Geneva: Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of Jammu and Kashmir. The area is of strategic importance as it has borders with Afghanistan and China. Since partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, and the coming into being of Pakistan, democratic and political freedom and human rights situation in Gilgit-Baltistan has been very bad and the population has been suffering. This was stated by Universal Periodic Review submitted to Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir at the second session of a conference in Brusseles recently. It said rights organizations in Pakistan itself have been raising voices against the inhuman treatment meted out to the people of this region by the Pakistan administration. more...

“The most dominant influence on the Kashmiri Muslims, in terms of their Kashmiriyat, is that of the Rishi order of Sufis. While the Sufi orders like the Suharwardi, Kubravi, Naqshbandi and Quadri, arrived in Kashmir from Persia, Central Asia, and Central and North India, the Rishi order evolved in the valley itself indigenously in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Kashmir valley was already permeated with the traditions of Hindu ascetism and Buddhist renunciation.  more...