Protest against ‘biased’ reporting on human rights in Kashmir

Protest against ‘biased’ reporting on human rights in Kashmir

NEW DELHI: A demonstration was organised by “Roots in Kashmir” here in the Capital on Sunday to protest against Amnesty International on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The group accused Amnesty International of being biased in their human rights reports in the last two decades on the issue of Kashmir and its aboriginal people -- the Kashmiri Pandits.

“The organisation has failed to rise to the occasion when it could have played a greater role in raising issues connected with the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits,” said a group member in a statement released to the press.

Criticising Amnesty International for its stance on the Kashmir issue and plight of the Kashmiri Pandit community, Roots in Kashmir demanded reconstruction and renovation of desecrated and destroyed shrines and better rehabilitation for those refugees still languishing in camps. The group also asked Amnesty International to send its representatives to Kashmiri Pandit camps in Jammu and conduct an on ground survey and report on the present situation. They urged the organisation to extend the same privileges to Kashmiri Pandits as they do to other Internally Displaced People across the globe.

According to Roots in Kashmir, to escape persecution more than 500,000 Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes back in the Valley and over 50,000 refugees were still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi.

“The blind attitude towards the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Pandit community speaks volumes of the discrimination against the Kashmiris,” said another group member of Roots in Kashmir.

Goel to approach NHRC again on Blueline issue

Goel to approach NHRC again on Blueline issue

“Issue has gained more importance because of the recent sting”
Says the matter involves the life of millions in Delhi
Not contend with plans to phase out Bluelines


NEW DELHI: Former Union Minister Vijay Goel announced on Friday that he would again approach the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to demand that it take up the issue of the Blueline bus menace in the Capital seriously as the matter involved the life and limbs of millions of people in the city.
In a statement, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said the issue of Blueline buses killing people assumed greater significance in the wake of a recent “sting operation” that showed traffic police personnel taking bribes from Blueline bus operators.
Stating that nearly 100 police personnel had been shown taking bribes in the “sting operation”, the BJP leader said this just indicated how deep the malaise ran.
On Mr. Goel’s previous petition in the matter filed on last October 26, the NHRC had sent a notice to the Delhi Government which had replied that it was bringing in private buses owned by big operators to gradually phase out Bluelines buses and also the fleet of the Delhi Transport Corporation was being expanded to meet the needs of the commuters.
But, the BJP leader said, this was not good enough as people were still losing their lives to the rashly driven Bluelines.
In such a scenario, Mr. Goel said the NHRC should not have closed the case on the ground that the matter was now in court.