Javed's Blog: Kashmir Struggle News (weekly) Update (JR107)

THIS PAGE WILL UPDATE , ON A WEEKLY BASIS NEW RELATED TO THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM BY THE KASHMIRI PEOPLE.

Kashmir Update 43: Week Sep., 30, 2019 to Oct.,6, 2019

1. CPA: Sep., 29, 2019: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) has decided to probe the ongoing siege in the Indian occupied Kashmir and dissolution of its legislature. The announcement was made by President of the General Assembly of the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, Rebeca AlitwalaKadaga, in Ugandan Capital Kampala on September 28. The association asked Pakistan to submit a written application for an investigation in this matter. Delegates of the member states joined Pakistan delegation, yelling a loud “No” as an Indian delegate tried to call the issue an internal matter of India. https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/511607-Commonwealth-Parliamentary-Association-probe-siege-occupied-Kashmir

2. New York Protest: Sep., 30, 2019: On Friday, the day Modi addressed the UNGA, crowds of protesters rallied outside the world body. The rally was organised by a coalition of groups "seeking an end to the Indian occupation", according to one of the organisers, who estimated that at least 10,000 people had participated. Members of various faith-based and ethnic groups were among them. Referring to the reports of mass arrests and alleged torture since then, Arjun Sethi, an American Sikh human rights lawyer and law professor in Washington, DC, said that "a lot of the atrocities that we're seeing happening in Kashmir today also took place in Punjab throughout the 1980s and 1990s.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/york-thousands-rally-human-rights-kashmir-190928053510778.html

3. LoC : Sep., 30,2019: A woman and a teenage boy were killed after being hit by Indian shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday Indian troops engaged in "unprovoked firing" along the LoC in Nakyal and Rakhchikri sectors, targeting civilian population. https://www.dawn.com/news/1508031/2-dead-3-injured-after-unprovoked-firing-by-indian-troops-along-loc

4. Malaysia: Sep., 30, 2019: Malaysia joined Turkey and China in raising the Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with its Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accusing India of "invading and occupying the country" of Jammu and Kashmir.In his address to the 74th UNGA, Mohamad said: "Now, despite the UN resolution on Jammu and Kashmir, the country has been invaded and occupied." https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/malaysian-pm-says-india-invaded-occupied-kashmir-at-unga/articleshow/71362388.cms

5. Arizona University: Sep., 30, 2019: A film screening of the documentary, “Stand with Kashmir” and a panel discussion of the escalating problems for Kashmir was held at Arizona State University on Sept. 19. “I landed in San Francisco on the 29^th of July and was at the same place till the 4^th of August and that was the last time I had talked to my family who are in Jammu and Kashmir, I also have to borrow money from 10-15 of my friends to pay my fees of University,” the student said. https://nevalleynews.org/11694/news/kashmir-cut-off-fear-and-unrest-removal-of-article-370/

6. Yassin Bhat: Oct., 1, 2019: It was near midnight when the soldiers came for Yassin Bhat. The 25-year-old pulled on some clothes and stepped into the darkness. Nearby, on the main road, he saw dozens of Indian army soldiers, Bhat said. One asked him what he thought about India’s move the day before to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy. Terrified, Bhat replied that it was a good step. Then, he said, the abuse began. Several soldiers held him down while others used thick cables to whip his back and legs. The soldiers then placed on his chest and genitals electrical wires connected to a battery. He remembers being immobilized as the current surged through his body. “I thought it would be my last night,” he said in a recent interview describing the events of Aug. 6. Bhat was one of 19 people interviewed by The Washington Post across 13 villages in southern Kashmir who alleged abuses by the armed forces in the days after India launched a crackdown in the disputed region. Bhat and two other men alleging abuse remain afraid of retribution but spoke on the record because they wanted their accounts to be chronicled. The allegations included beatings with rods, sticks and cables, electric shocks and being hung upside down for prolonged periods. In three cases, including Bhat’s, The Post reviewed photos and hospital records detailing the injuries. In six cases, The Post saw either photographs of injuries or hospital records. For many of the cases, The Post also spoke with family members and other witnesses who saw the victims immediately after the alleged abuse An extensive report by Kashmiri human rights groups released in May profiled more than 400 victims who alleged torture between 1990 and 2018. Their stories included beatings, electric shocks and burn injuries. Indian security forces often surveil and detain relatives of militants, but several of the young men who alleged abuse, like Bhat, said that they have no such links in their families. Bhat said there were at least 10 other men with him on the night of Aug. 6 in Parigam, a small village in the district of Pulwama In interviews, three other men in Parigam said they too were beaten and subjected to electric shocks in the same incident. Bhat said that the beatings went on for nearly two hours. At the end, he said, he and four other men who were naked were asked to lie on top of one another. Afterward, he fainted, he said. The next morning, he woke up in debilitating pain at a neighbor’s house, where he was carried by residents after the soldiers left, the neighbor confirmed. Pink and purple bruises stripe his back and thighs in photos taken that day. Hospital documents report a broken finger, multiple bruises on his body and swelling in his lower spine. Lying next to him at his neighbor’s house was his friend Muzaffar Nabi, 24, a carpenter by profession. Nabi told The Post that soldiers beat him with sticks, rods and cables but did not take off his clothes. He said he received electric shocks in three places — on his thigh, chest and palms. He asked the soldiers what he had done but received no answer. Instead, they demanded the names of people who throw stones at security forces during protests, Nabi recalled, but he told them he did not know.Bhat and Nabi said they were not charged with a crime. Nabi shared a photo taken the day after the incident, which showed his lower legs covered with black bruises. Hospital records from Aug. 7 indicate he had abrasions on both legs and episodes of vomiting and loss of consciousness. Nabi said he was bedridden for a week. Afterward, he required help to walk and use a toilet. “If suicide was allowed in Islam, I would have done it,” said Nabi. Reyaz Ahmed Mir, a laborer from Gagren village in the Shopian district, said he was summoned to an army camp late last month. Mir said his brother was killed by security forces in 2018 after they accused him of shielding a militant in his home. On Aug. 26, soldiers interrogated Mir, asking him who had attended his brother’s funeral. When he said he did not know, Mir said, the soldiers began to beat him with batons and force water down his throat. He said they applied an electrical current to his genitals and right toe. Next, they hung him upside down from a T-shaped pole. As one soldier poured water on his face, he vomited his lunch. “The agony was unbearable,” said Mir, 45. “I was shouting and crying.” When he was released, his family rushed him to the local district hospital, whose records noted multiple bruises on his body and episodes of vomiting. It referred him to a hospital in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar the same day. Bhat, who completed a degree in mechanical engineering last year, has been living in fear since the alleged assault. His injuries have healed and the deep scars from bruising across his back, buttocks and legs have faded. But he has not slept a single night at home because he is afraid the soldiers might come for him again https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-night-the-soldiers-came-allegations-of-abuse-surface-in-kashmir/2019/09/28/90969472-d40d-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

7. LoC fatalities: Oct., 2, 2019: India and Pakistan have again traded fire along their highly militarized frontier in the disputed Kashmir region killing a woman and a boy in a border village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Raja Tariq, a local administrator in Nakyal sector, says Indian mortars “fired unprovoked” Sunday and hit a home in Drary village, killing 60-year-old widow Salamat Bibi and wounding a boy who later died in a hospital. Another woman was also wounded. https://mynorthwest.com/1534521/pakistan-says-indian-mortars-kill-woman-boy-in-kashmir/

8. Local bodies: Oct., 2, 2019: The Jammu & Kashmir administration has announced polls to 316 Block Development Councils (BDC) in the State, as the next step to devolution of power. . The first was the unlocking of ₹2,700 crore worth of funds for Panchayats, awarded to the State under the 14th Finance Commission that could not be disbursed earlier as there had been no local body polls in the State since 2010. The second spin-off is related more to what the government wishes to accomplish in J&K, namely real devolution, empowering local bodies and bringing the administration to the grassroots. The hope is that with money being available to elected Panchayat leaders, grassroots level development will see a fillip. The government also hopes that these Panchayat leaders could form a level of leadership that could provide a political alternative to the current political parties and their leaders — leaders who, maintain government sources, have a vested interest in the perpetuation of a conflict https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/analysis-govt-views-grassroots-development-in-kashmir-as-biggest-hope-for-peace/article29557701.ece

9. Minors detained: Oct., 2, 2019: Indian authorities in occupied Kashmir have detained 144 minors, including a nine-year-old, since the government removed the region's special status in August, a police list seen by AFP showed on Tuesday. Sixty of the minors are under 15, according to the document submitted to a committee appointed by India's Supreme Court to look into allegations of illegal detentions. Reasons given by the police for detaining the minors include stone pelting, rioting and causing damage to public and private property, the committee said in its report. https://www.dawn.com/news/1508397/9-year-old-among-144-minors-detained-in-occupied-kashmir

10. Youth martyred: Oct., 2, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Ganderbal district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Ganderbal town. The operation which was jointly launched by the Indian Army and paramilitary forces on Friday continued till last reports came in. Seven youth including three in Naranag area of Ganderbal district were killed by the troops on Saturday. Meanwhile, according to the data compiled by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, the troops martyred 16 Kashmiris including a woman and two young boys during the last month of September. Of those martyred six youth were killed in fake encounters. The killings rendered one woman widowed and two children orphaned. During the period, 281 people were injured due to the firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells on peaceful protesters by Indian troops and police personnel. As many as 157 people including Hurriyat activists and youth were arrested. Twenty five residential houses were destroyed during siege and search operations during the month.https://kmsnews.org/news/2019/10/01/indian-troops-matyr-one-more-youth-in-iok/

11. NY Times Editorial: Oct., 4, 2019: Mr. Modi claims his clampdown would resolve that conflict and bring normality and development to Kashmir. But it seems more likely that it will only heighten tensions and make life more miserable for Kashmiris. He could avoid disaster by lifting the siege, relaxing movement across the border between zones of the Kashmiri region that are held by India and Pakistan, releasing political prisoners and allowing independent investigators to look into alleged human rights abuses. Perhaps India’s Supreme Court, responding to various legal petitions, could even order him to reinstitute autonomy. The Security Council should make clear that it opposes Mr. Modi’s brutal tightening of India’s control on Kashmir. While Mr. Modi may think he can control this volatile conflict on his own, he almost certainly cannot. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/opinion/editorials/kashmir-india-pakistan-un.html

12. Courts in limbo: Oct., 4, 2019: Thousands of people have been detained in Indian-administered Kashmir following a government move to strip the region of its special status. Worried family members have been flocking to the courts - but to little avail, reports BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare . Without a lawyer, Mr Lone is unsure of how to proceed - he has already submitted a habeas corpus petition to quash the charges against Shabbir. Habeas Corpus, which translates from Latin to "you may have the body" is a writ that traditionally requires a person detained by authorities to be brought to a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined. More than 250 petitions have been filed since 5 August, but none are being heard as the court has assigned only two judges to hear them. Apart from a lack of lawyers, the court is down to nine judges from the usual 17. "I don't know what else to do," said a despondent Mr Lone, adding that he is now taking care of Shabbir's family - his wife and two young children - and their 80-year-old mother. Tariq (name changed) who was also at the Srinagar court, said he was looking for a lawyer to represent his father-in-law who was arrested on 7 August. He said the 63-year-old was taken away by security forces close to midnight and spent several days at the local police station before being moved to Srinagar Central Jail. The dismal state of affairs in the Srinagar high court was raised in the Supreme Court, and even prompted chief justice Ranjan Gogoi to announce that he would visit Srinagar to see for himself if the situation was as bad as reported. He has not announced a date to do so as yet. But what it means is thousands of Kashmiris remain detained in prisons around the country. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49848899

13. US Senate: Oct., 5, 2019: In what could become the first step towards legislative action by American lawmakers against India on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has added an appeal to end what it calls a “humanitarian crisis” in Kashmir in its report ahead of the annual Foreign Appropriations Act for 2020.The amendment was proposed by Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Delhi this week as a part of a congressional delegation that discussed the Kashmir situation as well as India-U.S. bilateral relations, trade ties and defence purchases with key officials. According to the report, which was submitted to the Senate by Lindsey Graham, senior Senator and key Republican leader known for his close ties to President Donald Trump, the committee on Appropriations “notes with concern the current humanitarian crisis in Kashmir and calls on the Government of India to: fully restore telecommunications and Internet services; lift its lockdown and curfew; and release individuals detained pursuant to the Government's revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution.” What makes the report as well as the tough language on Kashmir more startling is that the document was submitted on September 26, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was still in the US, and came just a few days after his joint address at the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston with Mr. Trump, as well as their bilateral meeting in New York. “This amendment, which was accepted unanimously by the bipartisan committee, is a strong expression of concern by the Senate about the situation in Kashmir and sends the signal that we are closely monitoring the human rights situation there, and would like to see the Government of India take those concerns seriously,” Mr. Van Hollen told The Hindu here, adding that he had “hoped to share his concerns privately” with Prime Minister Modi, but had not been able to meet him.. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-a-first-us-lawmakers-take-a-step-against-india-on-kashmir/article29598290.ece?homepage=true

14. Normalcy: Oct., 5, 2019: And for the hundreds and thousands of those of us who are made to sit caged in the Kashmir Valley, the rulers continue to sing that all's okay lullaby This, when everyone is getting caged for those caged. In 2018, Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) released a report titled - Terrorized: Impact of Violence on the Children of Jammu and Kashmir. This report is the assessment of the violence against children in Jammu and Kashmir in the last fifteen years (2003 to 2017).It also focuses on the grim reality that there are nil or near- nil legal and normative processes or practices protecting children's rights in Jammu and Kashmir, as minors have been booked under the repressive Public Safety Act (PSA). To quote from this report - "Children in Jammu and Kashmir are living in the most militarized zone of the world, with the presence of 7, 00,000 troopers, which exposes them to the risk of all grave six violations against children as laid out in United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child…The period from 2003 to 2017, witnessed not less than 318 killings of children (in the age group of 1 to 17) in various incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. The killing of 318 children constitutes 6.95% of the civilian killings in last fifteen years, as 4571 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir in the same period (2003 - 2017). In the same period, i.e. from 2003 to 2017, at least 16,436 killings were recorded in Jammu and Kashmir, and the majority of them included alleged militants numbering at least 8537 killings. The numbers indicate that in the last fifteen years Jammu and Kashmir in an average year has witnessed at least 1,095 killings, which belies the government's claims of 'return to normalcy'…The pattern of killings of children in the fifteen-year period suggests that children were direct targets of state violence, as part of its stated offensive to curb uprising and militancy. At least 144 children were killed by Indian armed forces and state police in Jammu and Kashmir, which alone accounts for nearly half, i.e. 44.02 percent, of the total children killed. Most of the children, at least 110 of them, killed in state violence were shot dead in different incidents of violence, and not less than 8 children died due to injuries inflicted from pellet shot-guns fired by government forces. Twenty-seven children died to due drowning either caused due to the negligence of armed forces in Wular lake tragedy or being chased by government forces during a protest, where victims find no way of escape from the armed forces and forced to jump into water bodies, resulting in their death." In 2018, I heard the Head of the Journalism Department of the Islamic University of Science and Technology ( IUST, - situated on the outskirts of Srinagar, in Awantipora)), Dr Ruheela Hassan, speak at a seminar held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (Centre for Media Studies), focusing on the difficulties faced by the journalists in the Valley - To quote her from the report - " The struggle of media in Kashmir throughout its evolution is witness that the media in Kashmir has never enjoyed real freedom. Be it the Dogra Rule in 1924, nationalist government (1947-1953), Sheikh Abdullah (1948 - 1953), Ghulam Mohamad Bakshi (1953-1963), Ghulam Mohamad Sadiq (1964-1971), National Conference (1975-1982/1986-1990), media in Kashmir has never breathed in free air. At one time, the state was resistant to granting permission and when the permission was granted their freedom was curbed, strict laws and regulation like Jammu and Kashmir Press and Publication Act of 1932 were introduced and implemented to ban publications, seize printing presses, or demand heavy securities from the journalists…After India gained independence, it guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to all its citizens including the citizens of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, but nothing changed for the press. Older laws were amended and new laws were implemented to muzzle the press. …The inordinate circumstances in Kashmir from 1990s further worsened the scenario. Not only the freedom of expression was endangered, but there were now increased threats to the life of journalists. Their freedom of movement and right to assess information was also snatched. Several journalists lost their lives and many were put behind bars. Journalists also fought several battles with the state... Dr Ruheela Hassan had detailed, "a survey has revealed that 77% of the valley journalists said that they have faced restrictions of one form or other while performing their professional duties. 21 % of the valley journalists have been booked or summoned by the stake or national authorities (mostly booked under draconian laws like OSA, PSA, security of the state). 20 journalists killed.. Several kidnapped and illegally detained .More than 25 injured. 80% of valley journalists believe that no freedom of expression is enjoyed by them as guaranteed." http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=95173

15. US Senate: Oct., 6, 2019: a US senate panel has included language in its report to a key annual legislation which allocates federal funds for furthering American foreign policy aims that specifically refers to a “humanitarian crisis” in Jammu and Kashmir and calls on India to take mitigating steps. On September 26, Republican senator Lindsey Graham submitted the “Department Of State, Foreign Operations, And Related Programs Appropriations Bill, 2020” to the Senate. This was submitted along with the report of the senate appropriations sub-committee on state and foreign operations. the report included language which, for the first time, referred to the continuing security restrictions in Kashmir. The restrictions were put in place ahead of the scrapping of Article 370 in the Indian parliament on August 5. The text is included in ‘title seven’ of the report. Under the section for India, the committee first recommends $120 million as assistance in 2020, and urged “enhanced engagement”, especially in Indo-Pacific region. In a sub-section titled “Humanitarian Crisis in Kashmir”, the report proposes that India should take three steps to mitigate the situation in the state. The proposal for inserting the text was made by Democrat senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, and was unanimously supported by other members. It was reflected by statements from congressional panel members and individual lawmakers calling for India to protect human rights in Kashmir, which were also balanced by referring to Pakistan to exercise restraint. The initial inclination was to give space to India to improve the situation in Kashmir, but that tolerance may be running out. The “growing concern” is demonstrated by the House sub-committee on Asia holding a hearing on Asia, which will focus on Kashmir, on October 22. The panel will hear from US state department officials, but also from human rights activists. The house sub-committee chair, Brad Sherman had announced that the “hearing will focus on the Kashmir Valley, where many political activists have been arrested and daily life, the internet, and telephone communications have been interrupted”. He also stated that the hearing would “review the humanitarian situation in Kashmir and whether Kashmiris have adequate supplies of food, medicine, and other essentials”. Sherman noted in the press release that he had heard “stories of difficulties” from “Americans from Kashmiri Valley” and their “fears” for their loved ones. The hearing will also focus on the National Register of Citizens issue in Assam and the condition of Muslims, he added. Even as it considered changes to Article 370 as an “internal matter” of India, US administration has been steadily raising the level of its concern over Kashmir’s internal situation and the need for a “normalised political environment” in the state. . https://thewire.in/diplomacy/us-senate-panel-inserts-text-on-humanitarian-crisis-in-kashmir-in-key-legislation

16. Parvez: Oct., 6, 2019: Muhammad Ayoub Pala, 60, a frail man with a white flowing beard, is unsure whether his cancer-stricken son arrested in August is dead or alive. Parvez Ahmad Pala, 33, from Matibug village in Indian-administered Kashmir's Kulgam district, was picked up by the Indian security forces in a midnight raid on August 6. "At night, the forces entered our house and took him away. I ran after him but they kicked me and put him in a vehicle," his father recounted the night to Al Jazeera. Parvez was booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), a law that allows detention for up to two years without bail. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/kashmir-siege-man-cancer-jailed-family-fears-life-191004171807819.html

17. Warren: Oct., 6, 2019: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on October 5 voiced concerns over the restrictions and communication blockade in Kashmir, urging India to respect the rights of the people of Kashmir. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/democratic-presidential-candidate-elizabeth-warren-urges-india-to-respect-rights-of-people-of-kashmir/article29606299.ece?homepage=true

18.

19.

