Better late than never — the world body, the UN, has conducted and published it’s first-ever Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir, June 14, 2018, in Geneva, Switzerland. Though in a move that is likely to be seen as extortionate short-changing, the period of inquiry only covers the last two years: June 2016-April 2018.
Surprising though it may appear but yet the steps by the UN Body have been taken in a direction that had been long awaited by the world’s peace loving population at large more so by the people living in this part of the South Asian region.
The Kashmir dispute begins right from the days of the partition that gave birth of two sovereign nations in South Asia, India and Pakistan.

Both the Pakistani and Indian states share part of the blame for this apparent paralysis; with the two sides stalling over the question of granting UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein unconditional access to either side of the Line of Control (LoC). Meaning that the report was ultimately conducted, let’s presume, by remote monitoring.
The findings essentially uncover nothing new. But with censure now coming from the world body — this will hopefully yield positive impact on the plight of the Kashmiri people.
Indian security forces are rebuked for having killed some 145 civilians between mid-July 2016 and the end of March 2018. And for the employment of the pellet-firing shotgun that left 17 dead while wounding some 6,221 over roughly the same period. Injuries include partial or complete blindness. Towards this end, the UN has called for the immediate repeal of Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA); which protects security personnel from prosecution. That the Indian government has never once intervened to ensure that those who commit human rights atrocities are brought to account suggests that civilian regimes in world’s largest democracy are not immune to being subservient to the ‘national interest’.

By the same token, Pakistan comes under fire for military support of armed groups across the Line of Control.
Here, the UN report links counter-terrorism efforts to human rights abuses; not least because of the “very broad definition of terrorism laid down in the Anti-Terrorism Act”. Indeed, it finds that the security apparatus uses this to target those demanding fundamental human rights. It also urges the Pakistani authorities to release all political activists, journalists and others convicted for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression.
This is where Islamabad should play smart which would not be protesting too much about the fresh disclosures by the UN body.
To recall, the then Pakistan PM Abbasi had appealed the UN General Assembly last year to revisit the issue of the Kashmir plebiscite.
Accordingly first-ever UN probe into human rights abuses in the region-the momentum is now there. It just needs to be built upon, say South Asian observers.

In short, the time has come to act for the greater good of the Kashmiri people.

Who have, after all, suffered enough?

Peace loving people of Nepal are happy in that the UN body for the first time has taken steps to listen to the plight of the Kashmiri people who have been subjected to atrocities of all kind from the brutal security forces.