On Tuesday, 5 November, Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan, Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir - Pakistani Kashmir - asked the EU to put pressure on India regarding the situation in Kashmir (see EUROPE 12319/14).
A curfew and a communications blockade have been in place since 5 August, when India revoked the autonomy of Indian Kashmir.
Khan told the European Parliament that “the EU should be putting pressure on India to resolve the matter peacefully”. In his opinion, the situation in Kashmir is not a territorial dispute, but a matter of self-determination. The Prime Minister added that “the EU must support ultimate resolution of the dispute and persuade India to stop violating human rights”.
“Please, come forward and help the people of Kashmir! The genocide of the Kashmiri people must stop!”, said Ali Raza Syed, chair of the non-governmental organisation, the Kashmir Council-EU.
What is happening in Kashmir “is something that the EU should not tolerate; it is a complete blackout”, said Shaffaq Mohammed, MEP (Renew Europe, UK), who is of Kashmir descent himself. “We must be critical of our Pakistani and Indian friends. Both sides can do better”, he said, adding that India’s actions “are not what is expected from the world's largest democracy”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)