20. Cost of Kashmir struggle

HR Violations

(From Jan 1989 till Sep 30,2019)
Total Killings *	95,454
Custodial Killings	7,134
Civilian arrested	158,205
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed	109,442
Women Widowed	22,910
Children Orphaned	107,780
Women gang-raped / Molested	11,144

From July 8, 2016)

(Sep 2019)
Total Killings *	16
Custodial Killings	6
Tortured/Injured	281
Civilian arrested	157
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed	25
Women Widowed	1
Children Orphaned	2
Women gang-raped / Molested	4

From July 8, 2016)

Casualties during ongoing uprising

(From July 8, 2016)
Total Killings *	1031
Custodial Killings	68
Tortured/Injured	27739
Arrested	11858
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed	3306
Women Widowed	91
Children Orphaned	205
Women gang-raped / Molested	933

Inured by pellets	10298
Youth lost total eye-sight	147
Youth lost one eye sight	215
Schools arsoned	56
People detained under PSA	951
Compiled by: Kashmir Media

Source: https://kmsnews.org/news/

Kindly respond with comments or news that you wish included in next weeks update at: jarad_us@yahoo.com

Kashmir Update 42: Week Sep., 23, 2019 to Sep.,29, 2019

1. Modi in Houston: Sep., 23, 2019: Donald Trump joined a rally in Texas to welcome Indian Prime Minister Modi, who is visiting the US a rare mass showing for a foreign leader on the American soil despite trade tensions between the two countries. Nearly 50,000 Indian Americans and Non-Resident Indians gathered at Houston city's NRG Stadium on Sunday for the "Howdy, Modi!" rally hosted by Hindu nationalist Modi's supporters in the US. Outside the stadium, thousands of people protested against Modi over the alleged human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir and other places targeting India's minorities, including Muslims, who make up about 170 million of India's 1.3 billion population. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/modi-trump-attend-indian-pm-rally-houston-190922150304471.html #FreeKashmir

2. Arrested youth: Sep., 23, 2019: Officials say about 250 of 4,000 arrested since August 5 was moved to various Indian jails outside the disputed region. At least 4,000 people, mostly young men, have been arrested since, according to police officials and records reviewed by the Associated Press news agency. "They entered his room forcibly and dragged him out of his bed," she said. Hameeda spent the next 10 days trying to find her son in various jails in Kashmir. She even travelled to far northern districts bordering Pakistan but found no information about her son's whereabouts. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/hugged-cried-families-struggle-meet-jailed-kashmiris-190921134717708.html

3. Samir Ahmed: Sep., 24, 2019: On 6 August, a graphic designer for the Rising Kashmir newspaper, Samir Ahmad, (in his early 20s) had remonstrated with a CRPF man near his home in the Manderbag area of Srinagar, asking him to allow an old man to pass. Later the same day, when Samir opened the door to his house, CRPF fired at him with a pellet gun, unprovoked. He got 172 pellets in his arm and face near the eyes, but his eyesight is safe. It is clear that the pellet guns are deliberately aimed at the face and eyes, and unarmed, peaceful civilians standing at their own front doors can be targets. (South Asian Wire). news@southasianwire.com #Samir #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

4. Children detained : Sep.,24,2019: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-49772269/the-detained-children-of-kashmir video of children being detained by Indian Occupation Forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2063006/3-helpless-kashmiri-families-fear-children-occupied-valley-report/

5. Protest against Modi: Sep., 24, 2019: Around 50 buses have been used to transport up to 40,000 people to the protest site, who are taking part in the demonstration. Anti-Modi and anti-India banners have been put up around the venue. Thousands of Pakistanis, Sikhs and members of human rights organisations on Sunday staged a protest rally in Houston, Texas to condemn the Modi-led government’s human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) https://tribune.com.pk/story/2062635/1-modi-terrorist-pakistanis-sikhs-stage-counter-modi-rally-houston/

6. Sanders on Kashmir Sep., 24, 2019: “However, there will be a deafening silence” on the “human rights crisis” in Kashmir, he added. Addressing the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Houston on September 21, Mr. Sanders said that he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Kashmir and asked the U.S. government to “speak out boldly” in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution to resolve the issue. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/deafening-silence-on-kashmir-writes-bernie-sanders-in-houston-chronicle-article/article29484851.ece #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

7. Saffron Curtain: Sep., 24, 2019: Reminiscent of the infamous “iron curtain,” nearly eight million Kashmiri men, women and children remain prisoners in their homes, in their very own land – hidden behind what can at best be described as a “Saffron Curtain.” The fact is that the only terrorists in IOJ&K are the Indian occupation troops, who have carried out the world’s worst spree of state-sponsored terrorism against a helpless population for more than 70 years, but particularly since 1989. The International community must step-in and call on India to lift the on-going blockade of IOJ&K; cease the gross violations of human rights immediately; end impunity; hold accountable those responsible for atrocities; allow independent observers to the region; and uphold the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris. https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/time-to-stand-up-for-jammu-and-kashmir-before-it-s-too-late-30036

8. Muslim Day March: Sep., 24, 2019: The 35th annual Muslim Day Parade marched down New York's Madison Avenue on Sunday afternoon, with a strong focus on Kashmir and Muslim unity. "This year we're focusing on Kashmir because that is a great concern," Fayyaz said. "Unfortunately, the international community for the most part is quiet and are just appeasing the Indian government." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/kashmir-focus-muslim-day-parade-york-190923052446744.html

9. Global Standout for Peace in South Asia. : Sep. 25. 2019: “Resist to exist” proclaimed a placard on the steps of MIT. The placard featured the picture of a woman in a red pheran, the long woolen tunic traditionally worn by Kashmiris from the Himalayan region in India’s north-west tip. The event at MIT was part of a series of peaceful protests this past weekend in solidarity with the Kashmiri people, coordinated by a small coalition called the Global Standout for Peace in South Asia. the standouts took place in the San Francisco Bay area, Kolkata (India), Gotenburg (Sweden), Islamabad (Pakistan), and Kathmandu (Nepal), Supporting organizations in Boston included Massachusetts Peace Action, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, MIT Students Against War, Stand With Kashmir, Coalition for Democratic India, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, and Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine, The event ended with a drum sounding 50 beats, one for each day since the communication lockdown. https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20190924/stand-with-kashmir-peace-rally-held-at-mit

10. Yawar Ahmad Butt: Sep., 25, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, a teenage boy lost his life after he was thrashed, humiliated and subjected to ruthless torture by Indian troops at an Army camp in Pulwama district.The 15-year-old boy, Yawar Ahmed Butt, a resident of Chandgam, Pulwama was shifted to Srinagar's SMHS hospital in an injured condition where he succumbed .His familymembers said that the boy was detained and beaten by the troops at the Army camp.He was asked to report to the camp next day. https://www.urdupoint.com/en/kashmir/troops-torture-claims-teenagers-life-in-iok-719222.html

11. Indian Punjab protests: Sep., 25, 2019: Punjab is the only such state in India where local people are on the streets protesting against the ongoing military lockdown in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Common people, farmers, workers, laborers and intellectuals are participating in protests, dharnas, processions and seminars. Many well-known organizations in Punjab have been active in protest against the repeal of Article 370. Prominent among these are: Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Lok Morcha Punjab, Reasonable Society, Punjab Student Union, Bharatiya Kisan Union, Factory Mazdoor Union, Textile Hosiery Workers Union, Pendu Mazdoor Union, Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Patriot Memorable Hall Committee, Punjab Employees Union and Desh Kisan Morcha.. On 15 September in Chandigarh, along with 15 other farmer organizations, these organizations staged a massive protest against the repeal of Section 370. The same day other cities like Bathinda, Mansa, Mukatsar, Faridkot, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Barnala, Patiala, Nabha and Nawanshahar also saw similar protests. When a delegation of some organizations tried to go to Kashmir, they were stopped at Pathankot before Jammu. Purushottam Lal of one such organization, ‘Pind Bachao’, said that he was stopped a little ahead of Pathankot by the Indian forces. Amolak Singh, convenor of Lok Morcha Punjab and member of Patriot Memorabilia Hall Committee, says, “Kashmir has been forcibly taken over by the government.” Sushil Kumar of Punjab Student Union says, “Now in the eyes of the government every person is a traitor who has been logically opposing the excesses happening on Kashmiris.”Legendary playwright late Gursharan Singh’s daughter Nav Kaur says, “It is deeply ironic that if you protest against the situation in Kashmir, it is seen as some sort of crime.” Farmer leader Gurchetan Singh said: “Don’t see the central government’s action limited to Kashmir only. I am afraid that tomorrow even Punjab can be divided into Majha, Malwa, Doaba areas and puppet chief ministers deployed there.” Farmers Struggle Committee leader Kanwaljit Singh Pannu says, “Punjab farmers view abrogation of Article 370 and 35A as a permission to outsiders to occupy as much land of Kashmir as possible. We, as farmers stand with our brothers in Kashmir over this issue.” There are not only demonstrations on the streets in Punjab but also seminars and seminars are being held in the Indian state. Almost all progressive intellectuals are opposed to abrogating 370 and writing fiercely against it. https://kmsnews.org/news/2019/09/25/punjab-at-forefront-in-india-against-delhis-kashmir-policy/

12. Indians protest Modis Houston visit: Sep., 26, 2019: A coalition of Indian-Americans protested against Modi’s visit to Houston on Sunday. The coalition spoke against human rights violations happening in the US and in India. The coalition comprises groups of Indian-Americans across religions, including the Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), the Indian American Muslim Council and the Organization for Minorities of India. WATCH VIDEO https://thewire.in/video/watch-modis-houston-visit-indian-american-coalition-protests-against-modi-trump #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

13. Turkish support: Sep., 26, 2019: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated his country’s resolve to defend the rights of Muslims living in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir including freedom of speech and movement. “Responsibility falls on all [foreign] state institutions,” said the Turkish president, and urged more active steps on regional and international levels over the issue https://tribune.com.pk/story/2065427/3-turkey-committed-defend-rights-muslims-iok-erdogan/

14. RSS organized Houston event: Sep., 26, 2019: “‘Howdy, Modi’ is a blatant celebration of the destruction of democracy and a complete disregard for human rights,” said Sana Qutubuddin, an organizer with the Alliance for Justice and Accountability, a coalition of progressive South Asian American groups. Behind the event was Texas India Forum, which has direct links to members of U.S.-based Hindu nationalist groups affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a fascist paramilitary organization that espouses the notion that India should be a Hindu state and its minorities second-class citizens. https://theintercept.com/2019/09/25/howdy-modi-trump-hindu-nationalism/

15. OIC: Sep., 26, 2019: The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) on Wednesday asked India to reverse its decision of revoking the special status of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and allow “full and free access” to international bodies, including OIC and UN, to independently investigate reports of “gross and systematic human rights violations taking place there.” The statement by the 57-member bloc of Muslim countries was issued following a meeting of foreign ministers of OIC Contact Group on Kashmir held on the sidelines of 74th session of UN General Assembly in New York. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2065200/1-diplomatic-triumph-oic-urges-india-restore-kashmirs-special-status/

16. International aspects: Sep., 26, 2019: It is perhaps time, then, to recognise that the Kashmir dispute, which was once ‘international’ only in the sense that it had a United Nations resolution to its name and a few countries (especially the U.S.), and their leaders, had, from time to time, offered comments on it, is now international in a localised sort of way. It has entered local politics at least in two countries—the United Kingdom and the United States. there is reason to start to imagine that certain aspects of Indian politics, indeed certain disputes, may have started to acquire a global footprint, with all the allied repercussions that such a spread implies. https://www.fortuneindia.com/polemicist/the-kashmir-issue-has-entered-global-local-politics/103589

17. Women: Sep., 26, 2019: team of 5 women visited Kashmir from September 17th-21st 2019. We wanted to see with our own eyes how this 43 day lockdown had affected the people, particularly women and children. The team consisted of Annie Raja, Kawaljit Kaur, Pankhuri Zaheer from National Federation Indian Women, Poonam Kaushik from Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan and Syeda Hameed from Muslim Women’s Forum. This Report is our chashmdeed gawahi (eye witness account) of ordinary people who have lived for 43 days under an iron siege.Shops closed, hotels closed, schools, colleges, institutes and universities closed, streets deserted was the first visual impact as we drove out from the airport. To us it seemed a punitive mahaul that blocked breathing freely. The picture of Kashmir that rises before our eyes is not the populist image; shikara, houseboat, lotus, Dal Lake. It is that of women, a Zubeida, a Shamima, a Khurshida standing at the door of their homes, waiting. Waiting and waiting for their 14, 15, 17, 19 year old sons.Across all villages of the four districts, peoples’ experiences were the same. They all spoke of lights, which had to be turned off around 8PM after Maghreb prayers. In Bandipora, we saw a young girl who made the mistake of keeping a lamp lit to read for her exam on the chance that her school may open soon. Army men angered by this breach of ‘curfew’, jumped the wall to barge in. Father and son, the only males in the house were taken away for questioning. ‘What questions?’, no one dared ask. The two have been detained since then. ‘We insist that men should go indoors after 6 PM. Man or boy seen after dusk is a huge risk. If absolutely necessary, we women go outside’. These words were spoken by Zarina from a village near Bandipora district headquarters. ‘In a reflex action, my four year old places a finger on her lips when she hears a dog bark after dusk. Barking dogs mean an imminent visit by army. I can’t switch on the phone for light so I can take my little girl to the toilet. Light shows from far and if that happens our men pay with their lives’. The living are inadvertently tortured by the dead. ‘People die without warning or mourning. How will I inform my sisters about their mother’s death?’ Ghulam Ahmed’s voice was choked. ‘They are in Traal, in Pattan. I had to perform her soyem without her children’. The story was the same wherever we went. People had no means of reaching out to loved ones. 43 days were like the silence of death. Public transportation was zero. People who had private cars took them out only for essential chores. Women stood on roadsides, flagging cars and bikes for rides. People stopped and helped out; helplessness of both sides was their unspoken bond. ‘I was on my bike going towards Awantipora. A woman flagged me. My bike lurched on a speed breaker. She was thrown off. I took her to the nearby hospital. She went in a coma. I am a poor man how could I pay for her treatment? How and who could I inform?’ These daily events were recounted wherever we went. At a Lalla Ded Women’s Hospital in Srinagar several young women doctors expressed their absolute frustration at the hurdles that had been placed in their way since the abrogation of Article 370. ‘There are cases where women cannot come in time for deliveries. There are very few ambulances, the few that are running are stopped at pickets on the way. The result? There are several cases of overdue deliveries that produce babies with birth deformities. It is a life long affliction, living death for parents”. Conversely, we were told that several women are delivering babies prematurely due to the stress and khauf (fear) in the present condition. “It feels like the government is strangling us and then sadistically asking us to speak at the same time,’ a young woman doctor said as she clutched her throat to show how she felt. A senior doctor from Bandipora Hospital told us that people come from Kulgam, Kupwara, and other districts. Mental disorders, heart attacks, today there are more cases than he could ever recall. For emergencies junior doctors desperately look for seniors; there is no way of reaching them on phone. If they are out of the premises, they run on the streets shouting, asking, searching in sheer desperation. One orthopaedic doctor from SKIMS was stopped at the army imposed blockade while he was going for duty. He was held for 7 days. Safia in Shopian had cancer surgery. ‘I desperately need a check up in case it has recurred. Baji, I can’t reach my doctor. The only way is to go to the city, but how do I get there? And if I do, will he be there?’ Ayushman Bharat, an internet based scheme, cannot be availed by doctors and patients. Women in villages stood before us with vacant eyes. ‘How do we know where they are? Our boys who were taken away, snatched away from our homes. Our men go to the police station, they are asked to go to the headquarters. They beg rides from travellers and some manage to get there. On the board are names of ‘stone pelters’ who have been lodged in different jails, Agra, Jodhpur, Ambedkar, Jhajjar.’ A man standing by adds, ‘Baji we are crushed. Only a few of us who can beg and borrow, go hundreds of miles only to be pushed around by hostile jail guards in completely unfamiliar cities.’ At Gurdwaras we met women who said they have always felt secure in Kashmir. ‘Molestation of women in rest of India about which we read is unheard of in Kashmir’. Young women complained they were harassed by army, including removal of their niqab‘. Army pounces on young boys; it seems they hate their very sight. When fathers go to rescue their children they are made to deposit money, anywhere between 20000 to 60000’. So palpable is their hatred for Kashmiri youth that when there is the dreaded knock on the door of a home, an old man is sent to open it. ‘We hope and pray they will spare a buzurg. But their slaps land on all faces, regardless whether they are old or young, or even the very young. In any case, Baji, we keep our doors lightly latched so they open easily with one kick’. The irony of these simply spoken words!. Boys as young as 14 or 15 are taken away, tortured, some for as long as 45 days. Their papers are taken away, families not informed. Old FIR’s are not closed. Phones are snatched; collect it from the army camp they are told. No one in his senses ever went back, even for a slightly expensive phone. A woman recounted how they came for her 22 year old son. But since his hand was in plaster they took away her 14 year old instead. In another village we heard that two men were brutally beaten. No reason. One returned, after 20 days, broken in body and spirit. The other is still in custody. One estimate given to us was 13000 boys lifted during this lockdown. They don’t even spare our rations. During random checking of houses which occurs at all odd hours of the night, the army persons come in and throw out the family. A young man working as SPO told us. ‘We keep a sizeable amount of rice, pulses, edible oil in reserve. Kerosene is mixed in the ration bins, sometimes that, sometimes koyla’.Tehmina from Anantnag recently urged her husband, ‘Let us have another child. If our Faiz gets killed at least we will have one more to call our own. Abdul Haleem was silent. He could see the dead body of his little boy lying on his hands even as she spoke these words. ‘Yeh sun kar, meri ruh kaanp gayi,” he tells us. A thirty year old lawyer from Karna was found dead in his rented accommodation. He was intensely depressed. Condolence notice was issued by Secy Bar Association. Immediately after that he was taken into custody. Why? We spoke to a JK policeman. All of them have been divested of their guns and handed dandas. ‘How do you feel, losing your guns?’ ‘Both good and bad’ came the reply. ‘Why?’ Good because we were always afraid of them being snatched away. Bad because we have no means now to defend ourselves in a shootout. One woman security guard said ‘Indian govt wants to make this a Palestine. This will be fought by the us, Kashmiris’. One young professional told us, ‘We want freedom. We don’t want India, we don’t want Pakistan. We will pay any price for this. Ye Kashmiri khoon hai. Koi bhi qurbani denge’. Everywhere we went there were two inexorable sentiments. First, desire for Azadi The humiliation and torture they have suffered for 70 years has reached a point of no return. Abrogation of 370 some say has snapped the last tie they had with India. Even those people who always stood with the Indian State have been rejected by the Govt. ‘So, what is the worth in their eyes, of us, ordinary Kashmiris?’ Since all their leaders have been placed under PSA or under house arrest, the common people have become their own leaders. Their suffering is untold, so is their patience. The second, was the mothers anguished cries (who had seen many children’s corpses with wounds from torture) asking for immediate stop to this brutalisation of innocents. Their children’s lives should not be snuffed out by gun and jackboots. As we report our experiences and observations of our stay in Kashmir, we end with two conclusions. That the Kashmiri people have in the last 50 days shown an amazing amount of resilience in the face of brutality and blackout by the Indian government and the army. The incidents that were recounted to us sent shivers down our spines and this report only summarises some of them. We salute the courage and resoluteness of the Kashmiri people. Secondly, we reiterate that nothing about the situation is normal. All those claiming that the situation is slowly returning to normalcy are making false claims based on distorted facts. https://www.change.org/p/india-the-kashmir-referendum-petition/u/25115588?cs_tk=Aii5nOAxkpYzCPB0j10AAXicyyvNyQEABF8BvMaYE8rynUgbgEtbSFOR62w%3D&utm_campaign=6e53293609bd451f8b5eda00bc5ecb4a&utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_term=cs

18. UK Labor supports Kashmir: Sep., 26, 2019: UK Labour delegates unanimously passed a motion on Kashmir at their party conference in Brighton . The motion says Kashmir should be given the right of self-determination as per UN resolutions and urges Labour to stand with Kashmiris “fighting against occupation “72 years of human rights violations, of gang rapes and mass rapes by armed forces, and pellet gun injuries”. “We must urgently request India opens access so humanitarian agencies can go in and provide help,” she said. “This is now a major crisis. We cannot allow a century of oppression to take place. For too long, we have said Kashmir is a bilateral issue but the Kashmiri people need intervention,” she had said.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-fumes-as-uk-party-backs-kashmir-plebiscite/articleshow/71302601.cms #FreeKashmir

19. US concern: Sep., 27, 2019: "We hope to see rapid action — the lifting of the restrictions and the release of those who have been detained," #AliceWells, the top State Department official for South Asia, told reporters. "The United States is concerned by widespread detentions, including those of politicians and business leaders, and the restrictions on the residents of Jammu and Kashmir," Wells said. "We look forward to the Indian government's resumption of political engagement with local leaders and the scheduling of the promised elections at the earliest opportunity.""The world would benefit from reduced tensions and increased dialogue between the two countries [India and Pakistan] and, given these factors, the president is willing to mediate if asked by both parties," she said. https://www.dawn.com/news/1507655/us-presses-india-on-kashmir-rights-seeks-lower-tensions #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

20. Anchar: Sep., 28, 2019: there is little sign of an end to the standoff in Anchar, home to about 15,000 people. Entrances to the area are guarded by young people manning barricades made of tree trunks, electricity poles and barbed wire to keep the police out. Laneways have been dug up to block security vehicles. As night falls, groups of youths, many wearing masks and armed with stones and tree branches, are huddled around bonfires, sipping tea provided by neighbours.“I am spending the night outdoors so I can protect my family and not let Indians, who have been committing atrocities on us, to enter,” said Fazil, a 16-year-old student. “There is no fear in me,” he added, holding a thick tree branch as he watched the street from a checkpoint. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir-neighbourhood-widerimag/barricades-and-books-life-in-restive-kashmir-neighbourhood-idUKKBN1WB34C

21. Kashmir at US University: Sep., 28, 2019: Minaret of Freedom Institute “American University in Washington DC hosted a teach-in on Kashmir Thursday, September 26. Kashmiri speakers also addressed the humanitarian crisis and the fascist nature of the RSS while an interfaith panel of religious leaders provided context.” Rabbi Alana Suskin, Hamza Khan & Dr. Taseen Mir joined panel moderator Imad Ad-Dean Ahmed at American University for a discussion about the humanitarian and political crisis in Kashmir. Rabbi Alana Suskin: Echoes of the Anschluss & Holocaust Hamza Khan: Political History of the Conflict Dr. Taseen Mir: Eyewitness Account of Kashmir under Lockdown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDhSGHzam9w&feature=youtu.be

22. IK at UN: Sep., 28, 2109: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday addressed the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The highlight of his more than 45-minute-long speech was intense criticism of India for its annexation of occupied Kashmir and the continued restrictions imposed in the region. The issue which the prime minister talked in most detail about was the oppression of the people of occupied Kashmir. I know India keeps alleging that these groups are there. "I welcome UN observers, see for yourself. "That's when we realised that there was an agenda and that agenda became obvious on the 5th of August when India went against 11 United Nations Security Council resolutions which say that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the people of Kashmir have the right of self-determination," he said."They went against the Simla Accord — which is about sorting out our differences through bilateral means. "They actually went against the Indian Constitution. Illegally, they revoked Article 370 which gave Kashmir the special status and [stationed] an extra 180,000 troops there," said Prime Minister Imran, providing the backdrop to India's actions in Kashmir. "What kind of people bring in 900,000 troops for eight million people? These are human beings," said Prime Minister Imran to applause from the audience. "What comes with Aryan superiority is arrogance and it makes people commit mistakes and do stupid, cruel things like what Modi has done. "It is arrogance that has blinded Modi. Has he thought about what will happen after the curfew in Kashmir is lifted? "What will he do? Does he think the people of Kashmir will quietly accept the status quo?" What is going to happen will be a blood bath. The people will come out. "Has he thought it through what happens then? Has anyone thought what happens when there is a bloodbath? https://www.dawn.com/news/1507675/pm-imran-minces-no-words-at-un-calls-out-modi-govt-for-oppression-of-kashmiris. https://www.dawn.com/news/1507675/pm-imran-minces-no-words-at-un-calls-out-modi-govt-for-oppression-of-kashmiris

23. Protest: Sep., 28, 2019: Protesters gathered outside the United Nations in New York with 'Free Kashmir" during Modis NGA address https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/27/demonstrators-hold-stand-with-kashmir-protest-outside-un-building-in-new-york

24. Summary: Sep., 28, 2019: Impressive speech by Imran Khan does not mask fact that the culmination of the UNGA meeting is disappointing for Kashmir, the following need attention: There was no UNGA resolution set down on Kashmir. Pakistan has given no reason; there is still no Human Rights Council resolution for Kashmir. Therefore no vote was taken for a full inquiry; the neglect of Kashmir on the Responsibility to protect agenda has not been corrected by Pakistan. This means Kashmir still remains low on the agenda; at present there doesn't seem to be any moves to move to the ICJ for Kashmir given the legal advice in Pakistan is negative. We need a detailed well considered plan on the Kashmir , this will be a long haul and needs sustained and continuous attention by Pakistan.

