ISLAMABAD: President AJK Sardar Masood Khan has said that the European Union with its long history of upholding values of human rights must render help in mobilizing UN to take expeditious initiatives for checking human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir.

He expressed these views while addressing a seminar entitled "Kashmir Conflict and International Opinion" organized by the Kashmir Council EU at the European Parliament in Brussels, a message received here on Wednesday said.

The seminar was moderated by MEP Afzal Khan and speakers besides president Azad Jammu and Kashmir included MEP Sajjad Karim, MEP Amjad Bashir and former Ambassador Anthony Crasner.

The president AJK said the UN should take cognizance of brutalities being committed by the Indian forces of occupation on the innocent people of Indian occupied Kashmir.

He stressed upon much needed actions to be taken by the UN, and outlined multipronged initiatives such as commencing of debate in UN Security Council (UNSC) based on the regular reports sent by the UN Observers on both sides of Line of Control; mediation by the UN Secretary General and immediate attention by the UN Commission on Human Rights on the genocide of Muslims in the Indian occupied Kashmir.

He said, "Kashmir is not a bilateral conflict between India and Pakistan, it has an international and multilateral dimension in the form of United Nations Resolutions which permits an active role by international community.

He further said people of Kashmir were the most important party in the conflict who must be involved in peaceful solution of the issue according to their aspirations.

Sardar Masood Khan said, "we look upon European Union to play an active role in creating consciousness about situation in Kashmir because Europe holds strong values regarding human rights."

He said human rights violations in Kashmir were not being reported objectively by the international media, due to economic clout of India, and this blockade of information had led to a situation where people in Europe were unaware of the scale of atrocities hence silent on this issue.

Sharing the facts about unprecedented situation of human rights violations in IoK, the president Azad Jammu and Kashmir said the extent of oppression meted out by India could be judged by the fact that 700,000 heavily armed combatant troops, with a ratio one soldier per 17 unarmed civilians, clearly depicts the scale of use of force to suppress indigenous struggle for freedom.

He called upon the international community to take immediate notice of pallet guns being used as weapon for mass blindness particularly targeting young population.

Sardar Masood Khan also briefed on the draconian laws implemented by the Indian in Jammu and Kashmir which gave impunity to Indian armed forces to carry out human rights violations on a massive scale in Kashmir region.

-APP