ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir met in New York on Sunday to discuss the “worsening human rights situation in Indian-administered Kashmir” and draw attention to New Delhi’s “military aggression,” Pakistan’s Mission to the UN said in a statement on Monday.
“Members of the Contact Group reviewed recent developments relating to Jammu and Kashmir, including the grave human rights and humanitarian situation in IOJK (Indian-occupied Kashmir) and the tensions along the LoC (Line of Control),” the statement said.
The meeting, based on a request by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was attended by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, and the OIC’s Permanent Representatives, namely Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan.
Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev, the Permanent Representative of the OIC Observer Mission to the UN, attended the event in place of OIC Secretary-General Yousef Bin Ahmad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Othaimeen.
Conveying FM Qureshi’s message on the occasion, Ambassador Akram said that the “issuance of 1.6 million domicile certificates (since March) was meant to change the demography of IOJK from a Muslim majority into Hindu majority territory.”
“India had intensified its belligerent rhetoric against Pakistan, including threats of military aggression,” he added.
Meanwhile, reaffirming the OIC’s position on the issue, the group members expressed “deep concern at the continued violations by India” and “fully endorsed” Qureshi’s recommendations – based on ministerial communique on September 25, 2019, and June 22 this year – for “immediate de-escalation” in the disputed territory, the statement said.
A day earlier, on Saturday, the OIC had called for the establishment of a UN commission to investigate extrajudicial killings in Indian-administered Kashmir, after the Indian army admitted to killing three people in a staged encounter in Shopian district earlier this year.
The Indian army on Friday said that their troops had exceeded powers under the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the killing of three men in Amshipora village in Shopian, the southern part of Kashmir Valley in July.
In a Twitter post on Saturday, the OIC’s human rights body, the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission urged the international community to establish a commission of inquiry under the UN “to investigate these extrajudicial killings and grave human rights violations and urge India to repeal AFSPA.”
OIC's Kashmir group meets in New York to discuss 'worsening' rights situation
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OIC's Kashmir group meets in New York to discuss 'worsening' rights situation
- Human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir prime focus of the gathering
- Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan among attendees at UN event which was requested for by Pakistan FM
Russia accuses Zelensky of making ‘direct threat’ to May 9 events
MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday accused Volodymyr Zelensky of threatening the security of its World War II commemorations on May 9, after the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would not “take responsibility” for ensuring safety on the day.
“He is threatening the physical safety of veterans who will come to parades and celebrations on the holy day,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. “His statement ... is, of course, a direct threat.”
Terminally ill Syrian woman permitted to enter UK after govt U-turn
- Soaad Al-Shawa has been given weeks to live by doctors
- She was initially denied request to see her daughter and son-in-law who fled Syria in 2015
LONDON: A Syrian woman dying of cancer will travel to the UK to see her grandchildren, whom she has never met, after a UK Home Office decision.
Soaad Al-Shawa, who has liver cancer and has been given just weeks to live by doctors, was initially denied a family-reunion request by the UK government, The Guardian reported.
She had asked to travel to Britain to meet up with her daughter Ola Al-Hamwi, son-in-law Mostafa Amonajid, and their three children, aged seven, five and one.
The family fled Syria in 2015 — unable to take Al-Shawa with them — and now reside in Glasgow. Since then. Al-Shawa has only communicated with her grandchildren via video calls.
She received a terminal cancer diagnosis late last year, and her daughter applied for a refugee family reunion in the UK, which was rejected. The family appealed and, in April, an immigration judge agreed to overturn the decision.
However, the UK Home Office later sought permission to appeal the judge’s ruling, in a move that may have taken at least eight months.
Al-Shawa may not have that long to live, with her daughter saying at the time that the decision was “breaking her heart.” Now, the Home Office has told the family’s lawyer it is withdrawing the decision, meaning Al-Shawa can travel to the UK, and that it will also expedite the issuing of a visa for her.
Al-Hamwi hopes that the visa will be processed in Jordan this weekend, and that her husband can travel there to collect her mother. Refugees cannot return to the country they fled from neither Al-Hamwi and Amonajid are able to enter Syria.
Al-Hamwi said: “My mum really perked up when she heard the news and started to eat more. All she wants to do before she dies is to see us and the kids.”
Amonajid said: “I appreciate the Home Office for listening to Ola and me. The kids are so excited they are finally going to meet their grandmother. She will be sleeping in their bedroom and they are fighting over who will sleep next to her.”
The family’s solicitor, Usman Aslam of Mukhtar & Co, said: “We welcome the Home Office decision to withdraw from this case and, moreover, to assist in expediting it.
“We now hope that a daughter and mother can spend whatever time the mother has left together. Refugees are no different from anyone else. They, too, have lives, families and dignity.”
Pakistan test fires ballistic missile as tensions with India spike after Kashmir gun massacre
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan test-fired Saturday a ballistic missile as tensions with India spiked over last week’s deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region.
The surface-to-surface missile has a range of 450 kilometers (about 280 miles), the Pakistani military said.
The launch of the Abdali Weapon System was aimed at ensuring the “operational readiness of troops and validating key technical parameters,” including the missile’s advanced navigation system and enhanced manoeuvrability features, according to a statement from the military.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the scientists, engineers and those behind the successful missile test.
Russia declares state of emergency at port after Ukrainian drone attack on Novorossiysk
- There was no immediate comment from Ukraine
MOSCOW: The mayor of the Russian port city of Novorossiysk declared a state of emergency on Saturday after he said a Ukrainian drone attack had damaged residential buildings and injured at least five people, including two children.
Andrei Kravchenko, the mayor, announced his decision on his official Telegram account which showed him inspecting the damage to apartment buildings and giving orders to officials.
Kravchenko said one of the injured people, a woman, was in hospital in a serious situation.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, whose air force said Russia had attacked Ukraine overnight with 183 drones and two ballistic missiles.
US worker safety agency notifies employees of firings
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration sent termination notices late on Friday to employees of a worker health and safety agency that provides research and services for coal miners, firefighters and others, despite appeals by a lawmaker from Trump’s Republican Party to preserve its programs.
Employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health received reduction-in-force notices that said the job losses were necessary to reshape the workforce of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a copy of the notices reviewed by Reuters.
Nearly all NIOSH employees were placed on administrative leave in February but around 40 who worked on coal-mining and firefighter safety were asked to return temporarily to work several days ago, the union for the agency’s employees said. At least two of those employees have now been notified of termination.
US Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, had lobbied Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore the programs, including the coal-focused work of its Morgantown, West Virginia, office.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIOSH, did not immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours. A spokesperson earlier this week said NIOSH’s functions would join the new Administration for a Healthy America, alongside multiple agencies. It was not clear whether any of the terminated employees would be transferred elsewhere.
Reuters reported last month that the halting of NIOSH’s key services ended vital health and safety programs for coal miners, such as mobile health and lung screenings, and a program to relocate miners afflicted with black lung disease to less dusty parts of a mine.
There has been a resurgence of black lung disease in the last decade, including among young coal miners. At the same time, President Donald Trump has led a high-profile campaign to revive coal mining and use, which had been declining in the US.