25. Youth killed: Sep., 29, 2019: Indian security forces killed four alleged fighters in occupied Kashmir on Saturday, police said, as the disputed Muslim-majority territory simmers under a lockdown imposed by New Delhi after it revoked its constitutional autonomy in August. According to Kashmir Media Service Indian troops killed three youth during cordon and search operations in Naranag area of Ganderbal and three others in Batote area of Ramban district in the Jammu region. Indian security forces had tightened restrictions in Kashmir and the Hindu-majority Jammu region on Friday, fearing protests ahead of speeches at the UN by the leaders of India and Pakistan https://www.dawn.com/news/1507835/4-kashmiris-dead-in-raids-by-indian-security-forces

26.

Kashmir Update 41: Week Sep., 16, 2019 to Sep.,22, 2019

1. Support for IOK: Sep., 15, 2019: The Left parties and Sikh organisations in Punjab have jointly condemned Indian government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and divide it into two Union territories, a report in The Wire said. The development is much significant as these organizations spent three decades at odds with each other over militancy Punjab. “Various democratic organisations of Punjab decide to stand in solidarity with the people’s movement of Kashmiris,” stated a joint press statement of 15-odd organisations ahead of a protest march scheduled for September 15 in Chandigarh. “We will stand tooth and nail against any move of the Modi regime’s agenda of Hindutva that it is spreading in the name of ultra-nationalism, putting the lives of Kashmiris at stake now,” Lachhman Singh Sewala, General Secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, an offshoot of CPI-Liberation, said. Eleven organisations from Punjab, under the banner of ‘Solidarity Committee for Kashmiri National Struggle’, have even come out in favour of the “right to self-determination of the Kashmiris”. The committee’s 11 constituents include the Punjab Students’ Union, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Pendu Mazdoor Union (Mashal) and different Left-leaning industrial workers’ bodies. https://kmsnews.org/news/2019/09/15/left-sikh-bodies-jointly-denounce-indias-action-in-iok/

2. Sikh Dalit support: Sep, 16, 2019: The March and rally will be organized jointly by Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Dal Khalsa in which representatives of United Akali Dal, Sikh Youth of Punjab will join. Leaders and activists of political party Naam Tamilar Katchi from Tamil Nadu and Committee for Release of Political Prisoners from Delhi will also participate in the public demonstration at Jantar Mantar on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the UN General Assembly, scheduled for September 27. AT international level our aligned group Sikh Youth of America and our own organizational units in America will join the Sikh, Tamil and Kashmiri Diaspora, outside UN head quarters to protest against India’s highhandedness against minorities and lockdown in Kashmir https://sikhsiyasat.net/2019/09/15/sikh-and-tamil-groups-to-demonstration-in-delhi-against-indias-occupation-of-kashmir-on-sept-26/ #FReeKashmir #SaveKashmir #Khalistan #Dalits

3. AI: Sep., 16, 2019: Human rights group Amnesty International has launched a petition on its website, urging people to raise their voice against the government-imposed communications blackout in India-occupied Kashmir that has been in place for over a month. “Nearly 8 million people have been living through a communication shutdown since August 5,” the human rights organization stated on its website.“The world needs to know what’s happening,” it said and urged people to "take action and demand that the government let Kashmir speak.”https://www.dawn.com/news/1505356/amnesty-international-calls-for-removal-of-communications-blackout-in-occupied-kashmir

4. British and EU Parliamentarians; Sep., 16, 2019: Addressing the protest, John Howarth, Member of European Parliament (MEP) belonging to UK’s Labour party, said the international community must come forward and take notice of the rising human rights violations in IoK. “International observers must be allowed to visit IOK to end the violence being committed by Indian forces to ensure peace in the region,” he added. Member of British Parliament (MP) Matt Rodda, speaking on the occasion, expressed concern over the current situation in IOK. He said human rights are being violated in Occupied Kashmir and the issue must be resolved as per the wishes of Kashmiris. President Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK Fahim Kayani said “Kashmir has been under siege since August 5… [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi has adopted polices of dark ages when Kings used to put cities under siege by cutting off their supplies to make them to bow down to their terms and conditions. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2057246/1-uk-european-mps-join-chorus-kashmir-lockdown/

5. Protests: Sep., 16, 2019: Kashmir has seen an average of nearly 20 protests per day against Indian rule over the last six weeks despite a security lockdown to quell unrest, a senior government source said. Altogether there have been 722 protests since Aug. 5, with Baramulla district in the northwest and Pulwama in the south the biggest hotspots after Srinagar, the source said. Since that date, nearly 200 civilians and 415 security force members have been hurt, according to the source Ninety-five of the civilians were injured in the last two weeks, the official said. So far more than 4,100 people — including 170 local political leaders — have been detained across the valley, with 3,000 released in the past two weeks, the official said. https://www.dailysabah.com/asia/2019/09/15/kashmir-has-seen-20-daily-anti-india-protests-despite-crackdown-source-says #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir

6. Chief Justice of India: Sep., 16, 2019: A CJI-led SC bench asked the Centre to restore normalcy in J&K while keeping national security in mind and allowed leading political figures such as Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPM’s Yusuf Tarigami to go to Srinagar and issued notices on a petition seeking the release of former CM Farooq Abdullah from illegal detention. “Every effort must be made to ensure that normal life is restored. People should have access to health care and schools and colleges must function normally. a bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said.. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-asks-centre-to-restore-normalcy-in-kashmir/articleshow/71145733.cms?from=mdr

7. Electric shocks: Sep., 16, 2019: The soldiers came after midnight, Abid Khan says, his hands trembling, one of around two dozen young men in just one part of occupied Kashmir who say they have been tortured by the Indian army. Khan, 26, from Hirpora village in Shopian district, says he was dragged out and blindfolded along with his brother, who has learning difficulties, on August 14. “They gave electric shocks to my brother right on the road outside. I heard him scream painfully,” Khan told AFP, showing marks on his arms, legs and buttocks. Once inside the nearby Chowgam army camp, Khan said soldiers stripped him naked, tied up his legs and wrists, suspended him and beat him with rods. The camp major, Khan said, accused him of inviting Riyaz Naikoo from Hizbul Mujahideen — one of several armed groups fighting Indian rule — to his recent marriage. “I kept repeating that was not true,” Khan said. “Then they gave me electric shocks again on my genitals and wounds. One of them said 'I will make you impotent'.” After being released at dawn and barely able to stand, Khan says he kept vomiting for 10 days and only managed to start moving around again after 20 days.“I can't eat properly anymore,” he said. “I don't go into the room my wife sleeps in anymore [...] It's better to die with a bullet than undergo such torture.” People in Hirpora say they often hear screams from the army camp at night. Three other villagers told AFP they were also tortured. In total, around two dozen young men in the villages of Shopian told similar stories. “The army is making examples of two or three young men from each village,” said one resident of Shopian who has compiled a list. The pattern is often of soldiers raiding homes, taking identity cards and mobiles and telling young men to report to the camps to retrieve them. One 21-year-old, who declined to be named but shared with AFP photos of his wounds, said he has reported to the Pahnoo camp three times since August 27 and was abused each time. An officer accused him of giving food to Kashmiri fighters and then offered him money for information, he said. Another time, he was grilled about a former classmate who is now a fighter. “They gave me electric shocks inside a dark room for about two hours,” the man said, showing scars on his forearm. Obaid Khan, also 21, from Gugloora village said he had to go to the same camp to retrieve his ID and phone on August 26. “Eight soldiers kept beating me with rods for a long time. Before they let me go, they asked me to come back with names of stone throwers in my village,” he said, referring to protesters who clash with security forces. Sajjad Hyder Khan, a local official in Pinjoora village, told AFP he has seen a list of 1,800 people detained by police and soldiers from Shopian alone, one of the four districts in the southern Kashmir Valley. https://www.dawn.com/news/1505539/they-gave-me-electric-shocks-in-a-dark-room-screams-in-the-night-in-occupied-kashmir

8. HRW: Sep., 16, 2019: Human Rights Watch on Monday urged the Indian government to “immediately release detained Kashmiris who have not been charged with a recognizable offense”. HRW’s latest report, India: Free Kashmiris Arbitrarily Detained, documents the detention of over 4,000 Kashmiris, including politicians, activists, separatist leaders, lawyers, and journalists, who have been held in detention camps since India stripped occupied Kashmir off its special status on August 5. Approximately 400 elected officials and political leaders, as well as former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir belonging to the National Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party have also been detained. The human rights watchdog states that many detainees have not been allowed to contact their families or lawyers.“Anyone who has been detained in Kashmir without evidence of a crime should be immediately and unconditionally released,” According to an official document seen by Reuters, as of September 6, the authorities had arrested more than 3,800 people, and of them, 2,600 had been released. “The government should release a list of all detainees and their whereabouts,” the human rights watchdog urged .”The court also ordered Indian authorities to allow others, including the daughter of the detained former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, to visit their relatives.“The persecution of mainstream workers is shocking beyond belief,” Mattu told the media, adding “Several of my party men are under detention.” The Indian security forces have detained the family members of suspects, in cases when they failed to locate the suspects, citizens of the occupied valley told HRW. “This amounts to collective punishment, in violation of international human rights law,” the report states. The report asks the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council to urge India to end the collective punishment on Kashmiris and act on recommendations in the report of the UN high commissioner for human rights.“India is making a mockery of its human rights commitments by denying Kashmiris a voice in their future, jailing political leaders, and suspending basic freedoms,” Ganguly said. “The government’s heavy-handed measures are only making a bad situation worse.” https://tribune.com.pk/story/2057683/3-hrw-urges-india-immediately-release-detained-kashmiris/ #FReeKashmir

9. Torture videos: Sep., 18, 2019: In video recorded interviews, the victims allege that the Indian army subjected them to immense physical pain and psychological pressure. Khan, 26, said that on the night of August 13, Indian army soldiers tortured him inside a camp and filmed parts of it. He had passed out after being administered electric shocks. What happened during that unconscious state is what worries “What if they had committed be-satree and filmed that too? It is better to die in that case,” he said, using the Kashmiri expression be-satree that broadly defines various forms of sexual violence. He said a group of soldiers led by an officer entered his home in Hirpora, Shopian, about 65 kilometres south of Jammu and Kashmir's capital Srinagar. Several army vehicles were waiting on the road outside the house. A few soldiers grabbed his youngest brother Suhail, he said, and gave him an electric shock in the chest with the help of a handheld device. “Suhail passed out in the courtyard and was let off. They pushed me into a vehicle and took me to the camp, blindfolded,” said Abid. At the camp, designated as 66 Rashtriya Rifles B Company, at Chowgam, about eight kilometres from his home, Abid said he was stripped naked, water-boarded and forced to drink copious amounts of a “horribly smelly” liquid. “Two of them punched me in the gut until I vomited and urinated,” he said. Khan said his hands and ankles were tied with a rope. He was then hung from a pole. He said four soldiers took short run-ups and struck his buttocks, hips and back with batons. “As I struggled in pain, my wrists and ankles got bruised. The bruises became worse after every beating,” he said. Faded baton marks are still visible on his buttocks, 32 days after the beating. Khan showed these reporters a video of his swollen and blackened buttocks his family members had filmed the day after the torture.“They passed electric current through my body after dunking me in water. They did it several times. At one point, when I could take it no more, I feigned fainting. But another electric shock startled me. I prayed for death. Within no time I had passed out,” Khan said. After each brief reprieve, he said “worse would follow”. “When I regained consciousness, they hit my private parts with a stick.“One officer told me ‘I will end your life now.’ "He drew a red-hot iron rod close to my penis but stopped short of touching it. I cried a lot. His colleague told him ‘don’t do it. He has been married recently. After all she is our sister too’. They pulled skin near my private parts with a plier. It still hurts when I urinate. Once my entire body was bruised they rubbed salt into the wounds. These mountains are witness to my ordeal. They have heard my cries,” he said. Before the torture began, Khan said, an army officer told him that he had invited Riyaz Naikoo, the most-wanted Kashmiri rebel commander, to his wedding in July. The officer accused him of building a hideout for militants in his home, which stands in the middle of an eight-acre apple orchard. “I told him go and bulldoze my home to the ground and if you find there is a hiding place anywhere, set the entire thing on fire. But if there is none, build me a fresh house. The [army] Major became angrier. He wanted me to confess, anything,” Khan said. “He then told me to confess that Naveed Baba [a militan] has been hiding in the home of my neighbour Peer Sajad. I told him why would I falsely accuse somebody of something I know nothing about?” Khan said that on August 13 he was taken to an army medical facility where several injections administered to him at intervals “made the pain disappear and me light-headed”.“I could even sit on my bruised buttocks,” he said. Two “kindhearted Sikh medics” shouldered him to the gate of the camp. Khan was released in the evening and his family members were waiting for him outside the entire day. He said the officer threatened him that if he were to visit any doctor or file a complaint with the police, all his family members would be detained. His wife, father, brother and the village head were asked to sign some papers, he added. At home, he started vomiting intermittently and the pain recurred. “I told my family we should visit a hospital. At first, they didn’t agree but when the pain became unbearable we went to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar at 1am so that nobody saw us leaving,” he said. His hospital medical record reads: “Trauma due to assault by security forces”. His buttocks were swollen and had turned purple. After 10 days of treatment, an acquaintance advised him to leave the hospital so as to avoid being noticed by Criminal Investigation Department personnel. “Had we stayed the police might have filed an FIR [a report for criminal investigation]. We are very scared,” Khan said. Locals say four other youths were detained and beaten up at the same camp. Although they have been released, none of them was present in the village at the time when these reporters went to their respective homes. The sister-in-law of one of them said he too had been given electric shocks and beaten with sticks but “not as severely as One such raid was conducted on the home of Idris Malik of Bagander locality in Shopian town at midnight on August 7 by the soldiers of the same 66 RR camp at Chowgam. At the camp, Malik said he was told that “your neighbour”, a militant who hails from the same locality, has been injured. “They said ‘who has been taking medicine to him?’” Malik said. “How would I know? They beat me up the entire night with sticks and gave me electric shocks. My hands and ankles were tied with a rope and I was hung upside down from a bar. My face was covered with a cloth and several buckets of water were thrown at it. At one point I felt so cold that I feared my blood would freeze,” he said. “In the morning leashed dogs were brought in to scare me. I was made to stand in the open and stare open-faced at the sun. My mouth dried up and when I asked for water they put a stick in my mouth and said it should stay in the mouth,” Malik said. The 27-year-old courier worker said he was told to inform on “incidents”, apparently meaning militants’ activities or stone throwing protesters, in his locality.“I told them I am scared of both sides. When I got sick of the beating I even told them that yes we are all militants, my father is a militant,” he said. He was released in the evening the next day after medics administered the unknown injection which made the pain go away. He was also given some pills and lotion was applied on his wounds. The injuries on his ankles have not healed fully. Tiny black spots beneath the kneecap, he said, are the places where the current was passed through his body. His hospital medical record dated August 8 reads, among other things, “multiple trauma on buttocks”. Obaid’s father Muhammad Ashraf said that on the night of August 26 the soldiers raided his house and took away his son’s ID card, asking him to present himself at the camp the next day. Ashraf and a neighbour, who accompanied Obaid to the camp, were seated and served tea while Obaid was taken to a room he said was dark.“I was beaten for a pretty long time with sticks and gun butts. From the neck to the feet no part of my body was spared. They punched my face and head. My wrists and ankles were tied with a wire and then they gave me electric shocks,” Obaid said. Ashraf said his son was “almost dead” when they let him go.“We took him to the sub-district hospital in Shopian. The doctors said he is under severe pressure,” the father said and added that the army has withheld Obaid’s ID card, asking him to provide a list of stone-throwers and militant sympathisers in his area. “He can hardly sleep since the day he was detained. The sound of vehicles scares him. He fears they are coming for him again. It is worse than hell for us,” Ashraf said. A 21-year-old man in Pinjoora village of Shopian said his ID card too was taken away during the night raid on August 8 and he was asked to report at the Pahnoo camp the next day. At the camp, the soldiers stripped him naked and beat him up after tying him to a pole. “With a blade they made long cuts in my legs. The Major asked me to become their informer and provide information about Omar Dhobi and Shakir Pal [both militants]. I told him I don’t have any information about them. He said ‘you have no other option.’” him.https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/india-s-torture-methods-new-claims-emerge-from-disputed-kashmir-29879

10. Imams: Sep., 19, 2019: New Delhi is stepping up arrests of Kashmiri clerics and monitoring mosques, sparking concerns of a religious crackdown, not just a political one. In recent months, police have stepped up arrests of Islamic clerics and prayer leaders and clamped down on mosques in what was the country’s only Muslim-majority state. That has coincided with the Indian government’s move on Aug. 5 to strip off the constitutional provisions of autonomy Kashmir enjoyed while placing the region under lockdown. Though there is no official number of arrests, the government’s approach — which it argues is necessary for the region’s security — threatens India’s credibility, say analysts. https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/not-just-autonomy-india-clamps-down-on-kashmir-mosques/96769

11. US support; Sep., 19, 2019: More American lawmakers have expressed concerns over the situation in Kashmir and asked the Indian government to lift the restrictions imposed in the Valley."I am deeply concerned regarding the recent activity in Kashmir. The increasing militarization of the region has created a situation in which a miscalculation can have devastating repercussions,” said Congressman Anthony G Brown, who is vice chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/american-lawmakers-express-concern-over-situation-in-kashmir/articleshow/71168415.cms?from=mdr #FreeKashmir

12. Kashmir Economy: Sep., 20, 2019: Despite being harvest time, the market in the northern Kashmiri town of Sopore is empty, while in orchards across occupied Jammu and Kashmir unpicked apples rot on the branch. Apples are the lifeblood of occupied Kashmir’s economy, involving 3.5 million people, around half the population. Two other key sectors of occupied Kashmir’s economy, tourism and handicrafts, have also been hit hard. https://www.dawn.com/news/1506118/its-hopeless-lockdown-in-occupied-kashmir-puts-economy-in-tailspin. “It is for the first time in Kashmir's history that its fruit is falling off or is likely to fall off the trees, and most farmers are watching haplessly. Thanks to abundant timely rains, this year Kashmir has had a bumper produce of apples and pears worth Rs 9000 crore. Modi government's back-breaking mobile phone and Internet closure in Kashmir is leaving farmers in the countryside with hardly any means to contact traders and Kashmir-based warehouses and coordinate sale and transportation of their fruit. There have been few takers of the government's NAFED purchase plan, which looks impractical and has been largely ignored by fruit growers. As apples and pears worth Rs. 9000 crore are over ripening and falling off the trees for want of necessary logistics, at several places in Bandipora, Sopore, Kulgam, Chrar Sharief, Budgam and also around farm in Sumbal many farmers selling their fruit for peanuts. Those low prices would barely cover their production and transportation costs. The fact of the matter is that farmers in Kashmir store sell and transport apples and pears in sync with supply and demand factors in outside markets. In the absence of mobile and Internet connectivity, an economic catastrophe is unfolding in Kashmir in a sector which is the mainstay of the local economy”. (Facebook blog)

13. Modi sued: Sep.,20,2019: A pair of Kashmiri citizens sued the prime minister of India in federal court Thursday ahead of his much-anticipated arrival in Houston, alleging that his unilateral annexation Aug. 5 of their homeland caused the detention, disappearance and deaths of their loved amid ongoing repression. The civil complaint accuses the Indian head of state of human rights violations under the The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, a federal statute that allows civil suits on U.S. soil against foreign officials suspected of committing torture or extrajudicial killing. The act was first used the following year by Sister Dianna Ortiz, who sued the defense minister of Guatemala, Hector Gramajo for her abduction, rape, and torture by military forces. A federal court in Massachusetts awarded her $5 million in damages. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/India-Prime-Minister-Modi-faces-Houston-federal-14453957.php #FreeKashmir

14. Modi in US; Sep., 21, 2109: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India prepares for a big trip to the United States, human rights groups and three Nobel Peace Prize winners have criticized the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its plan to bestow a prestigious award upon Mr. Modi next week during his visit. The Nobel laureates sent a letter to the Gates Foundation stating that under Mr. Modi’s leadership, “India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that has consistently undermined human rights, democracy.’’ “This is particularly troubling to us as the stated mission of your foundation is to preserve life and fight inequity,” said the letter signed by Mairead Maguire, a peace activist from Northern Ireland; Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman, a Yemeni journalist and politician; and Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and political activist. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/world/asia/narendra-modi-bill-gates-foundation.html

15. UK Stance changes: Sep., 21, 2019: UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons that the human rights situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir following the lockdown of the region by Modi govt for over four weeks is an international issue. "The issue of human rights is not just a bilateral or domestic issue for India or Pakistan—it is an international issue." He added, "We should, with all our partners, expect internationally recognized standards of human rights to be complied with and respected." https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/international/human-rights-in-kashmir-an-international-issue-says-uk-foreign-secretary?fbclid=IwAR2WfXaR_vy_tBM9bkSi8BuiUa3p5am5khYUFjejrtPu1YZ9xE2pFwYmZKU

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Kashmir Update 40: Week Sep., 9, 2019 to Sep.,15, 2019

1. Curfew: Sep., 9, 2019: India on Sunday imposed curfews in several parts of the contested Kashmir region, after clashes between security forces and Shi'ite Muslims taking part in a procession, officials and eyewitnesses said. At least 12 locals and six troops were injured on Saturday evening, officials told Reuters, as the worshippers on the traditional mourning procession of Muharram clashed with troops trying to stop it. Troops used tear gas and pellet guns on the crowd, which insisted on carrying on with the procession, one in a series held at this time of the year, and pelted stones at security forces, an Indian official who declined to named told Reuters. "The clashes continued till late night during which the troops fired tear gas and pellets," he added The most recent clashes occurred in Rainawari and Badgam, two Shi'ite majority areas of Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir's main city. The five km (3 mile) procession route that passes through the city centre has been barricaded by armed troops wearing helmets and bullet proof vests. On Sunday, police vans fitted with loud speakers announced curfew-like restrictions in Srinagar's city center Lal Chowk and adjacent areas, according to two Reuters witnesses."People are advised to stay indoors and not venture out of their home," the police announced. Suhail Ahmed, a Rainawari resident, said that there have been frequent clashes in the area for last three to four days as troops have been trying to block the procession. "We hear deafening sounds of tear gas being fired for last few evenings. We mostly stay indoors but the gas comes into our homes making it difficult to sleep," Ahmed said.

