{"id":10617,"date":"2021-06-30T06:21:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T06:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=10617"},"modified":"2021-06-30T06:21:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T06:21:17","slug":"pakistan-urges-unsc-to-act-immediately-to-protect-children-in-held-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2021\/06\/30\/pakistan-urges-unsc-to-act-immediately-to-protect-children-in-held-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan urges UNSC to act immediately to protect children in held Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to act immediately to protect children in conflict zones, particularly in the India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir [IOJK] where Indian forces have been deliberately targeting children with pellet guns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe scale and intensity of today\u2019s conflicts is stretching our capacity to protect children,\u201d Pakistan\u2019s UN Ambassador Munir Akram told the world body.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNowhere is this grim reality starker than in today\u2019s IOJK. More than 300 innocent Kashmiris, including women and children, were killed in fake encounters and staged cordon-and-search operations,\u201d the ambassador said in his written statement to the Security Council.<\/p>\n<p>In a report to the council on Monday, UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1632064\">urged India to end the use of pellets<\/a>\u00a0against children in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and stop associating children with the security forces in any way.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--adjustable my-4 hidden sm:block py-4\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"js-ad    clearfix\">\n<div class=\"radWrapper  ad__wrapper\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1455520357400-2\" class=\"ad__wrapper__slot\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/1029551\/DAWN-LB-728x90-MIDDLE_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In its written statement, Pakistan reminded the Security Council that during 2020, some of the worst atrocities and state terrorism took place in IOJK:<\/p>\n<p>More than 750 Kashmiris were critically injured, while 2,770 innocent Kashmiris were arbitrarily detained, and 922 houses destroyed as part of collective punishment inflicted on the Kashmiri communities.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan reminded the council of a gut-wrenching picture of a three-year-old Kashmiri boy sitting on the body of his grandfather (Muhammad Bashir) killed by the Indian forces that went viral on the internet, drawing ire from social media and civil society. The three-year-old boy was shown sitting on top of his motionless grandfather as he cried.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch inhuman actions are not only in violation of the UNSC resolutions on Children and Armed Conflict but are also in breach of the \u2018best interests of the child\u2019 principle under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a state party,\u201d Ambassador Akram said.<\/p>\n<p>The worsening situation and increased attacks against children in IOJK, as reported in the latest report of the Secretary General, \u201ccalls for Security Council\u2019s intervention by holding India accountable for its grave breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes in IOJK,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Quoting from the Secretary General\u2019s latest report, Pakistan pointed out that: The overall number of grave violations remained alarmingly high at 26,425. These violations include the continued killing and maiming of children, the recruitment and use of child soldiers, sexual violence and abduction, attacks against schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.<\/p>\n<p>The report further revealed that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated difficulties in the protection of children affected by armed conflicts, with humanitarian agencies finding it hard to conduct their work safely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever the causes of modern-day brutality towards children, the time has come to call a halt. These acts must end, and perpetrators must be held to account,\u201d the ambassador said.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary General\u2019s latest report also has expressed deep concerns on the \u201cgrave violations\u201d against children in occupied Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian security forces. It also \u201craises alarm on the continued illegal detention of (Kashmiri) children, torture in detention and detention without charge or due process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn view of these serious concerns, the Secretary-General has rightly urged the Indian government to \u2018immediately end\u2019 such practices and take \u2018preventive measures\u2019 to protect children, including by \u2018ending the use of pellets against children\u2019 in IOJK,\u201d Ambassador Akram said.<\/p>\n<p>He informed the council that despite persistent concerns raised by multiple Special Rapporteurs and Mandate Holders of the Human Rights Council and experts on Children and Armed Conflict, the human rights and humanitarian situations continue to deteriorate for the innocent children of IOJK since Aug 5, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to act immediately to protect children in conflict zones, particularly in the India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir [IOJK] where Indian forces have been deliberately targeting children with pellet guns. \u201cThe scale and intensity of today\u2019s conflicts is stretching our capacity to protect children,\u201d Pakistan\u2019s UN Ambassador [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,36,40],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-kashmir","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10619,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions\/10619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}