Pakistan condemns India banning Kashmiri group

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) - Pakistan on Thursday condemned India’s decision to ban a Kashmiri political group and declare it "unlawful."

The Foreign Ministry said the Muslim League Jammu Kashmir is the fifth Kashmiri party banned under the Unlawful Activities Act.

"Banning of the political parties and persecution of their leadership manifests a desire to stifle dissent in sheer disregard of democratic norms and international human rights and humanitarian law," it said and urged New Delhi to immediately lift curbs on banned political parties in Kashmir and release all political prisoners.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said Wednesday that the government declared the Kashmiri pro-freedom group an "unlawful association.”

The group has been banned for five years under the anti-terror law.

The Pakistan army also expressed serious concern about the situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and called it "reprehensible human rights violations by Indian military forces," referring to the killing of three Kashmiri civilians in Indian army custody last week.

"The recent acts of abduction, torture and killing of civilians by the Indian Army were unequivocally condemned by the participants," according to the Corps Commanders’ Conference in Rawalpindi.

Residents in southern Poonch district alleged that three civilians aged between 27 and 42 were picked up Friday by the army for questioning and were later killed in custody.

The Indian army ordered a court of inquiry to “investigate the circumstances which led to the deaths.”

- Disputed region

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is held by China.

Since partition in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971. Two concerned Kashmir.

Also, in the Siachen glacier region in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire took effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting Indian rule for independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

Thousands have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989, according to several human rights organizations.