2. Iranian Cleric: :Sep.9,2019: Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani during his meeting with a group of Kashmiri students studying at seminary schools said, “If you want to secure your right, you must be prepared for martyrdom and fight,” he was quoted as having said. “Our government, the Leader [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei], all of us will help you,” the top cleric vowed, stressing that Kashmiri clerics, in particular, must be prepared to sacrifice their lives if they want to obtain the people’s right, reminding them of Iranian clerics who were marching in the front lines of protests during Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

3. UNHRC: Sep., 10, 2019: The United Nations human rights chief on Monday said she was "deeply concerned about the impact of recent actions" by the Indian government on the human rights of Kashmiris. In her introductory address for the start of the Human Rights Council's latest session, Michelle Bachelet aired concerns over India's actions against Kashmiris as well as unlawful killings and injuries of Palestinians by Israeli security forces. "While I continue to urge the governments of India and Pakistan to ensure that human rights are respected and protected, I have appealed particularly to India to ease the current lockdowns or curfews; to ensure people's access to basic services; and that all due process rights are respected for those who have been detained," she urged."It is important that the people of Kashmir are consulted and engaged in any decision-making processes that have an impact on their future."

4. Asian Political Parties : Sep., 10,2019: Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed on Monday said that the participants of International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) held in Baku, have expressed their full support to Kashmiri people living in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he said that Bangladesh and Malaysia have also supported the point of view of Kashmiri people, who wanted to resolve the issue as per United Nations Security Council charter. Mushahid said that participants of the conference had demanded to end the massive human rights violations being committed by Indian forces in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Russia, Japan, Korea, and Central Asian States were also in favour of addressing the issue of Kashmir as per the UN charter, he stated. He said that a large number of people took out a procession in Bangladesh for expressing solidarity with the IOJ&K people.

5. Communications: Sep., 11, 2019: The troubled region where some 10 million people live had been placed under a security lockdown on 5 August, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped it of its autonomy and downgraded its status. The isolation is exacerbated by an unprecedented communications blockade: landline phones, mobiles and the internet were suspended. Kashmir sunk into what a local editor called an "information black hole". More than a month later the blockade remains in place. The woman had put pen to paper after she came across a Facebook post from a freelance Kashmiri journalist who was visiting Delhi. On a whim, he had posted a message on the social networking site, saying people from his home district in Kashmir could send him messages for their families with their addresses. He would, he wrote, "try his best to reach every address" on his return. Two days later, Mr Sayed flew back to Srinagar with 17 such messages on his phone from people around the world. They were addressed to family and friends who lived in three districts of southern Kashmir, the most restive region in the Muslim-dominated valley. Many had sent digital messages. Others had written letters on paper, photographed them and sent them via Facebook Messenger. The Delhi-based woman - who is not a Kashmiri - was one of them. In her letter, the anxiety triggered by the communications blackout is evident. She writes of how her "fingers have turned sore" dialing numbers in Kashmir without success, and "frantically at night I get up to check my messages, dial a few numbers and go through the pictures of my holiday in Kashmir over and over again". Back in Kashmir, Mr Syed became an itinerant messenger. He drove out of Srinagar to deliver the messages to homes in shuttered towns and villages. His lifeless mobile phone had turned into a carrier of precious tidings. India has more than a billion mobile phone subscribers and 560 million internet subscribers - it is one of the world's fastest growing digital markets. In comparison, there are only 23 million landline phones. But in Kashmir people are applying for new landline connections or trying to restore unused ones. As the shutdown entered its second month, more such phones sputtered back to life. But people complain that they are often not able to get through to "working" lines. On the streets security forces have set up free makeshift phone booths - a plastic table, a few chairs and a working Chinese-made phone - and some police stations are offering free calls. At one booth, Manzoor Ahmed's dilemma was illustrative of how the blockade is hurting people and livelihoods. The 55-year-old shawl trader was trying to call customers outside Kashmir who owed him money. "They sent me cheques. I went to the bank [some of the banks are open], but they said they have no connectivity and are not able to process the payment. So I am walking around town and looking for a phone to call my customers and ask for a bank transfer," he says. "It was a very emotional time," says Ms Masrat. "Everyone in the room was sobbing." Another time, a man arrived and called his son to inform him that his grandmother had died some days ago. And when even landlines are difficult to get through to, Kashmiris living elsewhere in India and abroad are flooding a local news network with messages to their families.,Gulistan News, a Delhi-based satellite and cable news network, has been receiving messages and videos that it plays on a loop during and between news bulletins. It also carries messages from locals in Kashmir. The network says it has run hundreds of messages of cancelled weddings - this is peak wedding season in Kashmir - on an extra scrawl on its English and Urdu language bulletins, as well as video messages from people living outside the region. One morning last week, Shoaib Mir, 26, arrived in the network's office in Srinagar with a curious request: could they help him track down his missing father? The 75-year-old from Bemina, some 12km (7.5 miles) away, had gone out for a morning walk the previous week and disappeared. Mr Mir says they searched far and wide and drove miles before filing a missing person's report at a police station. "There are no people on the roads, everything is shut, and the police are busy enforcing the shutdown. Maybe a video message from me with my father's photograph will help track him down," he says. While the channel has helped connect families, it struggles to do its work. The shutdown has hurt local media like never before. It has made newsgathering difficult. A courier from a news network flies to Delhi every day carrying three to five 16GB pen drives containing footage and news. The material is then edited and broadcast from the office in Delhi.Local newspapers have shrunk to six to eight pages from the usual 16 or 20. For weeks, some 200 journalists crowded around 10 internet-enabled desktops at a makeshift government media centre in Srinagar. Here, they access email, send stories, pictures and video. Couriers download news from the wires onto their pen drives and run to the newspapers to help them fill the pages. Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of Kashmir Times, has petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the information shutdown and curbs on the movement of journalists. She calls it a "grave violation of human rights". The shutdown, she says, also means that media cannot report on developments and residents of Kashmir don't get access to information available to the rest of Indians https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49631186 shu

6. Torture: Sep., 11, 2019: The Indian soldiers descended on Bashir Ahmed Dar's house in southern Kashmir on August 10, a few days after the government in New Delhi stripped the disputed Himalayan region of its autonomy and launched a crackdown. Over the next 48 hours, the 50-year-old plumber said he was subjected to two separate rounds of beatings by soldiers. They demanded that he find his younger brother, who had joined rebels opposing India's presence in the Muslim-majority region, and persuaded him to surrender or else "face the music". In a second beating at a military camp, Dar said he was struck with sticks by three soldiers until he was unconscious. He woke up at home, "unable to sit on my bruised and bloodied buttocks and aching back", he said. But it was not over. On August 14, soldiers returned to his house in the village of Heff Shirmal and destroyed his family's supply of rice and other foodstuffs by mixing it with fertiliser and kerosene. In more than 50 interviews, residents in a dozen villages in Kashmir told The Associated Press that the military had raided their homes since India's government imposed a security crackdown in the region on August 5. They said the soldiers inflicted beatings and electric shocks, forced them to eat dirt or drink filthy water, poisoned their food supplies or killed livestock, and threatened to take away and marry their female relatives. Thousands of young men have been arrested The abuses in the night-time raids by troops began in early August as New Delhi took action on Kashmir, according to interviews with at least 200 people. The change in status nullified decades-old constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir state, as it is officially called, some political autonomy and land inheritance rights. In the village of Parigam, the family of baker Sonaullah Sofi was asleep when army troops raided his home. The soldiers took his two sons into a street, hitting them with gun butts, iron chains and sticks, Sofi said."Helpless, I heard my sons scream as soldiers started beating them up mercilessly in the middle of the road," Sofi said. Soon, soldiers brought 10 more young men to the village square, seeking names of anti-India protesters, said Muzaffar Ahmed, Sofi's 20-year-old son, recounting the August 7 incident."They hit our backs and legs for three hours. They gave us electric shocks," Ahmed said, lifting his shirt to show his burned and bruised back."As we cried and pleaded [with] them to let us go, they became more relentless and ruthless in their beating. They forced us to eat dust and drink water from a drain." Since the crackdown began, at least 3,000 people, mostly young men, have been arrested, according to police officials and records reviewed by the AP. About 120 of those have been slapped with breaches of the Public Safety Act, a law that permits holding people for up to two years without trial, the records showed. Thousands of others have been detained in police lockups to be screened for their potential to join protests. Ahmed, the baker, said the soldiers finally left at dawn, leaving them writhing in pain. He and his elder brother along with at least eight others were then bundled into a single ambulance and taken to a hospital in Srinagar. For years, human rights groups have accused Indian troops of intimidating and controlling the population with physical and sexual abuse and unjustified arrests. Indian government officials deny this, calling the allegations separatist propaganda. Abuses alleged by rights groups since 1989 have included rape, sodomy, water boarding, electric shocks to the genitals, burns and sleep deprivation. The UN last year called for an independent international investigation into allegations of rights violations like rape, torture and extrajudicial killings in Kashmir. India rejected the report as "fallacious." Parvez Imroz, a prominent rights lawyer, said the new reports of abuse in the security forces' ongoing campaign were "disturbing”. Fear and anger are palpable in the villages that dot the vast apple orchards, especially after sundown, when the soldiers come. Abdul Ghani Dar, 60, said soldiers have raided his home in the village of Marhang seven times since early August, adding that he sends his daughter to another location before they arrive. They say they've come to check on my son but I know they come looking for my daughter," Dar said, his eyes welling with tears. Residents of three other villages said soldiers had threatened to take girls away from their families for marriage."They're marauding our homes and hearths like a victorious army. They are now behaving as if they have a right over our lives, property and honour," said Nazir Ahmed Bhat, who lives in Arihal. In early August, soldiers came to the home of Rafiq Ahmed Lone while he was away."The soldiers asked my wife to accompany them for searching our home. When she refused, she was beaten up with gun butts and sticks," Lone said https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/netanyahu-announces-post-election-plan-annex-jordan-valley-190910155523634.html

7. UNHRC: Sep., 11, 2019: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday said that the international community "must not remain indifferent to the tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes" in occupied Kashmir. Addressing the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Qureshi while referring to India's recent actions in Kashmir said: "Today, I have knocked on the doors of the Human Rights Council, the repository of the world’s conscience on human rights, to seek justice and respect for the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. "We must not allow this august body to be embarrassed on the world stage. As a founding member of this council, Pakistan feels morally and ethically bound to prevent this from occurring," he stressed, adding that in order to do so the body should not remain indifferent to the tragedy that was unfolding in Kashmir. "We must not let political, commercial, and parochial considerations cloud and impair our thoughts and action."We must act decisively and with conviction." Qureshi urged the UNHRC to "pay heed to the plight of the Kashmiri people" and to address the warning signs of a "looming human catastrophe".He asked the human rights council to take the following steps: Urge India to immediately stop the use of pellet guns, end the bloodshed, lift the curfew, reverse the clampdown and communications blackout, restore fundamental freedoms and liberties, release political prisoners, stop targeting human rights defenders, and fulfill obligations under the United Nations Security Council resolutions and various human rights instruments, as required by international law, Take steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of human rights violations of Kashmiris and in this context, constitute a Commission of Inquiry (COI), as recommended by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Authorise the Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council’s special procedures mandate holders to monitor and report on India’s human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and regularly update the council; and Call upon India to allow unhindered access to human rights organisations and international media to occupied Kashmir. India had imposed a military clampdown on Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of August to prevent protests against the New Delhi move to revoke the special status of the disputed territory, with mobile phone networks and the internet still cut off in all but a few pockets. Occupied Kashmir has seen a decades-old movement against the Indian occupation with tens of thousands, mostly civilians, killed. jugation that India is desperate to hide from the world. This is the true face of the so-called largest democracy of the world. This is the conduct of a country, which aspires to be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council." "At the root of this mayhem is India’s refusal to grant the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir their right of self-determination. "This seven-decade-old travesty of justice, has been compounded by the present Indian government’s nefarious and twisted dream — outlined explicitly in the ruling party’s manifesto — to turn, by force of arms, Jammu and Kashmir’s Muslim majority community into a minority." He reiterated that India's unilateral decision to revoke Article 370 on August 5 was illegal under international law."With these illegal changes, India’s presence is, by its own yardstick, naked foreign occupation.""India’s assertion that these actions are its internal affair is patently false," Qureshi said, adding that Kashmir had been on the agenda of the UN for over 70 years and the meeting of the UN Security Council on August 16 attested to this fact. "The people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir are apprehending the worst," the foreign minister said, adding that with respect to the Genocide Convention, Kashmiris — as a national, ethnic, racial and religious group of people — face "grave threats to their lives, way of living and livelihoods from a murderous, misogynistic and xenophobic regime". "Some have said that Kashmir echoes with the silence of the graveyard. Others contend that it is a lull before a storm." I shudder to mention the word genocide here, but I must." The foreign minister said that India's efforts to "falsely" label Kashmir's struggle for self determination as "terrorism and cross border terrorism" are "shameless and indefensible". He said that Pakistan had suggested numerous bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, including doubling the strength of the UN Observers Mission to monitor the Line of Control (LoC), that would "disprove India's self-serving claims". India, however, rejected all these proposals, Qureshi said "I have every fear that India will once again resort to false-flag operations, and use the bogey of terrorism as a red herring, to divert international opinion, even attack Pakistan. Additionally, the foreign minister said that India's increased ceasefire violations along the LoC and the use of cluster ammunition and heavy artillery should end immediately. "I have regularly sensitised the UN Security Council, about the grave dangers to peace and security in nuclearised South Asia and beyond, as a result of India’s reckless posture and draconian measures. https://www.dawn.com/news/1504564/world-must-not-remain-indifferent-to-tragedy-unfolding-in-kashmir-qureshi-tells-un-rights-council

8. Local bodies: Sep., 11, 2019: The government has been keen to get the panchayat polls “completed”, including taking the next step to BDCs and the zilla panchayat polls. The schedule for elections to 316 Block Development Councils (BDCs) in Jammu and Kashmir will be announced in a day or two, with the polls to be completed before the State is formally declared a Union Territory on October 31. Senior sources in the Union Home Ministry confirmed this development to The Hindu. The polls will take forward the process towards full devolution of rural and urban local bodies. After the December 2018 panchayat polls in the State, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had announced their intention to hold these polls https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jk-block-development-councils-polls-by-month-end/article29383885.ece?homepage=true

9. Kashmir and the Russians: Sep, 11, 2019: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vladivostok on September 4-5 turned out to be anticlimactic. . There was much hype that Modi’s visit would witness the launch of a brave new world of Indian economic partnership in Siberia, the Russian Far East, and the Arctic regions. But there is no evidence of a breakthrough. The real big surprise is that the logistics agreement that had been expected to be signed during Modi’s visit stands deferred. “It is important that internationally recognized human rights are fully respected. The dispute between India and Pakistan in relation to Kashmir is for them fundamentally to resolve as recognized in UN Security Council resolutions and the Simla agreement. “But the issue of human rights is not just a bilateral issue for India or Pakistan or a domestic issue but an international issue. We expect of all our partners that internationally recognized standards of human rights are respected and complied with.“All or any allegations of human-rights violations are deeply concerning. They must be investigated thoroughly and promptly and transparently. The concerns and issues raised are very serious. “As well as wanting to respect the constitutional arrangements within India and in relation to Kashmir [abrogation of Article 370], they do also have implications internationally, particularly as they touch on internationally respected and recognized human rights.” On the whole, the outcome of the Vladivostok visit marks a subtle reversal of the trend discernible in the revival of India-Russia relations pioneered by Modi during the past couple of years. New Delhi’s calculus could be that a reboot of the US-Indian strategic partnership has become a dire necessity at the present juncture when the Kashmir crisis has touched criticality. By piling pressure on India – and Modi personally – by threatening to mediate in the Kashmir issue, Washington has “softened up” New Delhi. So long as Modi carries the albatross of Kashmir, he becomes vulnerable to Anglo-American blackmail. Russia will sense that despite all the bravado of nationalism, India’s ruling elite is bending over backward to appease the US to navigate its Kashmir policies through a difficult period. Ironically, this is also a tragic replay of history.

10. Anchar Protest: Sep., 12, 2019: Prayers had barely finished when the teargas was fired and a trail of smoke arched in the sky. Security forces had launched another assault on Anchar, the only major pocket of resistance in Kashmir. “Others have only heard the word doomsday, we have lived a doomsday,” said Fazi, a grandmother who lives in Anchar, a suburb of Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar, situated on the banks of a lake of the same name. Teargas and pellets were fired into a park near to the shrine where crowds were attending prayers, she said. Residents rushed to the frontline on Anchar’s outskirts, barely 500 metres away, to push back against security forces. She said the assault, on 30 August, lasted five hours. “It was like rain. There were pellets everywhere, smoke everywhere,” she said. “We have no weapons. We have only God’s name and God will do justice with us Subhan’s wife and four daughters were at the shrine of Jenab Sahab when the assault began. Like many women, Saima, 22, the eldest daughter, ran to help those defending Anchar.“It is the women who do all the logistics work: they gather the stones, they bring us the water, they bring us salt,” said one man. “It would be impossible to fight without their support.” Saltwater is used to counter the effect of teargas. Saima and two of her sisters – 14-year-old Maysara and 12-year-old Qurat – were wounded by pellets during the assault. A metal pellet pierced Maysara’s eye. She was smuggled to her aunt’s home elsewhere in Srinagar and underwent treatment in hospital. Qurat was wounded in the head. Saima was hit on the neck and arms. “First I felt like hot sand was thrown on me and then I felt my neck is burning,” said Saima. She was treated at the shrine late in the evening by doctors who had been smuggled into the neighbourhood. They administered painkillers and injections to prevent infections. “I don’t know how [Maysara] is, whether she is still admitted or she has been discharged,” said Subhan. The communications blackout means people have no idea if their relatives are safe. Fazi’s 22-year-old grandson, Bilal, was blinded in his right eye by a pellet. “The bleeding was not stopping, so we sent him to the hospital but doctors said they cannot save his eye,” said Bilal’s father, Mohammad Ramzan. “The doctors recommended that we should take him to a specialised eye hospital outside Kashmir.” He was smuggled out of the city. Ramzan has no idea where his son is or if he is safe. More than 100 pellets were lodged in his body, neck and head, he said. “It was very painful. When I was hit it was like a hundred needles had pricked me.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/11/kashmiri-suburb-indian-control-anchar-srinagar

11. Custodial death: Sep., 12,2019: Handwara, Indian-administered Kashmir — At dawn on September 3, the Indian police raided the house of Zareena Begum in north Kashmir's Handwara district and arrested her 24-year-old son Riyaz Ahmad Thickrey, a daily wage labourer. Begum, who's partially blind, couldn't fathom the arrest, which looked like a sudden abduction. Far away in the remote forests of Handwara, 96 km away from Srinagar city, Begum's mud hut is perched on a low-lying hill. For the next few hours, she roamed from terrain to terrain, calling her son's name, hoping that he may return soon. But on September 4 at midnight, the police picked up Riyaz's uncle Shabangi from his home. Once they reached the police station, Shabangi enquired about Riyaz. “They said he [Riyaz] is in the toilet,” Shabangi told TRT World. The toilet, he said, was in front of the police lock-up. As Shabangi opened the toilet door, he was startled to see Riyaz lying face down on the floor, completely motionless. The police told him that Riyaz had hung himself to death in the toilet and it was a case of suicide. Terrified at the sight, he looked for traces of blood and found none on the spot. Although the police maintain that their "preliminary investigation" suggests that Riyaz committed suicide, the family cries foul, and counters the claim saying he's been murdered in police custody.The police sent Riyaz's body for post-mortem. A court inquiry was initiated and on the morning of September 5, the body was returned to the According to the region's prominent human rights organization, the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), most of the probes ordered to investigate 108 cases of human rights abuse since 2008 — including nine custodial killings — have failed to initiate even a single prosecution and the families still await justice. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/fresh-death-in-custody-reveals-dark-side-of-india-s-policing-in-kashmir-29672

12. ICJ: Sep., 12, 2019: The legal experts have urged the Pakistani government to seek a vote at the upcoming session of UN General Assembly on Kashmir for referring to International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its advisory capacity. Sheikh said that only in February this year,the International Court of Justice gave a landmark judgment in which it was held, that the process of decolonization of Mauritius in 1965 was not properly done and the agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius for the Chagos Archipelago did not consider the will of people of Chagos as per the UN Charter. The Chagos Archipelago went under UK control in 1966 under a 50-year agreement with Mauritius, which ended in December 2016 and was extended for another 20 years. During this period, the people of Chagos Archipelago were forcibly evicted from their land and went into exile in other countries but kept on fighting for their right of self-determination.USA had taken the Chagos Archipelago from the UK under some agreement and made the famous military base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.The ICJ in its landmark judgment considered all relevant UN General Assembly resolutions, support of African Union and its resolutions, jurisdiction in a dispute when two states are involved, various principles regarding the right of self-determination besides a host of other legal issues. Sheikh firmly believes that Pakistan should immediately launch a diplomatic offensive to press for Kashmiris right of self-determination and move a Resolution in UN General Assembly seeking reference to ICJ in its advisory jurisdiction https://tribune.com.pk/story/2054349/1-pakistan-seek-voting-un-general-assembly/

