NEW DELHI - Children and other victims of Indian atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir today (10^th December 1996) marched on the streets of Indian capital New Delhi on the eve of World Human Rights Day. The protest march was led by the leaders the All­Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), who later, along with 20 APHC activists, started a 72­hour hunger strike outside the United Nations (UN) office in New Delhi. Four victims of state terrorism: Ghulam Ahmad Malla, 55, Shabir Ahmad Tantray, 20, Nilofar, 29, and Iqra, 10, presented a memorandum to the UN National Information Officer Mr. Rajiv Chandaran, who met the delegation on behalf of the UN Representative in India.

The march which started at 10 a.m. from the Nizamuddin area of New Delhi, took about two hours to cover a distance of two kilometres to reach the UN office, amidst heavy police bandobast. Most of the marchers had either their legs or arms missing or had bullet or burn injuries on their bodies. All of them had harrowing tales to tell the world. Four victims, along with Tapan Bose, a noted Indian human rights activists, met the UN official on behalf of protesters. They appealed to the world body to intervene effectively and come to the rescue of Kashmiris and prevail upon India to stop human rights violations by the Indian forces. They also urged the world body to send a deputation of human rights observers to the Occupied State and arrange relief and rehabilitation of victims. Nilofar, 29, a housewife, carrying a baby, told the UN official that her father, mother, brother and husband were killed in broad day light by the BSF in their house in Shalimar area in Srinagar. Most pathetic was the case of Iqra, a 10-year-old girl, who lost all her family last year when the army barged into her house at Nowshahra in Srinagar and shot her father, uncle and mother dead. Ghulam Ahmad Mall (55) told the UN official that during a crackdown the Indian forces pressed red hot iron over his body. "Tears tolling down his eyes he said that he was the only supporter of his family of six and is now handicapped. Shabir Ahmad Tantray, a 12 grade student, whose arm was amputated, wanted to know from the representative of the world body if they could arrange for his rehabilitation. "I was shot at by the army in 1993 without any provocation while returning from school."

The UN official appreciated the sentiments of the marchers and said that the memorandum presented would be sent directly to the Secretary General by this evening through a hot-line fax. He maintained that though the organisation will use its good offices to prevail upon India to stop atrocities in Kashmir, the UN has other considerations in addition to those in Kashmir. He assured the delegation that the World Body will try its best to arrange relief work in consultation with other organisations in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The aim of the rally, said the APHC spokesman, "was to highlight the excesses being perpetrated on the helpless people of Kashmir." He announced that 20 APHC activists including chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Javaid Mir and a senior Shia leader, Aga Syed Hassan, started a 72­hour hunger strike outside the UN office.