Pakistan FM calls for UN probe of India actions in Kashmir

Pakistan on Tuesday asked the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to ensure that India ends the restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir and restores fundamental rights and liberties in the region, report agencies.

Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi outlined Pakistan’s position while speaking at the UNHRC session in Geneva against the backdrop of tensions with India over the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5.

He also demanded that the UN launch an international investigation into the situation in Indian Kashmir, warning that a "genocide" could be looming in the Muslim-majority region.

"The people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir are apprehending the worst," Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, adding that "I shudder to mention the word genocide here, but I must."

India imposed a military clampdown on Kashmir from August 5 to prevent unrest as New Delhi revoked the disputed region's autonomy. Mobile phone networks and the internet are still cut off in all but a few pockets.

India has described the changes in Kashmir as an internal matter and said Pakistan has no locus standi in the matter.

Describing the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as a “looming catastrophe”, Qureshi said the UNHRC should ensure that New Delhi stop the use of pellet guns by Indian security forces, ends the “curfew” and restores fundamental rights and liberties, releases political prisoners and ends the “bloodshed” in the region