13. Iranian support: Sep., 12, 2019: As soon as Modi made an unlawful declaration and ordered curfew in Jammu Kashmir, Iran was the first country to show decisiveness despite its close relations with India The first step was taken by the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, who urged India to protect the Muslims of Kashmir. This followed several demonstrations in main Iranian cities such as Tehran, Mashad and Shiraz A local member of the National Majlis or Parliament Nasrollah Pezmanfar represented the Iranian government. On Tuesday 13^th of August Iran’s Foreign Office Spokesman, Abbas Mousavi issued a statement expressing Iran’s grave concern over Jammu Kashmir. This followed a resolution presented by Dr. Ali Mathari in Iranian parliament calling on all Muslim countries to stand up for the protection of the Muslims of Jammu Kashmir. As reported by the Tehran times on 24^th of August, the Office for Strengthening Unity (OSU) wrote a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations demanding condemnation of the Indian behavior in Jammu Kashmir and asked to take necessary steps to protect the Kashmiri Muslims. The Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi also issued a strong condemnation on India’s inhumane actions in Kashmir and demanded an “immediate halt to Indian violence.” Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi, the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran described Kashmir as one of the tragedies of the Muslim world adding that the Indian government behavior was contrary to human conscience, fairness and even domestic laws. The Iran media has also played a commendable role highlighting Indian atrocities and reaction against it. https://dailytimes.com.pk/463502/irans-steps-on-kashmir-protection/

14. Missing Son: Sep., 13, 2019: When my son Yasir went to fetch bread in the morning and didn’t return promptly, I started pacing with worry outside the house. What if the security forces manning every corner had roughed him up, or even worse? My fear is the fear of every single person living in shock in Kashmir and wondering “What next?” Eventually he returned, explaining that the delay was due to long queues at the only bakery open in the entire area. But unlike Yasir, my son Javaid has never returned. Nothing can make you used to the terror of nocturnal raids by security forces. It was 18 August 1990, and we were living in Srinagar, at the height of an uprising against the Indian occupation. In the early hours of the morning, a neighbour came to tell us that my son Javaid, only 16 years old, had been taken away by the National Security Guard – one of many paramilitary forces operated by the Indian government in the valley. At first I wasn’t fearful, as I knew this was a case of mistaken identity. My son had never quarrelled with anyone, let alone been part of any armed uprising. As the day passed, my anxiety increased as efforts to trace him failed. I ran from one police station to another, from one known torture centre to another detention camp to be told, “Do not worry, he will be released”. He did not return. From 1997 until today, Javaid’s file, along with those of all Kashmiri victims of armed forces in the India-administered region, has remained secret. Not a single permission has been granted by the central government to prosecute any official facing allegations of grave human rights abuses. They threatened me, they tried to buy me, they suggested I was a bad mother for neglecting my other children and for taking my infant daughter with me to wait endlessly in front of police stations and the courts, they spread rumours about my motives, they harassed me, they raised false charges against me – they wanted me to give up. But I never stopped asking “Where is my son?” Between 8,000 and 10,000 Kashmiris have been victims of enforced disappearance. I was never a political person but the fire of my own suffering and the anguish of other parents prompted me to start the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). I started visiting the families of the disappeared in every part of Kashmir to listen, offer support and encourage action. Ours is not a conventional organisation of activists but a community of sufferers who share pain, support each other and live with hope that our disappeared children will be returned. From informal gatherings to hunger strikes in public, from vigils in parks to seminars at educational institutions in both Kashmir and India and visits to universities and the UN, we are seeking the answer to our questions – Where have you taken our sons? Where are our husbands. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/12/son-kashmir-disappeared-india-truth-fate-siege

15. Asrar’s death: Sep., 13, 2019: Indian officials insisted Asrar Ahmad Khan was killed by a stone, but medical records show he was struck by a tear gas canister and then shot in the face with pellets. A 17-year-old boy was playing cricket in a Srinagar park when, according to witnesses and his family, a paramilitary convoy made up of eight military vehicles pulled up. Six of the cars moved on but Indian security forces poured out from the two that remained behind.“They fired a tear gas canister that hit Asrar’s head” the teenager’s father, Firdous Ahmad Khan told TRT World. Asrar’s friends and cousins, who were at the park on August 6 evening, described the incident as “unprovoked”. “There was no protest. In fact there never is a protest in our locality,” Adil Ahmad, the teenager’s elder cousin, said. He added that after he was hit by the canister Asrar was further struck by a hail of shotgun pellets fired by Indian forces. Firdous Ahmad Khan describes his son Asrar as a well behaved and studious child.“He was very obedient towards his elders. He never talked in a loud tone,” he said. For 29 days, Asrar remained in critical condition at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), where doctors treated him for injuries caused by the tear gas canister and shotgun pellets. On September 3, Asrar died .His death certificate, obtained by TRT World, recorded the death as being due to “pellet injury with shell blast injury”. decision.Because of the clampdown it was near impossible for Asrar’s friends and family to challenge the official narrative of his death. However, medical records clearly demonstrate that the Indian narrative was inaccurate. Asrar’s x-rays show dozens of pellets embedded in his skull and a picture of the teenager taken soon after receiving his wound show his face pockmarked with fresh pellet-sized scars. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/witnesses-and-medical-evidence-rebut-indian-account-of-kashmir-teen-s-death-29692

16. Arrests: Sep., 14, 2019: Authorities in Indian Kashmir have arrested nearly 4,000 people since the scrapping of its special status last month, government data shows, the clearest evidence yet of the scale of one of the disputed region’s biggest crackdowns. In an attempt to stifle the protests that the reform sparked in Kashmir, India cut internet and mobile services and imposed curfew-like restrictions in many areas. It has also arrested more than 3,800 people, according to a government report dated Sept. 6 and seen by Reuters, though about 2,600 have since been released. More than 200 politicians, including two former chief ministers of the state were arrested, along with more than 100 leaders and activists from an umbrella organization of pro-separatist political groups. The bulk of those arrested - more than 3,000 - were listed as “stone pelters and other miscreants”. On Sunday, 85 detainees were shifted to a prison in Agra in northern India, a police source said. Rights group Amnesty International said the crackdown was “distinct and unprecedented” in the recent history of the region and the detentions had contributed to “widespread fear and alienation”. “The communication blackout, security clampdown and detention of the political leaders in the region hasmade it worse,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India. In the 24 hours before the report was compiled, more than two dozen people were arrested, mainly on suspicion of throwing stones at troops, the data showed. The data did not include those under informal house arrest, nor people detained in a round-up of separatists that began in February after a bomb attack by a Pakistan-based militant group on Indian troops. Days before India’s move to strip Kashmir of special status, one prominent separatist leader told Reuters that more than 250 people with links to the movement were already in detention. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-detentions/thousands-detained-in-indian-kashmir-crackdown-official-data-reveals-idUSKCN1VX142

17. US Senators: Sep., 14, 2019: A bipartisan group of senators is pressing President Trump to take immediate action to help facilitate an end to the deepening humanitarian crisis in the disputed region of Kashmir. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), wrote to Trump on Thursday urging him “to immediately facilitate an end to the current humanitarian crisis.”They asked him specifically to put pressure on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift curfews imposed on residents of Kashmir and restore telecommunications services in the disputed territory, among other steps. “In keeping with your offer of assistance in July, we believe that U.S. engagement with India will be critical in providing relief for the all of the people of Kashmir,” they wrote. The senators particularly raised concerns about the Indian government’s revocation of Article 370 of its constitution, which granted special status to allow the state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws. They also pointed to India’s decisions to impose a curfew on residents of Kashmir; to deploy thousands of troops to the region in August; and to impose a communications blackout as evidence the situation has worsened and needs Trump’s attention. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/461081-senators-pressure-trump-to-help-end-humanitarian-crisis-in-kashmir

18. EU Parliamentarians: Sep., 14, 2019: Co-Chair of Friends of Kashmir group in European Parliament (EP) Richard Corbett European parliamentarian has proposed “trade sanctions and travel restrictions on those involved in the acts of terrorism and human rights violations in the Muslim-majority state”. He also called for utilizing all possible means to mount pressure on the government in New Delhi to ease the ongoing lockdown in the disputed Himalayan region.“Trade relations with India should be linked to human rights situation in Occupied Kashmir,” he added. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2055733/1-eu-lawmaker-proposes-trade-travel-restrictions-india-amid-iok-lockdown/

19. Rashida Tlaib: Sep., 15, 2019: US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Friday called for the communications blockade and curfew restrictions in occupied Kashmir to be lifted to "shed light" on what is happening in the disputed region. She said “India must afford due process to the thousands of people it has detained without charge, and ensure hospitals have the necessary access to life-saving medicine.”The United States government should support a United Nations-backed peaceful resolution that restores autonomy and ensures self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We cannot lose sight of the millions of Kashmiri people yearning to live in peace and dignity. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/among-the-3000-detained-by-indian-authorities-in-kashmir-children/2019/08/29/1616b5c0-c91c-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html…

20. US Congress: Sep., 15, 2019: As the communications blockade and curfew imposed in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) enters its second month, members of the US Congress on Saturday hit out at New Delhi for its “unacceptable restrictions.” The letter addressed to US ambassador in India and Charge d’ Affaires, US Embassy in Islamabad deemed the Indian government’s strong-arm tactics as “a deeply ominous sign that is both incompatible with both democratic and human rights.” Penned by Ilhan Omar, Raul Grijalva, Andy Levin, James McGovern, Ted Lieu and Alan Lowenthal, the letter calls for the centrality of Kashmiri voices in determining the future of the Himalayan valley. The lawmakers stated that New Delhi’s actions contravened freedom of expression, assembly and movement.The elected representatives took note of complaints by Kashmiri-Americans of being unable to contact their loved ones inside IOK. “The reports we are receiving are harrowing with the allegations including forced disappearances, mass detentions, rape and sexual assault, and the targeted detention of political, economic and social leaders,” the communique read. The US Congresspeople cited alerts issued by prominent international non-governmental organisations, saying that,”we are deeply concerned that Genocide Watch issued a genocide alert.” The letter outlines that the International Alliance to End Genocide has identified seven genocide risk factors applying to the situation in the valley with their ten stages in are all far advanced. The legislators also raised concern over the risk that the Kashmir situation could further fracture relations between nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan and India. “This presents tremendous danger to global peace and a clear security risk for the US, Pakistan and India are both valued allies, crucial to our interests the region, including the Afghan peace process. It is of the utmost importance that we leverage our relationships with their governments to de-escalate the situation.” They called for the Indian government to lift the communication blockade and allow press to access the area.“We strongly urge India to release all those arbitrarily detained,” the letter stated, urging an impartial probe into human right violations in IOK. Earlier, a group of US senators had pressed President Donald Trump to urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end the humanitarian crisis in IOK. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2056628/1-us-congress-members-term-indian-siege-kashmir-unacceptable/

21.

1. Medical Supplies: Sep., 2, 2019: Kashmiri doctors say a curfew and Internet shutdown have left hospitals dangerously low on supplies It's been nearly four weeks since India cut phone lines and Internet in its only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. It did this to prevent protests right before it revoked the state's autonomy. But doctors and human rights groups say these measures may now be endangering lives, as NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from New Delhi. . A college student named Mehboob says the most harrowing part of living under lockdown was when his grandfather suffered chest pains. Mehboob had to rush him through army checkpoints to the hospital where they found long lines and little help.

2. Sanders: Sep., 2, 2019: Prime Minister Imran Khan and US Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday raised the plight of Kashmiris, who have been living under a lockdown for four weeks in occupied Kashmir, while separately addressing the 56th Convention of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Speaking at the event, Sanders, a Democratic presidential hopeful for the US Elections 2020, termed India's move to annex occupied Kashmir as "unacceptable"."I am also deeply concerned about the situation in Kashmir where the Indian government has revoked Kashmiri autonomy, cracked down on dissent and instituted a communications blackout.“The crackdown in the name of security is also denying the Kashmiri people access to medical care. Even many respected doctors in India have acknowledged that the Indian government-imposed restrictions on travel are threatening the life-saving care that patients need," he said."The communications blockade must be lifted immediately and the United States government must speak out boldly in support of international humanitarian law and in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution that respects the will of the Kashmiri people," the senator stated.

3. Journalists: Sep., 3, 2019: As the crippling lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir nears a month, journalists in the region complain of harassment by authorities, with many accusing security forces of deleting their camera footage and pressure to report "normalcy"."This is a unique situation. None of us had seen anything like this in the past. Even in the worst of times in Kashmir, we were able to file our stories," said Muzaffar Raina as he waits to access his email at a Media Facilitation Centre in the main city of Srinagar. Since the night of August 4, the region's seven million residents have been placed under a curfew and denied telephone and internet access. Raina says the situation is "unprecedented". The restrictions were imposed to prevent backlash over India's Hindu nationalist government's decision to strip the country's only Muslim-majority state of its limited autonomy, triggering the worst political crisis in the region in more than 70 years. Raina said the curbs are in place "to prevent the truth from going out". "For the first few days, I was not able to send anything," he said, adding that a friend working for a television channel then offered to help."I would make a video of the text. My friend would use his OB [outdoor broadcasting] van to send the video to his office, where someone would send it to my office in [New] Delhi, where they would type the story," he said. Peerzada Ashiq, who reports for The Hindu newspaper, also said he could not send his report or contact his office for the first few days, until he mailed his story in a flash drive to New Delhi.Like Raina, Ashiq also sought a friend's help to send the story through the OB van. Many journalists complained of being harassed by the security forces patrolling the streets. S Ahmad, who works as a videographer for an international TV channel, told Al Jazeera that he was forced to delete footage from his camera by the security officers after he recorded a protest in Srinagar. Ahmad said a paramilitary trooper told him to film "the normalcy" and not the protests. "They are dictating how we should work."We risk everything to tell a story. People trust us with their stories and it is heartbreaking to let them down in such a state." Ashiq said reporters are being stopped despite having a "movement pass" issued by the authorities.

4. . London Protest: Sep., 4, 2019: Thousands of protesters took out a rally in London to express solidarity with the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir, as a crippling lockdown imposed by the Indian government in the occupied region since revoking its special status entered its 30th day on Tuesday. More than 5,000 protesters assembled at Parliament Square in the British capital and marched to the Indian High Commission to protest Kashmiris' oppression at the hands of Indian security forces.

5. UK Parliament : Sep., 4, 2019: According to The Hindustan Times, MPs in the House of Commons raised on Tuesday serious concerns on the situation in occupied valley after New Delhi unilaterally revoked the special status of its only Muslim-majority region in the rushed presidential decree on August 5

6. British Parliament: Sep., 4, 2019: British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Tuesday said that Britain had asked the Indian government to respect international standards of human rights, respect rights of Kashmiris and end lockdown of occupied Kashmir, which has now entered the second month. Speaking in the House of Commons to give policy statement of the British government, Dominic Raab expressed alarm at the worsening human rights situation in occupied Kashmir as a result of the draconian clampdown on Kashmiris following the revocation of Article 370.

7. Fatalities after Aug.,5: Sep., 5,2019: Asrar Ahmed Khan, 18, from the region’s main city Srinagar, died on Tuesday night in hospital, succumbing to wounds he suffered a month ago Some protesters said Khan was hit by a tear gas canister, Media have reported at least two other deaths during protests

8. Torture: Sep., 6, 2019: Haleema had to begin her journey at dawn, travelling through deserted roads from her home in southern Kashmir's Shopian district and waited at a park outside the central jail in Srinagar, the main city in the Muslim-majority region.Two hours past noon, Haleema was still waiting and uncertain if she would be allowed to meet her husband, Bashir Ahmad."He was picked 20 days ago," she said, "like they pick everyone else.""They don't need a reason and we cannot ask questions," she said. The number of detentions and arrests made across Indian-administered Kashmir in the past month, since New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Indian constitution that granted the region a limited autonomy, is not known as officials have remained tight-lipped. Al Jazeera show that, since August 5, there have been 588 incidents of stone throwing, 458 of which were reported from the main city of Srinagar where some of the old parts of the city are still under restrictions. Official figures show that 3,500 people have been arrested and 350 of them have been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) - a law that allows lengthy detentions without trial. The figures say that only 135 people have been wounded in the last month. At his home in Srinagar's Anchar neighbourhood, 54-year-old Mohammad, who identified himself only by his first name, said he fears for the future of his children. "Our children will suffer," he said. "If we remain silent now, what will happen to them," the father of four said. Anchar, a neighbourhood on the northern edge of Srinagar, has been a major flashpoint for the past month as families defended the neighbourhood from multiple raids by Indian police and paramilitaries. Bano, a 30-year-old nurse, said she treated nearly 300 young men and women from Anchar who had been wounded by pellet guns because residents feared they would be detained if they went to hospitals for treatment. "On Friday (August 30), more than 200 people were injured. I treated these people with my limited equipment and took out pellets from their bodies inside the mosque," she said. Later that evening, a doctor and a male nurse from a nearby hospital sneaked into the neighbourhood with a box of medicines. "We managed to help the injured, some youth had 100 and some had 200 pellets in their bodies. But when someone is hit in the eyes, it is impossible to do anything," she said adding that many of the injured are lying at home and have yet to receive proper treatment. Bano said she used a forceps, eyebrow tweezers and a knife to operate on the wounded. "I also took out pellets from the bodies of four women," she said. Youths have set up groups to keep a night vigil on the neighbourhood's entrances. Aijaz, 25, said he is part of the daily guard duty to defend the front lines of Anchar and participated in protests during the past month."We are not resisting for our own selves," he said, "but for the future of Kashmir"."We were praying on Friday at the mosque and forces came and fired pellets on the worshippers," he said. Aqib's cousin was also wounded as he tried to escape a chase and fell after jumping a barricade. His arm and leg were fractured. "Even the ambulances were not allowed to come here and help the wounded. We do not go to hospitals because we fear they will detain us and send us to jails outside for years. We will die here but we won't leave this place," he said. Nusrat, a young female resident, said she was frightened even inside her home where she lives with her seven sisters and parents."They target everyone, man or woman, young or old," she said."At night, we don't dare to sleep because we fear the night raids and more fear for women and young girls."On Friday, they had cut off water and electricity supply to punish us. We are not pelting stones but they provoke us," she said. The water supply was later revived. "They want to exhaust us, they want us in submission," said 45-year-old Nazir Ahmad, a resident of Rainawari. "But they are wrong".The lockdown has also taken a toll on Kashmir's economy, which has gone into freefall. At the park outside the central jail, Shazia had travelled from northern Handwara town, nearly 80km from Srinagar, to meet her brother. "My brother is an imam," she said. "He was arrested for using a loudspeaker during his sermon".Shazia said her brother has been booked under the PSA, a law described as "lawless" by Amnesty International. She said her eight-year-old niece had cried for days as she insisted on seeing her father. "We came so she could see her father," Shazia said.

9. Hospitals; Sep., 7, 2019: For the past two weeks, Mohamad Shafi has been at the bedside of his 13-year-old son Rafi, who has been admitted to the nephrology ward of a state-run hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar. Shafi is tired and has hardly had much sleep, but the 54-year-old is prepared to stay at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) hospital for as long as it takes.Rafi suffers from a chronic kidney ailment and needs dialysis every 15 days, a medical procedure that cannot be done at his village in Tangdar area of Kupwara, a frontier district some 100 kilometres northwest of Srinagar."We can't go anywhere for now. My son needs medical care which isn't available in Tangdar. So we are planning to stay at the hospital until the situation improves," Shafi told Al Jazeera. On the nights of August 20 and 21, Shafi took his ailing son to the hospital. He said he was stopped at multiple security checkpoints set up by the Indian security forces along the way. "We were supposed to get his dialysis done on August 15 itself, but couldn't do it. Due to the restrictions, everything was shut and we were scared to go out," said Shafi."But when he fell sick, we pleaded with a neighbour who owns a vehicle to bring us here." Shafi said that dialysis for his son costs 2,800 rupees ($25) each time. While the government-run hospital treats patients at a subsidised price, it does not provide the medicine required for this procedure. Patients are supposed to buy the medicine needed for dialysis from outside the hospital. Amid the lockdown, the medicine is not always available at the nearby pharmacies.A medical staff member at SKIMS hospital, who did not want to be identified, told Al Jazeera that many patients at the hospital have run out of money to buy the critical medicines. At the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar, Surendar Prasad Goyal and his daughter, Priya, who are from Chhattisgarh state in central India, wait anxiously outside the operation theatre.Earlier this week, Goyal's 16-month-old grandson Lucky suffered a serious accident at the brick kiln he and his daughter worked at in Anantnag district of Kashmir.While doctors carried out surgery on Lucky immediately after he was admitted, he is still not stable. Goyal said he was able to reach Srinagar by ambulance at the district hospital in Anantnag. While he had the money he needed for the surgery, he is not sure how long will it last."We have been out of work for days. Whatever little we had saved has been used to pay for the medicines and other bills," he told Al Jazeera. Mumtaza Dar from Beeru village in Budgam district was scheduled to undergo surgery at the SMHS hospital on August 10, but she could not make it to the hospital due to the restrictions placed by the Indian authorities. Forced to delay her medical needs, the chronic piles patient bled for weeks. As her condition at home worsened, her family hired a vehicle to take her to Srinagar last weekend. A doctor at the SMHS hospital, who did not want to be named, said the inflow of patients had dipped by less than half as people were delaying going to the hospital because of the uncertainty over the lockdown. The doctor also told Al Jazeera that at least 60 victims of pellet gun attacks had been treated at his hospital in the last month https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/chaos-crisis-kashmir-hospitals-month-long-lockdown-190905205741695.html

10. Casualty since Aug 5: Sep., 8, 2019: Since August 5, at least 500 protests and incidents of stone throwing have occurred and some 4,000 people have been detained, according to multiple sources. Five civilians have also died

11.

