APHC appeals to EU to cancel free trade agreement with India
Pak Tribune | 24 May 2007
APHC appeals to EU to cancel Free Trade Agreement with India
SRINAGAR, MAY 24 (Online): All Parties Hurriyat Conference senior leader and Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM) Zaffar Akabar Bhat on Thursday appealed the European Union (EU) to cancel the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India due to its poor human rights record across the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir where, from the last 18 years Indian soldiers are not only killing the innocent people but also disappearing the youth and dumping them in fake encounters aimed at converting the majority of Muslim population into minority .
This he said while talking to the party workers of District Budgam who called on him at main office of JKSM and lodged the complaint against the high-handedness of Special Task Force (STF) and deputed soldiers who are harassing the passersby particularly college students .
Zaffar Akbar Bhat urged the world community and European Union to boycott the Indian trade specially in European Union countries where India has got access through Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The reserves from the European Union countries are being used to kill innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir, grabbing their orchards and paddy fields for the construction of cantonments and the whole amount, which New Delhi is spending to crush the legitimate struggle of right of self-determination which has been accepted by the whole world through UN resolutions. �European Union should link FTA with the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir and put pressure on India to withdraw its troops and stop mass human rights violation across the held state. Billion of US dollars are being used on troops in Srinagar just to kill and harass the Kashmiris that is the worst kind of state terrorism. We hope EU would rethink on the agreement and honour the wishes of Kashmiri people who are facing hardships for the last 18 years,� Zaffar added .
He said thousands of youth are languishing in different jails and torture cells and these are the places where Kashmiri people are being killed under the name of fake encounters. Indian troops are directly involved in molestation bids. The expenditures on these troops are those reserves that India earns from the European Union markets and not use for the betterment of general public. Indian is utilizing all resources to crush the peaceful struggle of right of self determination in Jammu and Kashmir .
Zaffar said psychiatric diseases are on the rise, number of heart patients is increasing, drugs are being supplied among youth and this all is still going on under the instructions of New Delhi. This is the time to force India to fulfill the word that it made with the people of Jammu and Kashmir at UNO .
European Union should use its approach for the settlement of Jammu and Kashmir.
