India's Kashmir rule 'replicates Israel in Palestine', Pakistani lawmaker says

India's rule in Jammu and Kashmir is akin to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, the head of a Pakistani parliamentary body concerned with Kashmir said on Thursday.

Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir chair Shehryar Khan Afridi was addressing an Islamabad conference when he discussed the India-controlled areas of the predominantly Muslim region, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Speaking at the "Palestine and Kashmir Crisis: Call for justice" conference, Afridi said "the Indian regime had… its top police and civil bureaucrats" in the territory taken to Israel for instruction prior to 5 August 2019.

This was the day Kashmir had its longstanding position as a semi-autonomous territory taken away by India.

The former interior minister said the Indian government "brought [the bureaucrats] back to replicate the Israeli model".

He alleged: "Among these included [the] infamous police officer, Imtiaz Hussain, who is blamed for killing 200 Kashmiri Muslims."

According to Afridi, after learning from the Israelis, Hussain was made "security in-charge in Srinagar to suppress protests in Jammu and Kashmir".

He said the "[s]ettler colonial project of Israel is being implemented in blatant violation of UN resolutions."

"40,00,000 new domicile certificates have been issued out of which 500,000 [have been] issued to people from mainland India who never visited Kashmir," Afridi continued.

Does a 'We Are Palestine' mural warrant an arrest?#Kashmir #Palestinehttps://t.co/KLDyEdCg6X

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The Jammu and Kashmir region is claimed by both India and Pakistan in its entirety.

On the same day India-controlled Kashmir had its semi-autonomy taken in August 2019, India also implemented a widely criticised internet blackout.

While this ended in January 2020, speed restrictions continued to apply. It was only in February this year that the speed restrictions were lifted.