Kashmir Update 38: Week Aug 26, 2019 to Sep.,1,2019

1. Geelani: Aug., 26, 2019: Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani has issued a five-point "programme of action" for resistance against the Indian government and called upon the residents of the occupied region of Jammu and Kashmir, Indian police officials deployed in the territory, and the Pakistani people to "resist" New Delhi's "campaign of brutal repression" following the repealing of Article 370 of the constitution. In an open letter to the people of occupied Kashmir — which is dated August 23 but surfaced on Sunday — Geelani detailed and condemned recent events, which includes stripping the occupied territory of its special status and a continued communications blackout and lockdown that has been in place in the region for the past three weeks. Following are the five points listed by Geelani in his letter: Gillani issued a "heartfelt appeal" to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir to "continue to resist the naked Indian brutality with courage". He urged the resistance to organise "peaceful protests and demonstrations" in their areas: Geelani called upon Indian government officials, bureaucrats as well as police officers employed from the occupied region to "realise that even when they are hand-in-hand in the oppression of their own people, the Indian State does not trust them". He urged them to "stand up and protest" against the "humiliation" inflicted upon them by the Indian government: Geelani urged Kashmiris living outside the occupied territory to "participate in the resistance struggle by acting as ambassadors of the Kashmiri people all over the world"."They should use their knowledge of Kashmir’s history and their own lived experiences to highlight the oppression and brutalities of the Indian State. They should also connect with other marginalised and struggling nationalities in other parts of the world and forge solidarities of resistance.": The Kashmiri leader also called upon the "people of Pakistan and their leaders in particular, and the Muslim ummah in general [to] come forward at this crucial juncture to help the besieged people of Kashmir"."You are an important party to the Kashmir dispute and this is the time for unity and action," he said. "Today, if you once again get ensconced in so-called pragmatism and fail to act decisively, then neither history will not forgive you nor will your coming generations. You must continue to heighten your political and diplomatic initiatives to the highest level and respond to the deceit of the Indian occupation with full strength and determination.": Geelani said that the "Indians State’s occupation and its machinations" threatens not only the people of occupied Kashmir but also the Dogra community of Jammu, Buddhists community in Ladakh, Muslims of Pir Panjal and Kargil. "The Indian State not only wants to occupy our land, but it also intends to destroy our collective identity and brotherhood," he warned. "We must not allow their heinous plot to succeed at any cost. We must all together stand with the resistance struggle to secure our lives, property, and our demographic character."

2. Resistance inside IOK: Aug., 27, 2019: This is not a situation ‘returning to normal’, as the Indian government would have it; this is the outcome of a powder keg set alight — and the ramifications are only just beginning to be felt. Earlier last week, posters appeared overnight urging, citizens to join a march to the office of the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan after Friday prayers, the first such call to the local populace by the Kashmiri leadership. After the weekly congregations, protests erupted in Srinagar’s #Soura district for the third week running despite a ban on public gatherings; hundreds of stone-pelting youth confronted Indian paramilitary forces. Another locality in Srinagar saw a rally with participants, some holding Pakistan flags, vociferously chanting anti-India slogans. At least 152 people are known to have been injured by tear gas and pellets. India, however, has been silent on casualty figures except to say that no one has been killed. When people are willing to defy tens of thousands of security personnel and risk life and limb to protest against an illegal action that has placed them at the mercy of a fascist state, the fiction of normality — to any degree whatsoever — cannot be sustained. Brutality has intensified, so their resolve has been further strengthened. That is the nature of a just and indigenous struggle for freedom, and so it will inevitably prove in the present case.

3. British MP: Aug., 28, 2019: British Member of Parliament Barrister Imran Hussain on Tuesday said that while the meeting held by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the Kashmir issue earlier this month was a "welcome" development; the council still had a role to play to take the dispute to its logical end. , he added. He also expressed concern over the "blockade" in occupied Kashmir and said that while the reports coming from the region — which has been under lockdown for over three weeks — were unconfirmed, the briefings that the British parliamentary delegation had received so far indicated that the events were leading up to a "very worrying situation". "We demand from the international community, and will also bring this up in the British parliament, that the injustice against Kashmiris must stop and must stop imminently," he said.

4. US Congress Woman: Aug., 28, 2019: United States congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday called for "de-escalation" and an "immediate restoration of communication" in occupied Kashmir, where a lockdown is imposed by the Indian government has entered its fourth week. In a tweet, that comes a day after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took place in France, Omar said: "We should be calling for an immediate restoration of communication; respect for human rights, democratic norms, and religious freedom; and de-escalation in [occupied] Kashmir." We should be calling for an immediate restoration of communication; respect for human rights, democratic norms, and religious freedom; and de-escalation in Kashmir. International organizations should be allowed to fully document what is happening on the ground

5. Indian Supreme Court: Aug., 29, 2019: India’s top court on Wednesday took up legal challenges to the government’s decision to revoke Indian-controlled Kashmir’s special status and asked it to explain its stance to the court. The Supreme Court ordered the federal government to file its replies to 14 petitions and inform the court about media restrictions imposed in Kashmir. It said five judges will start a regular hearing on the matter in October. the court allowed an Indian opposition leader to visit Kashmir to meet a party colleague who he said was under detention, but told him not use the visit for political purposes. .”The court also sought a government reply within seven days to a petition filed by Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin seeking restoration of all modes of communication, including mobile internet and landline phone services, to help the media work in Kashmir.

6. Protest: Aug., 29, 2019: At least 500 incidents of protest have broken out in Indian-occupied Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the region of its autonomy and imposed a military clampdown more than three protests have broken out, including in the main city of Srinagar, with police using pellet guns and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Nearly 100 civilians have been injured so far, with a further 300 police and more than 100 paramilitary troopers hurt, the official added. At least 4,000 people have been detained across the valley, security including businessmen, academics, activists and local politicians, with a few released since then. A separate senior government official said on Wednesday that at least 1,350 protesters — described by police as “stone-pelters” — have been arrested since August 5.

7. Medicines: Aug., 29, 2019: Kashmir crisis: Restrictions by government hit medicine supply. Medicine sellers say with disruptions to the internet and reliable phone services; they have not been able to place new orders in weeks.

8. Occupation: Aug., 29, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, the Kashmir valley remains under severe military siege for 25th consecutive day, today, as hundreds of thousands of Indian troops continue to enforce strict curfew and other restrictions to prevent people from staging anti-India demonstrations. The Kashmir valley is under strict lockdown since 5th August when Narendra Modi-led communal government in New Delhi stripped occupied Kashmir of special status by repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The occupation authorities have converted the Kashmir valley into a military garrison by deploying hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and paramilitary personnel in every street, lane and by-lane to stop people from staging demonstrations against the abrogation of special status of the territory. However, people defying the curfew and other restrictions have been staging protests to express their resentment against the Indian occupation and nefarious move of Modi government.

9. HR violations: Aug., 29, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, situation in the territory is worsening with every passing day and people from India are also confirming human rights violations in the territory at the hands of Indian forces. A report by Indian journalist, Barkha Dutt, maintained that the Kashmiris are suffering immensely due to communication blackout as they are unable to talk to their dear ones and number of arrested persons by the Indian forces is not known. Barkha Dutt said that during her Srinagar visit she tried to inquire about arrested Kashmiris. She painted a picture of the occupied territory and termed the situation like a pressure cooker.

10. UNSC: Aug., 30, 2019: A UN Security Council session to discuss the escalation between India and Pakistan over the former state of Jammu and Kashmir will take place on Friday, a UN Security Council source has told TASS. "The chairperson resolved holding the session on Friday morning (starting from 17:00 Moscow time), in the format of closed consultations," the source said

11. Torture: Aug., 30, 2019: Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir have been accused of carrying out beatings and torture in the wake of the government's decision to strip the region of its autonomy. The BBC heard from several villagers who said they were beaten with sticks and cables, and given electric shocks.. Residents in several villages showed me injuries. I visited at least half a dozen villages in the southern districts which have emerged as a hub of anti-India militancy in the past few years. I heard similar accounts from several people in all these villages of night raids, beatings and torture. Doctors and health officials are unwilling to speak to journalists about any patients regardless of ailments, but the villagers showed me injuries alleged to have been inflicted by security forces.. Two brothers alleged that they were woken up and taken to an outside area where nearly a dozen other men from the village had been gathered. Like everyone else we met, they were too afraid of reprisals to reveal their identities."They beat us up. We were asking them: 'What have we done? You can ask the villagers if we are lying, if we have done anything wrong.' But they didn't want to hear anything, they didn't say anything, they just kept beating us," one of them said. “They beat every part of my body. They kicked us, beat us with sticks, gave us electric shocks, beat us with cables. They hit us on the back of the legs. When we fainted they gave us electric shocks to bring us back. When they hit us with sticks and we screamed, they sealed our mouth with mud."We told them we are innocent. We asked why they were doing this? But they did not listen to us. I told them don't beat us, just shoot us. I was asking God to take me, because the torture was unbearable."Another villager, a young man, said the security forces kept asking him to "name the stone-throwers" - referring to the mostly young men and teenage boys who have in the past decade become the face of civilian protests in Kashmir Valley.He said he told the soldiers he didn't know any, so they ordered him to remove his glasses, clothes and shoes."Once I took off my clothes they beat me mercilessly with rods and sticks, for almost two hours. Whenever I fell unconscious, they gave me shocks to revive [me]."If they do it to me again, I am willing to do anything, I will pick up the gun. I can't bear this every day," he said. In one village, I met a man in his early 20s who said the army threatened to frame him if he didn't become an informant against militants. When he refused, he alleged, he was beaten so badly that two weeks later he still cannot lie on his back. “If this continues I'll have no choice but to leave my house. They beat us as if we are animals. They don't consider us human."Another man who showed us his injuries said he was pushed to the ground and severely beaten with "cables, guns, sticks and probably iron rods" by "15-16 soldiers"."I was semi-conscious. They pulled my beard so hard that I felt like my teeth would fall out."He said he was later told by a boy who had witnessed the assault that one soldier tried to burn his beard, but was stopped by another soldier.In yet another village, I met a young man who said his brother had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen - one of the largest groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir- two years ago.He said he was recently questioned at an army camp, where he alleged he was tortured and left with a leg fracture."They tied my hands and legs and hung me upside down. They beat me very badly for more than two hours," he said. The UN Commission on Human Rights has also called for setting up a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir. It has released a 49-page report on alleged excesses by security forces in the region.

12. Children : Aug., 31, 2019: among some 3,000 people detained in Kashmir since Aug. 5, It is unclear how many of the detainees were minors, but The Washington Post has confirmed that at least five Kashmiris under the age of 18 were taken into detention in the weeks since the start of the crackdown.

13. Outlaw: Aug., 31, 2019: India annexed Kashmir. This action violates the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and thus is illegal under international law. It is shocking to see a democracy indulge in brute hegemony. But no surprise here: On Kashmir and elsewhere (Goa, Junagarh, Sikkim, Hyderabad, etc.) , India has always acted as a land-grabbing mafia, rather than a democracy. It is disgraceful that the world’s largest democracy would not allow the Kashmiris, whom it calls its own citizens, to vote on their own destiny. Why would a true democracy fear the outcome of a vote or a plebiscite?

14. OIC: Sep., 1, 2019: The General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday reaffirmed the internationally recognised status of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, contradicting the Indian government's claim that the matter was a bilateral issue between it and Pakistan, a press release issued by the Islamic bloc said. The OIC General Secretariat has been "following with concern" the developments in occupied Kashmir that have occurred since India's unilateral decision to revoke Article 370 of its constitution, which granted special autonomy to occupied Kashmir, on August 5."The General Secretariat reaffirms the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on the internationally recognised status of Jammu and Kashmir dispute and its final disposition through an UN-supervised plebiscite," it said. It called for the "immediate lifting of the curfew, restoration of communication and the respect for the fundamental rights of Kashmiris".

Kashmir Update 37: Week Aug 19, 2019 to Aug ,25,2019

1. Nagaland:Aug., 19, 2019: Nagaland, previously a state of India, has declared independence from the Indian Union as it hoisted its flag, on Thursday, The news was tweeted by BBC anchor Zain Khan who claimed that Nagaland had celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday from the Indian Union and the media had kept quiet about it as India didn’t want to attract hype. “It was not reported much by mainstream media, because India kept hush about it,” he tweeted.

2. Curfew: Aug., 19, 2019: Indian authorities’ re imposed restrictions on movement in parts of Kashmir’s biggest city, Srinagar, on Sunday after overnight clashes between residents and police in which dozens were injured, two senior officials and eyewitnesses said. The officials said security forces had been pelted with stones on 47 occasions on Saturday night in the Kashmir Valley, and more than 20 on Sunday. One said the protests were growing more intense. On Saturday, about two dozen people reported to Srinagar’s two main hospitals with injuries, mainly from pellets fired by Indian forces, on Sunday people were being turned back at multiple roadblocks set up in the city, and there was no sign of detainees being released or internet and mobile phone services being restored.

3. UNSC : Aug., 19, 2019: Afghanistan is justifiably known as the ‘graveyard of empires’. After 19 years, the US is still fighting its longest war there. India’s war in occupied Jammu & Kashmir is over 70 years long. It has been fought by an occupation force of 700,000, seven times the maximum number of troops deployed at any time by the Soviet Union or US-Nato in Afghanistan. The Kashmir war will end only when New Delhi realises that it cannot break the will of the Kashmiri people and that it is doing grievous damage to the Indian state. This future is visible now. First, the illegality of India’s occupation of Kashmir is being widely acknowledged. The Security Council and the UN secretary general have again reaffirmed the UN resolutions requiring a plebiscite in Kashmir. India’s position violates these resolutions. Article 370 of the Indian constitution was supposed to encapsulate the terms under which the Maharaja of Kashmir was supposed to have acceded to India. By removing this article, India has eliminated the only legal argument it had itself advanced to justify its claim to Jammu & Kashmir. By its own legal yardstick, therefore, there now is naked occupation. Second, the Modi government has closed all doors to a peaceful and negotiated resolution of the dispute. It has rejected a bilateral dialogue with Pakistan as well as third-party mediation. Following its Aug 5 unilateral actions, India says there is nothing to negotiate with Pakistan except the “return” of “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” to India. Nor does the Indian government contemplate a negotiated relationship with the Kashmiris. They will be now ruled directly by Delhi’s proconsuls. India has clearly opted for a military solution. The Kashmiri Muslims face an existential threat. They will vigorously oppose being transformed into a minority in their homeland by Hindu colonists. They have no choice but to intensify their freedom struggle.The BJP’s fascist plan to impose a ‘final solution’ by changing Kashmir’s demographic composition will result in serious violations of human rights and humanitarian laws and could lead to a genocide in occupied Kashmir. Third, India’s arrogance and hostility, the Hindutva racism and the visible suffering being imposed on the Kashmiri people have transformed Pakistan from a fearful friend into a bold ally of the Kashmiri freedom struggle.Kashmir has been again proclaimed as a core issue for Pakistan. The BJP’s actions have radically diminished the hope within Pakistan that relations with India can be normalised and the Jammu & Kashmir dispute resolved through negotiations. The principle of a plebiscite prescribed in Security Council resolution 47 (1948) and subsequent resolutions reflects the legal recognition of the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. The UN General Assembly, in Resolution 2649 (1970), and several subsequent resolutions, has repeatedly affirmed the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination, “recognized as being entitled to the right of self-determination”, to “restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal, including armed struggle”. These resolutions, furthermore, also recognize the right of such peoples “to seek and receive all kinds of moral and material assistance” in the “legitimate exercise of their right to self-determination”. The world is fully aware that a Pakistan-India conflict could turn into a disastrous war with an inherent nuclear dimension. To avoid this, the members of the Security Council, other states and international institutions, are likely to resort to preventive measures. The major powers and the UN will make efforts to convince India to reverse its course and engage in a credible peace process with Pakistan and the Kashmiri people. But Modi is drunk with power. He and his RSS coterie (Amit Shah, Ajit Doval et al), are convinced that oppression of the Kashmir’s and aggression towards Pakistan is a winning strategy within India. They will probably spurn the calls for restraint and dialogue. There is a growing sense in Islamabad that the BJP’s heavy-handed strategy is likely to backfire, sparking a major indigenous Kashmiri insurgency which will be difficult to defeat. If India resorts to the threat or use of force, there is renewed confidence in Pakistan that it can neutralize New Delhi, if necessary, by recourse to credible nuclear deterrence. India’s prolonged occupation of Kashmir is likely to turn into an Afghan-like quagmire. It will corrode morale in India’s armed forces, divide its polity and erode its economy. Like the colonial powers of the past, India will ultimately lose the debilitating war against a determined popular insurgency.

4. LoC violations: Aug., 19, 2019: 7 years old, Noor Saddam s/o Noor Mohammad, who was injured by firing of Indian forces across the Line of Control yesterday, died today, May God give him a status of a martyr. Abbaspur AJ&K

5. Israeli connection: Aug., 19, 2019: India’s oppression of Kashmir’s cannot be seen in a vacuum. Over the past decades, the country’s growing ties with Israel have created a situation in which the oppression of Kashmir is linked to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The Indian occupation of Kashmir and the establishment of Israel in 1948, which resulted in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, began only months apart from one another. In July 1949, two years after India and Pakistan declared independence from British rule; the two countries signed an agreement to establish a ceasefire line, dividing the Kashmir region between them. Indian rule in the territory has led to decades of unrest. Although the Indian presence in Kashmir never amounted to settler colonialism like in the Palestinian case, where a large proportion of the existing population of the region was expelled and replaced by a settler population, India has maintained a heavy military presence in the area and has acted as a police state vis-à-vis Kashmiri civilians and politicians. The other reason is based on the convergence of the logic that Israel and India employed in suppressing popular resistance in the occupied territories and armed insurrection in Kashmir, respectively, highlighting issues of security, counterterrorism and the threat of Islamic extremism. In 1992, then Indian Defense Minister Sharad Pawar admitted to Indian-Israeli cooperation on issues of counterterrorism, including exchanging information on so-called terrorist groups, national doctrines, and operational experience – in other words, strategies, methods, and tactics of occupation and domination. This lead to a shift in India’s position on Palestine, which began mirroring Israel’s insistence that Kashmir was primarily a matter of Indian domestic concern. Relations between India and Israel grew even closer with the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1990s. The BJP, which today is led by Modi, adheres to the political ideology known as Hindutva, or Hindu Nationalism. The history of Hindu nationalists’ affinity with Zionism is well documented by professor Sumantra Bose of the London School of Economics, who traces it back to the 1920s when Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the father of Hindutva, supported the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The BJP and other Hindu Nationalists have since become obsessed with replicating the Zionist project in turning a constitutionally secular India into a Hindu ethnocratic state. Many of the BJP’s aspirations and policy proposals for Kashmir are imitations of extant Israeli practices in Palestine. Key among these is the desire to build Israeli-style Hindu-only settlements in Kashmir as a way of instigating demographic change. For example, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a non-state volunteer Hindu paramilitary volunteer group to which the BJP are affiliated, have long desired the repeal of the state subject laws that have maintained the demographic make-up of Kashmir. These changes are clearly inspired by the Israeli settlement model, as expressed by BJP lawmaker Ravinder Raina, who, in 2015, stated that the government of India will use its army to protect Hindu-only settlements in Jammu and Kashmir. This type of securitization and protection would entail an expansion of the security apparatus that already restricts the flow of life for most Kashmiris, using them as a pretext to justify a new level of domination and intrusiveness. Aside from the parallels in policy objectives, the discourse used by supporters of the current regime in India resemble old Israeli refrains. Both Israel and India claim to be exceptional democracies, despite their treatment of large swaths of populations under their control. Additionally, both Zionists and Hindu Nationalists argue that the existence of many Muslim countries in the world necessitates a Jewish and Hindu state, respectively. This perpetuates the lie that Palestinians and Indian Muslims can supposedly live elsewhere, yet choose to live in Palestine and India only to antagonize Jews and Hindus. Meanwhile, the variety of tactics used by India to control the civilian population of Kashmir strongly resembles those used by Israel in Palestine. These include, “arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, curfews, collective punishment, administrative detention, torture, rape and sexual abuse, the suppression of freedom of speech and assembly, house demolitions, and so forth.” The revocation of Articles 35A and 370 paves the way for Indian presence in Kashmir to further mirror Zionist presence in historic Palestine, since this allows the Indian state to rule Kashmir directly without the need for Kashmir’s state legislature, which was also recently abolished. Furthermore, it facilitates the execution of plans to alter the demographic make-up of Kashmir by allowing Indians from across the country to purchase property and settle there under the protection of the Indian military presence, just as the demographic make-up of the West Bank continues to be altered with the construction of Jewish-only settlements.The Kashmiri state legislature and its main politicians, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have long acted as middlemen who manage the natives on behalf of the occupying power, facilitating the occupation in much the same way as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does in the West Bank. Just as Edward Said once referred to the Oslo Accords as “an instrument of Palestinian surrender,” many Kashmiris regard the 1975 Indira-Sheikh Accord as a betrayal of past liberation movements. The Accord allowed previously popular Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah to become the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in exchange for forfeiting the longstanding Kashmiri demand for self-determination. With the unprecedented change of Jammu and Kashmir’s legal status from a special status state to a union territory without a legislative assembly, India’s colonial domination over the contested region will only become more overtly coercive in representing Indian interests. This is a crucial development to be observed closely by Palestinians who live in areas where the Israeli occupation is currently facilitated by the Palestinian Authority. As things move forward, it is increasingly clear that the colonial processes in Kashmir and Palestine will become further interdependent on one another. What Israel does in Palestine is likely to happen in Kashmir, and what India does in Kashmir is likely to happen in Palestine. In aiming to dismantle Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism, it is essential to observe its global consequences, for it is highly likely that these interdependent processes will require a multilateral confrontation.

6. Schools: Aug., 19, 2019: The main government offices and some schools in Indian-administered Kashmir have reopened after a two-week shutdown amid fear and tension over the government's decision to revoke the region's autonomy. Government employees on Monday resumed their duties at the Civil Secretariat, the headquarters of the Indian administration, following directions issued last week. The directions also included the reopening of nearly 200 primary schools in selected areas of the disputed region. Most schools, however, were empty as wary parents refused to send their children to school while the situation remains tense amid low-intensity and sporadic protests. . the government was trying to "manufacture normalcy" by risking the lives of younger children amid the worst crisis Kashmir Valley had witnessed in decades. Nasir Mir, an engineer in Srinagar, told Al Jazeera that the situation was not ready for schools to open. "The government wants children in uniforms to be video graphed for the media and sell it as normalcy in Kashmir," he said. Markets and shops remain closed in Srinagar. Transport services, including trains and a fleet of privately-owned buses, have not yet returned to the roads."We are not going to open our shops. We feel it is a dangerous time irrespective of what social class one belongs to," said a Srinagar resident who owns a shop in a local mall. "We will wait for some time.

