Lawyers in Rawalpindi on Tuesday staged a rally against human rights violations in Indian Kashmir, The Express Tribune reported.
Members of the Rawalpindi District Bar Association (DBA) gathered here at Katcheri Chowk at about 12pm in their vehicles for the rally. They first went to the United Nations (UN) office in Islamabad, and submitted a memorandum against atrocities committed by security forces in Indian Kashmir.
Advocate Nisar Inqilabi said that the lawyers after submitting the memorandum at the UN office went towards the Indian Embassy.
He said that the law enforcers did not allow them to go near the Indian embassy.
Inqilabi said that when they threatened to stage a sit-in outside the embassy, the security officials asked them to hand over their resolution condemning the inhuman actions in Kashmir.
He said that they gave the copy of the bar’s resolution to the security staff for the Indian embassy officials.
Earlier, Inqilabi submitted a resolution in the DBA on Saturday condemning the excesses of Indian forces in Kashmir.
He said that the DBA passed the resolution and it was announced to hold a protest rally on July 19th.
In a lawyers’ meeting held in DBA hall on Tuesday before the rally, the representatives of the bar paid tributes to the Kashmiri people for their sacrifices in the freedom struggle.
The lawyers also asked the international community and the international human rights organizations to take notice of the atrocities and violation of human rights in Kashmir.
The meeting was chaired by DBA President Shaukat Rauf Siddiqi, General Secretary Sardar Bilal Qayyum and other representatives.
Clashes in the Indian-administered Kashmir erupted on July 9, when thousands of protesters thronged streets in towns across the Kashmir valley to condemn the death of a popular secessionist leader at the hands of Indian security forces.
The violence has been among the worst in the region in years. Indian forces have shot dead at least 45 people since July 9, while thousands of others have been injured.
Protesters have also attacked police vehicles, security posts and other government property.
Security forces have been accused of using disproportionate force against civilians, a charge the state government has vowed to investigate.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and Indian-administered Kashmir has long been troubled, plagued by the aftershocks of an armed insurgency born in the late 1980s.