UK: Probe K-rights violation charges
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 2
In a development being linked to the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has put off his visit to India. More significantly, he plans to visit Pakistan towards the end of this week. The engagement at summit level between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October is also likely to be rescheduled.
In London, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said any allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir after India revoked Article 370 must be “thoroughly, promptly and transparently” investigated. He told MPs in the House of Commons that he had raised concerns with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and that the UK would carefully monitor the situation in Kashmir. However, Raab said the issue was bilateral and it was up to India and Pakistan to resolve it. Raab was responding to two British MPs, Paula Sherriff and Muhammad Yasin, expressing opposition to the lockdown in J&K.
Raab said though he may sympathise with the MPs and their constituents, the UK “alone cannot end the blockade but wanted all and any allegations of human rights abuses must be investigated”.
As first reported by The Tribune, India and China had planned to hold talks on the border issue in mid-September to create a conducive ground for the second informal summit between PM Modi and Jinping in October. China had first put a spanner in Modi’s proposal to hold the summit meeting in Varanasi on the ground that the local runway would not be able to accommodate the presidential plane.
‘Not internal issue’
The issue of human rights is not just a bilateral issue for India or Pak, it is an international issue… we expect internationally recognised rights to be respected. — Dominic Raab, foreign secy
Pak’s failed attempt
A parliamentary delegation from India thwarted Pakistan’s bid to raise Kashmir issue at a UNICEF event in Colombo on Tuesday, asserting that it was India’s internal matter. Pakistani delegates tried to rake up rights issues in Kashmir at the UNICEF meet on children rights, with Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi slamming Pak’s record on rights issues of minorities. PTI
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