

“Your visit to India is an effort to perfect and further the relationship with India. British Kashmiris sincerely hope that you would urge upon the Government of India to honour her pledge made to the Prime Minister of Great Britain on 26 October 1947, to the people of Jammu and Kashmir on 27 October 1947, to the Government of Pakistan on 31 October 1947 and at the UN Security Council on 15 January 1948, for the withdrawal of her forces and of a UN supervised Plebiscite,” wrote JKCHR president Dr Syed Nazir Gillani.

The JKCHR was voted into a Special Consultative Status by the UK, Northern Ireland, India, Pakistan and other members at the 42nd plenary meeting of the Economic and Social Council on 25 July 2001 in New York.

Johnson is scheduled to visit New Delhi next month

It was also elected at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in June 1993 to represent the Unrepresented Peoples and Nationals of the World.

Mr Gillani informed Mr Johnson that the JKCHR advocated peace and engagement between India and Pakistan, as well as the jurisprudence of the UNSC resolutions for a UN supervised referendum in Jammu and Kashmir and until then supported the promotion and protection of all human rights, particularly those specifically guaranteed in the UNSC Resolution 47 of April 21, 1948.

The British premier is scheduled to visit New Delhi next month as part of his plan to transform the G7 group into a broader group of 10 leading democracies. He will also be a guest of honour on India’s “republic day”.

Mr Gillani reminded Mr Johnson that it was 61 years after the visit of the UN secretary general in March 1959 to Srinagar, to assess the political and economic situation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had produced two reports on the human rights situation in the Himalayan region in June 2018 and July 2019, both recommending that India and Pakistan should honour the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination and urging India to improve its human rights record.

However, on August 5, 2019, India raised its military presence from 500,000-700,000 to 900,000, thus violating recommendations made in the two UNHCHR reports, and also violating the three principles mentioned in UNSC Resolution 47 of April 21, 1948 with regard to the stationing of its forces, he added.

“People of Jammu and Kashmir have been placed under a military siege and India has gone for a re-occupation. The state is run through a Delhi agent and a non-Kashmiri. A 93 years old law protecting the rights of the Kashmiri people has been disturbed to enable the non-Kashmiris settle down in the disputed state,” he said of the post-Aug 5, 2019, situation.

Great Britain, Mr Gillani said, stood witness to the Indian assurance of October 26, 1947 that its army in Jammu and Kashmir would be withdrawn as soon as the law and order was restored and people would have a right to go through a UN supervised referendum.

Subsequently, on January 15, 1948, India had surrendered the provisional accession at the UNSC for a UN supervised vote, he said.

Putting forward statements of UK PM Clement Attlee in November 1947, that of its representative at the UN Sir Gladwyn Jebb in November 1952, as well as by the governments of United States, France and the Netherlands from time to time regarding the UNSC resolutions, Mr Gillani said Pakistan and India had also submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the UNSC on January 8 and 9, 1948, respectively.

They (Pakistan and India) had agreed, “to refrain from any step incompatible with the UN Charter and liable to result in an aggravation of the situation, thereby rendering more difficult any action by the Security Council”, he said.

He informed Mr Johnson that the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir had to be completed by November 1, 1950, and the UK had been one of the co-sponsors of a resolution to send a UN force as a neutral authority to protect the people in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, he said, India committed military re-occupation, political vandalism and a cultural invasion in Kashmir on August 5, 2019, and it was high time to consider the protection of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Great Britain continues to accrue on its 172 years old obligation voiced on behalf of the British Government by Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Hardinge, Secretary to the Government of India, in his letter dated January 7, 1848, addressed to Maharajah Gulab Singh. We hope that you would not skip on the historic obligation of Great Britain to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and would not fail the British Kashmiris in their hour of distress,” Mr Gillani concluded.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2020