By Sajjad Shaukat
In its report on July 2, this year, the Amnesty
International has highlighted extrajudicial killings of the innocent persons at
the hands of Indian security forces in the Indian Held Kashmir.
The report points out, “Tens of thousands of security
forces are deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir…the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA) allows troops to shoot to kill suspected militants or arrest
them without a warrant…not a single member of the armed forces has been tried
in a civilian court for violating human rights in Kashmir…this lack of
accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses…India has martyred
one 100,000 people. More than 8,000 disappeared (while) in the custody of army
and state police.”
The report emphasized on India “to revoke a draconian law
AFSPA which provides immunity to security forces, also calling for an
independent and impartial inquiry into cases of abuse.
In its previous reports, Amnesty International has already
pointed out grave human rights violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir,
revealing, “The Muslim majority population in Kashmir Valley
suffers from repressive tactics of the security forces. Under the Jammu and Kashmir
Disturbed Areas Act, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety
Act, security forces personnel have extraordinary powers to shoot suspected
persons.”
Indian army, paramilitary troops are perpetrating heinous
crimes under the cover of these laws, especially AFSPA which was introduced in
1990—with full impunity to the troops, as no incident is either reported by the
media or prosecuted at any court of law in IOK or India.
However, the report of Amnesty International has a missing
part as well. It does no indicate to the mass graves phenomenon, making
headlines at international media since 2009. Many mass graves have been
unearthed in different parts of Indian controlled Kashmir,
fully filled with dumped bodies generally termed as missing persons.
In this respect, European Union passed a resolution on May
11, 2011 about human rights abuses committed by Indian forces in the Indian
held Kashmir. Particularly, in 2008, a rights
group reported unnamed graves in various regions of the Indian Occupied Kashmir
(IOK). In this context, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir
State Human Rights
Commission (SHRC) officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians
killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked graves. Notably,
foreign sources and human rights organizations including Association of Parents
of Disappeared Persons (APDP) have disclosed that unnamed graves include
thousands of persons, killed by the Indian forces in the fake encounters
including those who were tortured to death.
A recent report on human rights violations by Indian Army
and its paramilitary forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir revealed that since
1989, there have been deaths of 93,274 innocent Kashmiris, 6,969 custodial
killings, 117,345 arrests and 105,861 destructions of houses. Indian brutal
security forces have orphaned over 107, 351 children, widowed 22,728 women and
gang raped 9,920 women.
It is notable that by showing a sense of great optimism for
peace of the region, Pakistan
had agreed with Indian old demand to strengthen the Confidence Building
Measures (CBMs) in order to resolve the outstanding issues, especially main
dispute of Kashmir. In this regard, during the
visit of India’s External
Affairs Minister S M Krishna to Pakistan
on September 9, 2012, Islamabad and New Delhi also signed
agreements of liberalized visa regime and a memorandum of understanding on
cultural exchanges in addition to agreeing on new cross-Line of Control (LoC)
Confidence Building Measures related to trade and travel.
While, as part of delaying tactics for the settlement of
the Kashmir dispute, Indian rulers availed
various crises to suspend the process of Pak-India talks. For example, in 2002,
under the pretension of terrorist attack on the Indian parliament, New Delhi postponed the
process of dialogue. Again, in 2008, India suspended the ‘composite
dialogue’ under the pretext of Mumbai terror attacks.
And, as part of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan approach,
leader of the BJP and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi who is giving
impetus to Hindu chauvinism not only accelerated unprovoked firing at the LoC
in Kashmir including Working Boundary in Sialkot, but also cancelled the Secretary
level talks with Islamabad. Now, he is raising baseless issue like Mumbai
mayhem and terrorism as pre-conditions to advance the Pak-Indian dialogue. But,
he ignored the fact that on July 19, 2013, Indian ex-investigating officer
Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai in November 26, 2008 and
assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by the Indian
government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws. Besides, Modi regime hurriedly
decided to forcibly annex disputed territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir
(J&K), uncovering its intentions to wrap up the article 370 of the Indian
constitution which ensures a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Nevertheless, New Delhi is
determined to keep its hold on Kashmir. It
also wants to blackmail Pakistan
by stopping the flow of rivers’ water towards Pakistan
as major rivers of our country take origin from the occupied Kashmir.
In fact, the Amnesty International report which has
specified serious human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir, endorses
the stance of Kashmiri people and Pakistan’s official contention,
aimed at awakening the conscience of international community over serious human
rights abuses.
Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute and Indian government’s
propaganda of describing mass Kashmiri resistance as terrorist activity is an
attempt to nullify the indigenous nature of freedom struggle in J&K.
Pakistan being a legitimate party to the dispute, by virtue of
partition plan and UN resolutions, has right to support the cause of the right
of self-determination of Kashmiri people.
Undoubtedly, despite India’s harsh and repressive
measures like crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacre, targeted
killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking
the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake
encounter, war of liberation which intensified since 1989 continues by the
Kashmiri freedom fighters.
Nonetheless, Kashmiri movement for self- determination can
not be suppressed through extrajudicial killings.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is
author of the book: US
vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in
International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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