PoK, Balochistan activists hold protest against Pakistan in Brussels

Exiled political activists from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) gathered outside the European Parliament to protest the state-sponsored carnage and plundering of resources in the region. 

Activists condemned Islamabad by raising slogans for the construction of Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project and Diamer Bhasha Dam, that is bitterly impacting the environment and has become the cause of indigence for common people. 

"We are here in Brussels in front of the European Parliament demonstrating against the plundering of the natural resources of Kashmiri people (in Pakistan). We are here to protest against the state brutality and for the people who are suffering because of the policies of the Pakistani government. We are actually protesting against their policies, their nefarious designs," said Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) to ANI.

Another UKPNP activist, Jamil Maqsood, said to ANI, "The fundamental purpose of this demonstration was to highlight the human rights violations in the Pakistan administered Kashmir and occupied Gilgit-Baltistan because Pakistan is constructing Neelum Jhelum hydropower project and Diamer Bhasha dam in Gilgit Baltistan and in both these areas, people have been asked to leave their properties and leave their land without paying them any alternative land and without paying them any compensation".

He added, "In Muzaffarabad, they (Pakistani government) have diverted Neelum river which is at the brink of extinction. It is completely destroyed and approximately hundreds of thousands of people in Neelum, Muzaffarabad and other lower riparian areas are deprived of the basic necessity of water."

To voice their grievances against the issue of human rights violations, activists from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Mohajirs also joined the protests to condemn Islamabad for their continuous engagement in similar oppressive patterns in their provinces.

Pakistan has been rendering to a second-class citizen treatment to the people of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh. This diabolic pattern of vanquishing its own people has witnessed a substantial escalation since the arrival of the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

The construction of Neelum Jhelum hydropower project is planned on the Ganga river or Neelum river as it is called in PoK. On the same river, India is instituting the Kishanganga hydropower project, that was long opposed by Pakistan.

(With inputs from ANI)