7. US Response: Aug., 20, 2019: U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said that India's decision to change the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir "must be addressed" before it leads to a further escalation of tensions with Pakistan. "Hope the Trump administration will provide assistance to both Pakistan and India to find a way to de-escalate the current crisis. The last thing the region and the world needs is further military confrontations between India and Pakistan over Kashmir," the senator added. The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs adds: In response to the steps India has taken to revise the status of Jammu and Kashmir, Rep. Eliot L. Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement:“As the world’s largest democracy, India has an opportunity to demonstrate for all its citizens the importance of protecting and promoting equal rights, including freedom of assembly, access to information, and equal protections under the law. “Transparency and political participation are the cornerstones of representative democracies, and we hope the Indian government will abide by these principles in Jammu and Kashmir. And at the same time Pakistan must refrain from any retaliatory aggression—including support for infiltrations across the Line of Control—and take demonstrable action against the terrorist infrastructure on Pakistan’s soil,” Engel and Menendez said.

8. US intervention: Aug., 21, 2019: The United States called on India on Tuesday to quickly release detainees and restore basic liberties in Indian-occupied Kashmir to ease tensions in the flashpoint region.“We continue to be very concerned by reports of detentions, and continued restrictions on the residents of the region,” a senior State Department official told reporters.“We urge respect for individual rights, compliance with legal procedures and an inclusive dialogue,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity after returning from a visit to the region. At least 4,000 people have been detained in Indian-occupied Kashmir since then.

9. ICJ: Aug., 21, 2019: The government announced on Tuesday it would take the Kashmir dispute with India to the International Court of Justice, after New Delhi revoked special status for occupied Kashmir earlier this month, to the fury of Islamabad. “We have decided to take Kashmir case to the International Court of Justice,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told ARY News TV. Separately, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan confirmed to reporters following a cabinet meeting that an in-principle approval had been granted by the cabinet to take the issue to the world court. She said that the case will be presented with a focus on the violation of human rights and genocide in occupied Kashmir. A panel of lawyers of international repute would be engaged to pursue the case on behalf of Pakistan at the United Nations' top court, Awan added.

10. Resistance: Aug., 22, 2019: Each of the dozen or so entrances have been blocked with makeshift barricades of bricks, corrugated metal sheets, wooden slabs and felled tree trunks. Groups of youths armed with stones congregate behind the biggest obstacles. Their aim: to keep Indian security forces, and particularly the paramilitary police, out of the area #Soura, home to about 15,000 people, is becoming the epicenter of resistance to the government's removal on August 5 of the partial autonomy enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state.

11. Women: Aug., 22, 2019: On August 10, Manohar Lal Khattar, chief minister of Haryana, was quoted as saying: "Some people are now saying that as Kashmir is open, brides will be brought from there. But jokes apart, if [the gender] ratio is improved, then there will be a right balance in society." Earlier, the BJP's Vikram Saini, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, said: "Muslim party workers should rejoice in the new provisions. They can now marry the white-skinned women of Kashmir . Nivedita Menon, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said: "These are proclamations of conquest and plunder, and reveal the real intention behind the abrogation of 370.".

12. Iran: Aug, 22, 2019: “We have good relations with the government of India, but the Indian government is expected to adopt a fair policy towards the noble people of Kashmir, so that this region’s Muslim people would not be oppressed,” said Khamenei during a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members on Wednesday.

13. Media Access severely limited: Aug., 24, 2019: In the two weeks since India stripped Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status and brought the Himalayan region under its direct control, news reporting has become difficult and local newspapers have either not published or struggled to deliver slim editions. That is not just due to the communications blackout caused by disconnected landlines, mobile phones and the internet, but because it has been tough to access troubled areas or sources in a region being patrolled by thousands of security forces. In Srinagar Kashmir that turned into a maze of barricades to keep a lid on protests, New Delhi-based freelance journalist Sonia Sarkar had to constantly navigate checkpoints during her three-day trip to the city last week. And while the administration is handing out access passes to journalists, she said security officers often discouraged her from reaching downtown areas known to be hotspots. “There is an attempt to create a perception of fear, a fear psychosis to prevent you going ahead.” While Sarkar managed to get around much of the city, she was turned back before she could reach Soura, a densely populated neighborhood that some believe is turning into the focal point of resistance to New Delhi’s decision to change Kashmir’s status. The BBC and Al-Jazeera reported a mass protest in Soura on August 9. The government first denied the demonstration happened, then said about 1,000 to 1,500 people took part. Local media in the Kashmir valley have had a hard time printing newspapers, gathering news, accessing sources or filing reports. Since August 5 Kashmir Times had not printed its Srinagar edition until now (Wednesday). Editors have struggled to connect with their staff. "Until about two days ago there was not a single communication from our staffers in Srinagar and from different districts in the valley. There was a complete information vacuum," according to Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times, who is based in Jammu, the Hindu majority region that lies outside the Kashmir valley. And despite some respite in the strict security clampdown, many areas in the Kashmir valley remain off limits. “It's only in Srinagar there is some movement. But they are unable to go into the most affected areas.” Reporters usually gather information on people wounded in protests because “I was nimble and without excessive camera gear.” Taking videos on regular broadcast cameras was tricky, barring a few areas from where most TV channels work. “The big broadcast cameras only came out in places where there was relative calm,” said Bhonsle

14. French UK: Aug., 23, 2019: French President Emmanuel Macron has met with India's prime minister, discussing climate and other concerns ahead of the G-7 summit but also pressing for dialogue with Pakistan over the crisis in occupied Kashmir. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also weighed in on Kashmir on Tuesday telling Modi in a phone call that the issue was one for India and Pakistan to resolve between themselves through dialogue.

15. Genocide Watch: Aug., 23, 2019: a global organization dedicated to the prevention of genocide, has issued two warning alerts for India — one for the occupied territory of Kashmir and the other for Assam state. According to the website, a Genocide Watch' warning is declared by the NGO when there are signs of the early stages of a genocide in progress. In view of these developments, Genocide Watch has called upon the United Nations and its members to warn India not to commit genocide in occupied Kashmir. At least 4,000 people, mostly young men, have been detained in Indian-occupied Kashmir since a security lockdown and communications blackout was imposed to curb unrest after New Delhi stripped the disputed region of statehood.

16. UN Human Rights Experts: Aug., 23, 2019: A group of UN human rights experts on Thursday urged India to end the communications blackout imposed on Kashmir, warning it amounted to “collective punishment” and risked exacerbating regional tensions. They voiced alarm over the measures imposed by India since it revoked autonomous rule in occupied Kashmir on Aug 5, including a near-total communications blackout. “The shutdown of the internet and telecommunication networks, without justification from the government, are inconsistent with the fundamental norms of necessity and proportionality,” the five experts, who are independent and do not speak for the world body, said in a statement.“The blackout is a form of collective punishment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, without even a pretext of a precipitating offence,” they said, describing the restrictions imposed as “intrinsically disproportionate”. The experts also voiced concern about the curfew imposed across the region, with “massive numbers of troops (brought in) to enforce restrictions on the freedom of movement and of peaceful assembly, particularly in the Kashmir Valley.”The UN experts said they had received information suggesting an increase in arrests of political figures, journalists, human rights activists, protesters and others. And they said they were deeply concerned by reports that security forces have been conducting night raids on private homes, rounding up young people. They also expressed grave concern over allegations that the whereabouts of some of those detained was unknown, warning of “the general heightened risk of enforced disappearances, which may proliferate against the backdrop of mass arrests and restricted access to the internet and other communications networks”. They also noted the “excessive use of force against protesters, including the use of live ammunition.”

17. UN Trust ship: Aug., 24, 2019: The situation in India-occupied Kashmir (IOK) is ripe to be placed under the UN Trusteeship Council for administration for at least 10 years. The situation is not only volatile and an impending catastrophe, but a looming nuclear threat which got an impetus after Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s speech the other day — reviewing his country’s No First Use (NFU) policy of nuclear weapons in case of war. According to the UN Charter, Trusteeship Council is a permanent organ of the United Nations which, since its inception in October 1945, has been responsible for administering territories towards self-determination. The last trust territory was Palau which got independence in October 1994.

18. ICJ and Kashmir: Aug., 25, 2019: Article 370 was designed to protect those rights and record a “solemn compact”. Neither India nor the State can unilaterally amend or abrogate the Article except in accordance with its terms. , subsequent expansions of India’s central legislative powers through acts ratified by the Indian Parliament were as illegal as the revocation of Article 370 and 35A. The move, therefore, has grievously aggrieved the people of India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) because it has violated an agreement signed in 1947 between the then two sovereign entities –the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union. As such the people of IoK or their representatives have the right to take their case to the International Court of Justice for redress. However, since these people are now in complete lockdown, it is the responsibility of Kashmiri diaspora to go to the ICJ on behalf of IoK.

19.

Kashmir Update 36: Week Aug 12, 2019 to Aug ,18,2019

1. Sikh support for Kashmiris: Aug., 12, 2019: extending their solidarity with Kashmiri people and their cause, the Dal Khalsa and Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar (Mann) today fired a salvo against Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) for supporting Indian Govt’s move to strip J&K of its special status. Dal Khalsa, United Akali Dal (UAD), Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar (Mann) has announced to mark August 15 as Black Day Pertinently, Dal Khalsa, SAD (Amritsar), United Akali Dal and Sikh Youth of Punjab has joined hands to stage protests on Independence Day against the atrocities, political subjugation and denial of rights to Sikhs in the last seven decades. Their activists will hold a two hour demonstration at 15 district headquarters. 12/08/2019 Sikh Groups Express Solidarity With Kashmiris; To Mark August 15 As Black Day in Punjab They clarified that their boycott of August 15 shouldn’t be construed as they were against Indian people. They said they were against the policies and discriminative attitude of Indian state. Referring to Narendar Modi’s address to the countrymen in which he said article 370 and 35-A paved way to secessionism in Kashmir

2. China, Maoists: Aug., 12, 2019: The main points of the Chinese view are: (a) there were only four points of dispute on the line of actual control. Regarding area in Ladakh under dispute, China had declared in 1963 that she would vacate the area in which India had set up 43 military posts prior-to the War of 1962. However the border adjoining Baltistan and the Dardic States being under Pakistan’s control, India should first settle the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan. (b) The Aksai Chin road is vital to China, because it links Western Tibet to Sinkiang This road, built by the Chinese from Shigatse in Tibet to Yechen in Sinkiang, covers a distance of 2,000 miles at a height varying from 11,000 ft. to 16,000 ft. through Aksai Chin. In Akasai Chin the road passes through Shabidulla (once the outpost of the State of Jammu and Kashmir) and ends at Kokyar where Sinkiang begins. Even though the journey is difficult and arduous, the Chinese use it in preference to the Keriya route which passes East of Aksai Chin and also links Rhutog in Western Tibet to Khotan in Sinkiang. The Aksai Chin road, together with the highway from Kashgar to the Khunjerab Pass and onwards into Pakistan, forms part of the lines of communication in the two remote non-Han autonomous republics, namely Tibet and Sinkiang). (c) Part of India’s border with the Sinkiang autonomous region is under Pakistan’s control since 1947. So, again, India should first settle the dispute with’ Pakistan first (As per Pakistan’s and Azad Kashmir’s governments’ agreement, the Northern Areas are under administrative control of Pakistan. (Facsimile of the agreement is given in Yousaf Saraf’s Kashmiris Fight for Freedom). The Northern Areas include Gilgit, Hunza, and Baltistan, except the frontier from Siachen Glacier in the West to the Karakoram Pass and Aksai Chin. (The areas are of importance to upper Ladakh as the two rivers, the Shyok and Mibra have their origin here in Rumo and Siachin Glaciers respectively. The two rivers join and then fall into the Indus River and serve the water needs of the whole area of Ladakh North of Indus.) (d) The provisional agreement between China and Pakistan in respect of the area west of Siachin Glacier in March 1963 gives the area of Shaksgam, which abuts on the Siachin to China. Some areas of Tapndumbash, Pamir and Raksam have been given by China to Pakistan. (e) The 1963 agreement between Pak and China covers the border right up to the Karakoram Pass. These areas will need tripartite negotiations when political conditions become favorable. An advisor to the Chinese foreign ministry claims that India illegally occupies 90,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the eastern sector, 33,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the western sector, and 2,000 sq. km of Chinese territory in the middle sector. Let India realize that Indian Union is a loose sally, a cauldron of centrifugal movement, at rest for the time being. Visualise what happens to this Union if China begins supply of weapons to various insurgent groups fighting in northeastern India. China hem India in from both, the eastern and the western flanks. India arrested several intellectuals for links to separatist movements (indiatvnews dated August 30, 2018). These letters `establish links between the Naxals and Kashmiri separatists’. They `suggest support of Congress leaders to extreme Leftists agenda, and even give proof that the arrested accused were involved in procuring weapons and arming the rebels through international routes’. The letters were written by, or on behalf of P Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, and Sudha Bharadwaj. Police story `exposes The Naxalites want to carve out an independent zone extending from Nepal through Bihar and then to Dandakarnaya region extending upto Tamil Nadu to give them access to the Bay of Bengal as well as the Indian Ocean’.Several pro-Naxalite revolutionary bodies (People’s War, Maoist Communist Centrei, and Communist Party of Nepal) merged their differences (October 15, 2004) to achieve their sea-access aim. India may blame Pakistan for the freedom movement (‘insurgency’ or ‘militancy’) in occupied Kashmir. But, who shall she blame for the Naxalite insurgency in Andhra Pradesh and other Indian states? This is a movement against economic deprivation and brutality of the state or central government’s law-enforcing agencies China supports Pakistan’s view on Kashmir. The portents are that disputed Kashmir could trigger disintegration of the Indian `Union’, provided China decides to support centrifugal movements, particularly the Naxalbari. Insurgncies and wars are ugly but they continue to dot history pages. China needs to re-think through emerging geo-political scenario. With obdurate India still unwilling to talk on Kashmir, despite China dimension, solution of India-Pak-China Kashmir tangle is nowhere in the offing.

3. Separatists come together: Aug., 12, 2019: The dilution of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories have made two extremist groups in the northeastern region come together and give a call to boycott the Independence Day celebrations on August 15“The outrageous scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian constitution and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir without the consent of the people of the State show India’s arrogance and blatant disregard for democratic principles,” the two groups said in a statement. “Shutting down of the State machinery and the house arrest of prominent leaders portend the kind of... policies that would be applied to the people of the northeastern region as well. Freedom from India’s colonial yoke is the only way to save ourselves from being swallowed by Hindustan,” the statement said.

4. COAS: Aug., 13, 2019: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said that India is trying to shift global attention from its illegal Kashmir move to the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistan, and must not be given any chance to cover up its crimes in IOK.

5. China on Modi’s move: Aug., 13, 2019: By revoking Jammu and Kashmir's relative autonomy and by likewise revoking a decree which forbade non-Kashmiris from buying property in the disputed territory, India's status in relation to Kashmir has been inexorably changed from that of a party to a conflict to an instigator of an unnecessary and counterproductive provocation. There was no proximate justification for the controversial move neither based on any event within Kashmir nor based on any global movements around the disputed region. Due to this reality, it can be deduced that the move was not taken with clear thinking but was instead an attempt to distract from domestic economic issues, global economic instability and India's own trading difficulties with the US. But unlike mere nationalist rhetoric which has become ever more common in India, New Delhi's new move is already having very real consequences. As things stood, India and China had been in the midst of the second year of a reconciliation effort in the wake of the 2017 Doklam standoff. Although India's nationalistic government has prohibited New Delhi from taking a pragmatic win-win approach to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, trade and related joint economic endeavor were progressing adequately between China and India. Likewise, Pakistan and India, whose relations have always been tense, had been in the midst of de-escalating tensions. For China, the issue is less central than for Pakistan but when India's move in relation to Ladakh is taken into account, this too can be classified as a counterproductive provocation against China. Prior to August 5, Ladakh had been part of Jammu and Kashmir but under the changed status in Indian Constitution - though not international law - Ladakh has been separated from Jammu and Kashmir by New Delhi and will now be classed as a new separate territory of India to be ruled directly by New Delhi. When Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah loudly claimed that India seeks to establish rule over Aksai Chin in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, it displayed an attitude of hostility against China that is incompatible with a productive partnership based on realism and shared economic goals Although the status quo in Kashmir has been poor since 1947, this month's unilateral moves by India have discarded a fragile status quo and in so doing have violated the letter and spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 47..The move which amounts to an annexation of a disputed territory now makes the UN mandated plebiscite for Kashmir all the more difficult to achieve while a crackdown on electronic communication, media and free movement goes against the interests of the most basic human rights for Kashmir's civilians.

6. American view: Aug., 13, 2019: Someone (an American) commented "If Modi and India can get away with the Atrocities they have committed against Kashmir with such censorship and silence. Could they not do the same to Sikh population in India later on when its more convenient!? How can they not fear being next in line? USA cannot seem to say the word NO to India, this is very dangerous!! As their aggression will continue more and more until the USA say the word NO! The longer we wait, the harder it will be to say NO!"

7. Intifada Kashmir: Aug., 13, 2019: Yet another intifada is on the cards in India-held Kashmir (IHK), which many believe would have a far-reaching impact on the geopolitical landscape of the region. While the international community is still assessing the probable responses by India and Pakistan, non-state actors are also closely monitoring the situation and exploring the spaces to exploit. The Indian revocation of the special status of occupied Jammu & Kashmir has shut down almost all prospects for it to resolve the issue through dialogue, either with the Kashmiri leadership or with Pakistan. One wonders if India did not have any alternatives other than what it has already demonstrated in the form of strict security measures, communication blackouts, and draconian administrative measures to run the affairs of J&K. The use of some counter-violent extremism, or CVE, terms like ‘reintegration’ and ‘mainstreaming’ by India’s policymakers and political circles suggest they consider the entire IHK population to be radical. Apparently, India is missing the mega blueprint to absorb the shocks of the measures it has taken to ‘fix’ the Kashmir issue once and for all. Obviously in the absence of such plans, an intifada would be blamed on Pakistan. This would be an easy way out for India, but would come at a cost. Not prepared to counter the Indian move to revoke the special status of IHK, Pakistan is also confronted with a delicate challenge. However, an even more critical question for Pakistan is how to respond to the emerging intifada. The new intifada will have different characteristics from earlier movements. While it will mainly comprise nonviolent political expression, violent emotions will also be there. Emotions are running equally high amongst pro-independent, pro-Pakistan and ultra-radical segments of the resistance movements in occupied Kashmir. They can resort to violent actions separately or form an alliance to increase the impact of the intifada. Groups within India can trigger a long-term resistance movement in IHK. Pakistan is morally and politically bound to support the Kashmiris. However, supporting the resistance movement will have serious consequences for Pakistan. The poor state of Pakistan’s economy, internal political crises and struggling diplomacy are factors which will limit active support to the resistance movement in IHK. The IMF and FATF swords are hovering over the country’s economy. The world at large, including friends and foes of Pakistan, are least receptive to violent resistance movements. India knows this, and its media and opinion makers are highlighting this point continuously. India has chosen the best time for revoking the IHK special status when Pakistan is facing multiple challenges and trying to regain its geopolitical importance through facilitating the peace process in Afghanistan. Pakistan has remained a scapegoat for US failures in Afghanistan. Similarly, India has always blamed Pakistan for its own failures in IHK. But the situation is different now, and it could be difficult to keep the escalation of tension at the LoC and Working Boundary to manageable levels. Meanwhile, the dynamics of the insurgency in Kashmir will be different this time, where Pakistan will not be in a position to influence the resistance movement. As a result, Pakistan-India tensions could at anytime turn into conventional warfare; Prime Minister Imran Khan has already indicated this in his parliamentary speech. How can Pakistan avoid this situation?

8. Eid day: Aug., 13 ,2109: Indian troops clamped tight restrictions on mosques across Indian-occupied Kashmir for Monday's Eidul Azha festival, fearing anti-government protests over the stripping of the Muslim-majority region's autonomy, according to residents. The Jama Masjid, was ordered closed and people were only allowed to pray in smaller local mosques so that no big crowds could gather, witnesses said . Internet and phone communications have been cut and tens of thousands of troop reinforcements have flooded the main city of Srinagar and other Kashmir Valley towns and villages. Authorities had eased restrictions temporarily on Sunday to let residents buy food and supplies for Eid, one of the most important Muslim festivals of the year. But security was tightened again after sporadic protests involving hundreds of people during the day, residents said. Police vans toured the streets late on Sunday telling people to stay indoors. Several thousand people took part in one rally after Friday prayers that was broken up with tear gas and shotgun pellets.

9. China on Kashmir: Aug., 13, 2019: Beijing is opposed to New Delhi's Kashmir move, especially its decision to carve the Ladakh region out of Jammu and Kashmir state and administer it federally. The Chinese government spokesperson called the move "unacceptable" and said that it would help Pakistan in defending "its legitimate rights and interests" in the Kashmir region. Qureshi claimed that China "offered complete" support to Pakistan, should Islamabad take the matter to the UN Security Council. On Sunday, India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Beijing on a pre-scheduled three-day visit. China, on Monday, insisted that India needs to play a "constructive role" for regional peace and stability. China has historically sided with Pakistan on regional matters, but Beijing's backing is important for both Islamabad and New Delhi. "China is always opposed to India's inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction," said the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, following India's Kashmir move."Recently India has continued to undermine China's territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law," Hua added. "India's action is unacceptable and would not have any legal effect." China is investing $57 billion (€51 billion) in Pakistani infrastructure and energy projects, more than in any other South Asian country. The economic alliance with its powerful neighbor has helped solidify Pakistan's claims to the Himalayan foothills. Some analysts say that New Delhi's decision to directly govern Ladakh is a geopolitical move. Sameer Patil, a researcher at the International Security Studies at Gateway House, an Indian foreign policy think tank, told DW that Chinese influence in Ladakh has been increasing over time, largely due to its economic incentives in the area. At the same time, according to Patil, the region has suffered due to a lack of interest from the Indian government. "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision has been guided by both administrative and geopolitical factors. New Delhi was concerned that Ladakh wasn't receiving attention, which allowed China to increase its clout there," Patil said. "China expected India to resolve the territorial dispute by implementing new border mechanisms between the two countries and not within India's domestic framework alone," Patil said, adding that Modi's Kashmir move will naturally irk Beijing. But Narayani Basu, a New Delhi-based author and foreign policy expert, believes that the Kashmir crisis won't have a huge impact on Sino-India relations. "China, at the moment, is dealing with a number of domestic and global issues, so it cannot solely focus on Kashmir," Basu told DW “There will be diplomatic posturing from both sides, but any major fallout is unlikely," Basu added. "China, although sharply critical of India, has said that the responsibility for maintaining peace in the region lies with both India and Pakistan. Diplomatically, it has put the onus on both Islamabad and New Delhi," Basu said.

