27 October: A Day for the Indians to Feel Mortified

By:    Aasef Chauhdry

The Maharaja of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian government were in corroboration, hence former, on 26 October, very cunningly signed the Instrument of Accession (IOA) acceding the 75% majority Muslim region to the Indian Union. India was already waiting thus accepted the accession, regarding it “provisional” until such time as the will of the people can be ascertained by a plebiscite, since Kashmir was recognized as a disputed territory, however that excuse was an eyewash to shed away the world pressure.
Both the parties, as mutually and discreetly decided, the Indian army entered the state on 27 October on the plea of repelling the ‘invaders’. On 27-28 October, the soldiers of Indian army committed heinous crimes and the charges of atrocities by them are on record. Pakistan disputed that the accession was illegal given by the Maharaja who acted under duress and that he had no right to sign an agreement with India when the standstill agreement with Pakistan was still in force. .

India is committing human rights violations on larger scale in Indian Occupied Kashmir since long. In Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed territory administered by India the human rights abuses is an ongoing issue. The abuses range from mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape, sexual abuse to political tyranny and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian central reserve police force, border security personnel and various militant groups have been accused and held accountable for committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. A Wiki Leaks issue had also revealed Indian systemic human rights violations. According to media reports, US diplomats have possessed the evidence of the apparent widespread use of torture by Indian security forces and Indian police. The judiciary remained overburdened, and court backlogs led to lengthy delays or the denial of justice. Authorities continued to infringe on citizens’ privacy rights. India’s illegitimate occupation of IOK for over six decades has been a perpetual source of gross human rights violation and atrocities against innocent people of IOK.  India is continuously disregarding UN resolutions for conducting plebiscite for the people of Kashmir.

To suppress the legitimate voices of IOK’s populace, India has positioned a large number of Security Forces in the valley.  Indian security forces are the major perpetrators of human rights violation in the state but no action is ever taken against the culprits in contravention to international law. The barbaric Security forces since 1989 have killed 100,000 innocent Kashmiris, in excess of 150,000 civilians have been arrested on fake allegations, 25,000 women have been made widows, over 110,000 children have been made orphans and over 10,000 women have been gang raped/molested.  Such a large scale of human rights violations amply highlighted by international community, have not shattered the Hindu centric mind set of Indian Governments.  These atrocities are escalating in the era of RSS driven, anti Muslim Hardliner BJP.

The global human rights group Amnesty International has slammed India for lack of accountability amid 25 years of human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir in its report titled: “Denied: Failures in accountability for human rights violations by security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir”. The Amnesty International’s report documented the kind of obstacles there are in the way of accountability for human rights offenders. Other than highlighting several cases where Indian army personnel were not brought to justice for human rights offenses, the Amnesty report also puts a special focus on Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA), which grants immunity to armed forces personnel from prosecution.

“Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses,” Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Operations at Amnesty International said.

Indian authorities have given a free hand to its security forces under AFSPA to carry out worst kinds of human rights violations in IOK to suppress the on-going freedom movement. Recently, besides search and cordon operations, a trend of target killing has surfaced in which several pro-movement activists have been gunned down just within a span of four weeks.

In July 2011, British parliamentarian George Galloway, the veteran campaigner on Kashmir, while addressing a seminar at the UN in Geneva had said that Kashmiris simply want plebiscite which was promised to them by the UN and former prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. He pointed out to the world that due to a crime committed by the British empire the sufferings of the Kashmiris were greater than the Palestinians and some 80,000 had died in more than 20 years of freedom struggle, uncountable numbers had been imprisoned, exiled, wounded and maimed, while the rape was used as a tool of occupation. Mr. Galloway stated in unambiguous words that Kashmir was never the part of India.

The Indians have denied the Kashmiris, their very basic right of plebiscite, instead have browbeaten and subjugated them at gunpoint. Every rise has a fall, may it be of power and every dog has a day and so do India. It’s almost 68 years that the Indians are greedily clinging to the burning valley, not realizing that whatever gets aged it proportionally gets weaker. The writing is on the wall and soon the tyrants will not only have to vacate the valley but will be bowing to the Will of Kashmiris.