Pakistan violating all human rights in PoK, says BJP

New Delhi [India], Oct. 3 (ANI): Commenting on the protest staged by the residents of Kotli in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) against the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that Islamabad has violated all human rights. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI that Pakistan is repeating Balochistan in PoK. "The protest in PoK against the atrocities establishes the fact that Pakistan is a state which has been propagating against its own people, which has violated every human right. We have seen the issue of genocide in Balochistan, and today, we see the same case in PoK ," said Patra. "A country whose premier Nawaz Sharif calls Burhan Wani a hero and a leader from the stage of the United Nations, naturally is the one who supports such kind of activities in Pakistan. Pakistan has been exposed globally," he added. Kotli residents in PoK yesterday took to the streets to protest against the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The agitation was launched against extra-judicial killings, fake encounters and brutalities committed on pro-Azadi leaders who disagree with the Pakistan State. The angry mob raised slogans such as "Butcher of Kashmiris, Pakistan Army", "Dogs are more loyal than ISI". The protesters demanded an independent investigation into the murder of Arif Shahid, a major Kashmiri nationalist leader, chairman of the All Parties National Alliance (APNA), and president of the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Conference (JKNLC). Shahid fought tooth and nail against Pakistan's oppression in PoK before he was shot outside his residence in Rawalpindi on May 14, 2013. He was 62. The investigation into Shahid's murder is still inconclusive, and there is no closure to the cold-blooded murder, so far. The ISI is blamed for conspiring and executing Shahid's murder. According to an estimate by the All Party National Alliance based in Muzaffarabad, more than one hundred pro-freedom political activists have been killed by the ISI over the past two years. There is growing resentment among PoK residents over the killings as well as the continued army clampdown. Earlier, PoK witnessed a series of protests by residents against rigged polls that saw Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), coming to power. The United States' State Department has recently also expressed concern over human rights violation in PoK, maintaining that it has always been urging parties in Pakistan to settle their differences "peaceably and through a valid political process". (ANI)