10. Minorities support Kashmir: Aug., 13, 2019: Extending their solidarity with Kashmiri people and their cause, radical Sikh organization Dal Khalsa besides SAD (Amritsar), United Akali Dal and Sikh Youth of Punjab have decided to observe August 15 as Black Day. The militants groups of Northeast, including United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) have appealed to the people of the region to boycott the Independence Day celebration

11. Delimitation: Aug., 14, 2019: Election Commission held internal discussions on the delimitation of constituencies ahead of elections to the new Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, former Chief Election Commissioner and ex-officio member of the Delimitation Commission N. Gopalaswami said the increase in the number of seats was “an issue which is a political decision of Parliament”. After that, he said, the Delimitation Commission would start the process as per the law. The number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the UT of J&K would be increased from 107 to 114. The Act also specifies that delimitation will be based on the 2011 census till 2026.

12. Human rights activists: Aug., 14, 2019: 69 International human rights activists and organizations sign letter to Prime Minister Modi on situation in Jammu & Kashmir”Dear Prime Minister Modi, We, the undersigned civil society activists and organizations, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and academics from around the globe, write to express our deep concern regarding the recent actions your government has taken over the past week in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. The state’s unilateral repeal of the special status of Jammu & Kashmir, the reconfiguration of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, and the process through which these legislative changes were imposed in the midst of a complete lock-down of the region, are egregious. These actions violate the people of Jammu & Kashmir’s fundamental right to self-determination under international law and their right to participate in crucial decisions that affect their lives. Further, these actions have sent shock waves of fear and uncertainty among the people of Jammu & Kashmir and contravene both domestic and international law. Beyond the questionable legality of your actions with regard to the Constitution, we are concerned over reports that over 500 people have been arbitrarily arrested or placed under house arrest in Jammu & Kashmir over the past days and such treatment appears to be continuing. We understand that some of these may include activists, academics, and opponents, who have been detained under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) of 1978 or the Jammu & Kashmir Preventive Detention Act of 1964. We recall that the PSA has been widely criticized for violating international human rights law, as it operates outside normal judicial safeguards and oversight and thus denies due process to individuals arrested under it. Concerns regarding abuse of the PSA, as well as the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act of 1990 and the Disturbed Areas Act, have been raised repeatedly over the years by local and international civil society organizations, as well as the United Nations. Regrettably, your government has continued to abuse these laws and has taken no action to align the above laws with India’s international human rights obligations. We are extremely worried about the ongoing curfews and curfew-like conditions and the shut-down of communications inside Jammu & Kashmir. The violations of rights to freedom of expression and freedom of movement that these restrictions entail create conditions of psychosocial trauma. These curbs constitute severe violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which India ratified in 1979 and under no circumstances, can be justified in the guise of public order. We strongly believe that for India to be able to continue to define itself as a democracy it must allow public discourse and debate on these issues. This includes ensuring that the people of Jammu & Kashmir are able to exercise their right to take part as primary stakeholders in the critical decisions regarding their future. This certainly cannot be achieved by blocking communications, detaining political leaders and civil society activists, and restricting movements within Jammu & Kashmir. In line with these concerns, we respectfully request that your government take the following measures with the utmost urgency:• Immediately revoke the curfew and its attendant conditions and reinstate communications in and out of Jammu & Kashmir; • Immediately and unconditionally release from detention all those who have been arbitrarily detained or arrested under the PSA or other legislation over the past several days;

• Immediately and unconditionally restore the status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution of India; and• Implement in full the recommendations made in 2018 and again in 2019 by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with regards to Jammu & Kashmir, including respecting the right to self-determination, and guaranteeing fundamental freedoms. We hope that you will heed these recommendations. Please note that this letter will be made public. Yours sincerely,

13. UNSC: Aug., 14, 2019: Pakistan has drawn the attention of the United Nations Security Council presidency to the grave threat to peace and security in South Asia after India annexed occupied Kashmir and called for summoning an emergency meeting of the council to discuss the rapidly aggravating situation, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he had written a letter to the UNSC president, asking the latter to convene an emergency meeting of the council to discuss India’s “illegal actions” that also “violate UN resolutions on Kashmir”. There are 11 UN resolutions on Kashmir, with three specifically pertaining to the status of the occupied region. Mr Qureshi further called for circulation of the letter among members of the Security Council. Under the rules governing the convening of meetings, the president of the council may call for a meeting if a dispute or situation is brought to the attention of the Security Council under Article 35 or Article 11 (3) of the Charter, or if the General Assembly makes recommendations or refers any question to the council under Article 11 (2), or if the Secretary-General brings to the attention of the council any matter under Article 99. Apparently, Pakistan is asking the UNSC president to call a meeting under Article 35 of the UN Charter which pertains to any situation that may lead to conflict and endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.

14. OIC: Aug.,15,2019: The General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday expressed concern over the curtailment of religious freedoms of Muslims in Indian-occupied Kashmir, terming it a "serious violation of international human rights law".It denounced the "complete lockdown" imposed by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir even on the occasion of Eidul Azha, when Muslims in the region were prevented from participating in a religious congregation. "Denial of religious rights constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and is an affront to Muslims across the world," a tweet by the OIC official account said.

15. Israel and Kashmir: Aug., 15, 2019: Fisk points to role of the state of Israel in the burgeoning tensions between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. Indian bombing of Pakistan after the Pulwama attack has revealed the close ties that have formed between Modi’s India and Israel, particularly between their militaries. As Fisk notes, following the bombing, Indian media heavily promoted the fact that Israeli-made bombs — specifically, Rafael Spice-2000 “smart bombs” — had been used in the attack. Fisk’s report details the very close ties that have been forged between the Israeli and Indian militaries in recent years. For instance, according to Fisk, India was Israel’s arms industry’s largest client in 2017, spending nearly $700 million on Israeli air-defense systems, radars, ammunition and missiles. Many of those weapons had been promoted as “combat tested” after being used against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the world’s largest open-air prison. That same year, India represented 49 percent of Israel’s arms export market. In addition to arms purchases, many Indian soldiers have traveled to the Negev desert to be trained by Israeli “special commando” units, and at least 16 elite Indian “Garud” commandos were recently based at two separate Israeli air bases. Just as troubling as this military cooperation is that ethno nationalism and anti-Islam rhetoric are increasingly becoming the basis for the relationship between the two countries. For instance, a recent Haaretz article, written by Shairee Malhotra and cited by Fisk, noted that “the India-Israel relationship is also commonly being framed in terms of a natural convergence of ideas between their ruling BJP and Likud parties.” Other reports have noted that this has translated into more “aggressive” policies from Modi targeting Kashmir and Muslims elsewhere in India and that continued Israeli goading of Modi’s anti-Islam tendencies could make life much more difficult for the estimated 180 million Muslims living in India.

16. Roy, International press: Aug., 16, 2019: Mili Mitra, The Washington Post Global Opinions editor wrote last week that “as the Modi government places political leaders under house arrest, risks violence along the Pakistan border and reneges on a constitution promise without debate or deliberation, Indians can no longer afford to stay silent. The administration is making India less democratic and stable, one authoritarian step at a time.” She writes that Kashmiri Muslims fears regarding the saffronisation of the state are warranted based on Modi and his party’s past practices, and that “flagrant disregard for democracy and secularism is not new” for the BJP under Modi and Amit Shah. The New York Times marked Indian Independence Day by publishing a scathing rebuke of the BJP’s lockdown of Kashmir, penned by award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy.“…it looks very much as though our government has gone rogue,” she writes, by turning “Kashmir into a giant prison camp”.

17. “The passing of the act was welcomed in Parliament by the very British tradition of desk-thumping. There was a distinct whiff of colonialism in the air. The masters were pleased that a recalcitrant colony had finally, formally, been brought under the crown. For its own good. Of course.” “In the 72 years since [independence], successive Indian governments have undermined terms of the Instrument of Accession until all that was left of it was the skeletal structure. Now even that has been shot to hell.” Roy had also written that “Like true colonials, many in India who are so alert to infringements of their own rights and liberties, have a completely different standard for Kashmiris.”An editorial in The Globe and Mail – Canada’s most widely read newspaper – notes that “Modi has parlayed democratic success into the fist of a strongman.” editorial opens by noting that India, which calls itself the ‘world’s biggest democracy’, “is heading down a dangerous and decidedly undemocratic road with its decision to impose direct rule on Kashmir.” Meanwhile, in a story titled “Did BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters fabricate reports of unrest in Kashmir?”, Indian fact-checking website Alt News brilliantly rubbishes the claims of India’s government and its ‘independent’ propaganda media that footage of unrest and violence against protesters was fabricated with point by point provision of proof to back up the authenticity of the footage. The story notes the Indian government’s backtracking on its claims after being proven to be in the wrong.

18. Protest in London: Aug., 16, 2019: Thousands of people, many waving Pakistani and Kashmiri flags, protested outside the Indian High Commission in London on Thursday in support of the people of Occupied Kashmir. In London, protesters carried banners saying “Kashmir is Burning”, “Free Kashmir” and “Modi: Make Tea Not War”, according to a Reuters reporter. Many of the London protesters had come to the capital from other English cities on specially chartered buses. “We want to show our solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers,” said Amin Tahir, a British pensioner of Kashmiri origin who came from Birmingham on one of the coaches.“Since 1947 Kashmir has been struggling to be free from India. Now Modi has changed the law by force to stop Kashmir’s autonomy,” he added. Sikhs and Turks also supported the Kashmir cause and joined the protest.

19. UNSC: Aug., 17, 2019: Pakistan’s permanent envoy to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said the Security Council’s meeting is testament that Kashmir issue is not an internal matter of India but an international issue. Briefing the media along with the Chinese envoy to the United Nations after the UNSC meeting convened on Friday to discuss New Delhi’s illegal move of depriving Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, she said there was an effort to cancel this meeting and we are grateful to all member states for having it. Dr Lodhi said that all the 15 permanent and non-permanent member states attended the consultative session today, adding that the meeting was briefed on the latest developments and the dismal human rights situation in Occupied Kashmir.“This is the first but not the last step we have taken on aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir. We’ll continue our efforts to peacefully resolve this issue,” she remarked Speaking on the occasion, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, said the Kashmir issue has become an internationally recognized dispute, which should be resolved according to the UN charter. He said India’s unilateral step has aggravated the situation in the region. The Chinese ambassador said members of the Security Council generally feel India and Pakistan should both refrain from unilateral action over Kashmir. Zhang told reporters that the situation in Kashmir is “already very tense and very dangerous.

20. Curfew: August 17 ,2019:: In occupied Kashmir, the authorities continue to impose strict curfew and other restrictions across the Kashmir valley on the 13th consecutive day, today, to prevent people from holding demonstrations against India’s move of ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Hundreds of people defying curfew took to the streets in Srinagar after Juma prayers yesterday to express their resentment against New Delhi’s move of repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted special status to the territory. They raised high-pitched anti-India and pro-freedom slogans. Placards with “Thank you Pakistan slogans” were displayed

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Kashmir Update 35: Week Aug 4, 2019 to Aug ,11,2019

1. India repeals 370: Aug., 5, 2019: With an indefinite security lockdown in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) and elected representatives under house arrest, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order on Monday. By repealing Article 370 and 35A of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in occupied Kashmir and settle there permanently. Kashmiris as well as critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers. Article 370 had also limited the power of the Indian parliament to impose laws in the state, apart from matters of defence, foreign affairs and communications. As India's parliament debated the move, 8,000 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from different parts of the country were moved to IoK. The Indian army and air force were also placed on high alert. Home Minister Amit Shah also moved a bill to bifurcate the state into two union territories – Jammu Kashmir as one and Himalayan Ladakh region as the other – directly ruled by New Delhi. A statement issued by the home minister said that "Jammu and Kashmir will be a union territory with legislature while Ladakh will be a union territory without legislature Late on Sunday night, the Indian government imposed curfew-like restrictions in the restive region while sending in tens of thousands of additional troops. Former IoK chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were placed under house arrest. Communications were cut, with private mobile networks, internet services and telephone landlines cut “There shall be no movement of public. All educational institutions shall also remain closed. There will be a complete bar on holding any kind of public meetings or rallies during the period of operation of this order. Identity cards of essential services officials will be treated as movement passes wherever required," read an Indian government order

2. DR. Rita Pal: Aug., 7, 2019: “It is with a great deal of regret that we have to admit Pakistan failed in its policy for Kashmir. India doesn't believe in democracy and has just erased the invisible autonomy that existed. ( see https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kashmir-erased-article-370-scrapped-indian-democracy-in-darkness_uk_5d47fbd5e4b0ca604e35128a. I have repeatedly outlined all the failures in the past and they've never been corrected. Instead, our pleas to Pakistan fell on deaf ears. Notably their arrogance has always been their downfall. I shall list Pakistan's failures once more. 1. Imran Khan supported Modi to be the next elected PM. We stated that if this was done, there would be doom for Kashmir. Yet, the rationale by Pakistan was that Modi was self destructive to his country. That logic doesn't assist Kashmir. 2. Pakistan has engaged in under the table deals to bring India to the mediation table. India would always agree then double cross at the right time and that's what's happened. So Imran's concessions to India have gone nowhere. 3. Imran Khan allowed the captured Indian pilot to go back without bartering an LoC peace treaty or any terms for Kashmir. His showmanship has resulted in nothing. 4. Pakistan supported India in the Non Permanent Seat at the UNSC. This indicates to the world that Pakistan believes India meets all the UN criteria. 5. Pakistan supported India during Yoga Day diplomacy. Again telling the UN that it believed India was a country of peace. Having made all these overtures in support of India, Pakistan now believes the universe will listen to them when they say India's a human rights violator. Pakistan has been brazen and lacking in regret for his position on the above. It has now come to bite them back. Pakistan cannot say we didn't warn them at each juncture. 6. My previous updates here has repeatedly specified Pakistan's failures to: A. Report India to the UNSC for an Emergency Review.: B. Report India to the International Court of Justice to resolve the dispute in Kashmir. No applications were ever made. C. Trigger the Human Rights Council Resolution for full inquiry into Kashmir: D. Definite the crimes against humanity as a war crime and request the UNSC make such a referral to the ICC.; We saw all the warning signs and begged many to act but they did not do so. I know India is a great propaganda master. It's created a terror threat, inflated the numbers of troops in each article and pushed the erasure of autonomy. In reality there was never any autonomy. Kashmir therefore should remember that India's psy ops on them are currently working. They should remember that the status of Kashmir is just as it always was (with zero autonomy) One cannot collude with India in this way and then ask for freedom. Pakistan and Kashmir have a cultural flaw in that they both spend too much time engaging in nest building instead of applying themselves to tactics to achieve an advantage in the International forums. I believe the Kashmir leadership is a spectacular failure. It will take the people of Kashmir a long time to figure out that the key to their wishes lies in their own hands. The huge amount of evidence they have plus their ability to be like the Chagos Islanders and make that application to the International Court of Justice to gain their rights according to the UNHRC Report; India is unlikely to commit massacres with the United Nations breathing down its neck. We have achieved that much. India will though ensure every Kashmir is forced into a state of paranoia and fear. You can either play India's game of simply refuse to play it and continue with your lives. I don't believe there is any point in placing your lives at risk given your culture is still behind the times in terms of achieving your rights in the modern world. So far too many have died with zero result; Pakistan is scrambling around for International support on Kashmir at the 12th Hour. Any attack by them will result in India sacrificing more Kashmiris. Pakistan really hasn't played the game well then it's never listened to anyone but it's own skewed logic. India's a dictatorship now, it's always been so and this result was not unexpected. Indeed all the warning signs were there. We all pray for Kashmir but prayers and empathy are not results. Today, elite and educated Kashmiris have failed their people by aligning with India to achieve society success. Pakistan has failed Kashmir by its broadly selfish neglectful attitude towards Kashmir. In the end, it took a foreigner to complain to the Human Rights Council because all these people sat and feathered their nests. And while people in the West sign petitions in their millions, our petitions have only reached 28K since 2016. Only a desperate country takes desperate measures

3. UNHRC: Aug., 8, 2019: The United Nations Human Rights spokesperson has expressed "great concern" over the information blackout in occupied Kashmir which continued after its special status was scrapped by India earlier in the week. In a statement shared on Wednesday via a video on Twitter, the spokesperson said that what had already been observed to be a pattern was taken to a "new level" with the latest restrictions placed by India which he said "will exacerbate the human rights situation in the region". "I would refer you back to our July 8, 2019 report on the human rights situation in Kashmir which documented how authorities have repeatedly blocked communications networks to muzzle dissent, used arbitrary detention to punish political dissidents and employed excessive force while dealing with protests leading to extra judicial killings and serious injuries," said the statement. "We are seeing again blanket telecommunications restrictions, perhaps more blanket than we have seen before, the reported arbitrary detention of political leaders and restrictions on peaceful assembly.”These restrictions will prevent the people of [occupied] Kashmir and their elected representatives from participating fully in democratic debate about the future status of Jammu and Kashmir," it observed. The statement further noted that under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — which had been ratified by India — "the right to freedom of opinion and expression includes the freedom to seek, receive and impart information." The Human Rights spokesperson said that while states are allowed under Article 19 (3) of the Covenant to impose restrictions on certain grounds, including in the interest of "public order", the committee which monitors and interprets the covenant "has warned that any such curbs must be necessary and proportionate and should not jeopardize the right itself"."The fact that hardly any information at all is currently coming out is of great concern in itself," the statement concluded

4. NHC: Aug., 8, 2019: The National Security Committee (NSC) on Wednesday, in light of India's recent actions in occupied Kashmir, resolved to downgrade Pakistan's diplomatic relations with New Delhi and suspend all bilateral trade. Key decisions: Downgrading of diplomatic relations; Suspension of bilateral trade; Review of bilateral arrangements; Matter to be taken to United Nations; August 14 to be observed in solidarity with Kashmiris "PM directed that all diplomatic channels be activated to expose brutal Indian racist regime, design and human rights violations," a statement issued after the meeting said. "Our ambassadors will no longer be in New Delhi and their counterparts here will also be sent back," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told ARY News.

5. US Senator: Aug., 9, 2019: US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham spoke with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the "growing crisis in Kashmir" and expressed hope that the Trump Administration would help de-escalate the current crisis. "Hope the Trump administration will provide assistance to both Pakistan and India to find a way to deescalate the current crisis. The last thing the region and the world needs is further military confrontations between India and Pakistan over Kashmir," he added.

6. UN Chief: Aug., 9, 2019: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for India “to refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir”.“The secretary general has been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with concern and makes an appeal for maximum restraint,” his spokesperson said. "The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter of the United Nations and applicable Security Council resolutions," read the statement. "The secretary general also recalls the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, also known as the Simla Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the Charter of the UN." According to the spokesperson, the secretary general was also concerned over reports of restrictions in India-occupied Kashmir, which could "exacerbate the human rights situation in the region”. Internet and telephone connections in Kashmir have been cut since Monday and a curfew imposed as the authorities feared trouble when the decision was announced.

7. US Policy on Kashmir: Aug., 9, 2019: We want to maintain peace and stability in the region, says White House. The United States on Friday said that there is no change in its policy on Kashmir and called on India and Pakistan to maintain calm and restraint. The U.S. policy has been that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and it is up to the two countries to decide on the pace and scope of the talks on the issue. She said the United States supports dialogue between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Ms. Ortagus said the U.S. was working closely with the two South Asian countries. “The United States, whenever it comes to any region in the world where there are tensions, asks for people to observe the rule of law, respect for human rights, respect for international norms. We ask people to maintain peace and security and direct dialogue,” she said. “There are reports, as you’ve mentioned, of detentions and restrictions of residents in Jammu and in Kashmir. And again, that’s why we continue to monitor this very, very closely,” she said.

8. Kashmiri economy: Aug., 9, 2019: The Indian government's decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir could have disastrous consequences for Kashmir's economy. Kashmir is one of the poorest and most volatile regions in South Asia. Geopolitical instability has long been a big barrier to economic development in the region and its peripheral areas, which are still predominantly dependent on agriculture. The region is in urgent need of measures to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth, instead of an escalation of political conflict. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday introduced a measure to revoke the special status of Indian-controlled Kashmir, drastically escalating tensions with Pakistan. India's Kashmir move may help consolidate the BJP's ruling status by stoking patriotism, but the measure will increase poverty and the vulnerability of the poor in Kashmir. The Modi administration has been going down the wrong track in foreign policy, making people in Kashmir a victim of its political game with Islamabad. Pakistan said it will downgrade diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with India. The escalation of tensions will deliver a deadly blow to the tourist industry, which is an important part of Kashmir's economy. In response to the turmoil created by India's Kashmir move, tourism may take a hit as Indian people plan their holiday travel ahead of India's Independence Day, which falls on August 15. Kashmir has a Muslim majority population. While Pakistan's decision to suspend all trade with India may have a limited impact on India's overall economy, it is likely to have an influence on the Muslim community in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. China is willing to help Kashmir develop its economy through triangular cooperation with India and Pakistan, but India's Kashmir move has ruled out the possibility. The move will cause the region to lose an opportunity to develop its economy and improve living standards. Political stability is the prerequisite for economic development in Kashmir. At the very least, India has the responsibility of promoting poverty alleviation in Indian-controlled Kashmir. If New Delhi's move results in economic turbulence in Kashmir, poverty could have a far-reaching impact on efforts to fight terrorism in the region.

9. New York Times: Aug., 9, 2019: More than 500 people were detained in nighttime raids across Kashmir and taken to makeshift detention centers, rights activists said. In several areas, Kashmiris pelted security officers with stones and the officers fired back, with reports that some demonstrators had been killed.

10. Valley update: Aug., 9, 2019: Tens of thousands of government forces in riot gear patrol Indian-controlled Kashmir. Streets lined with shuttered shops are deserted, steel barricades and razor wire cutting off neighborhoods. An eerie silence is broken by an occasional security vehicle whizzing past or the cawing of crows. An unprecedented security lockdown amid a near-total communications blackout entered a fourth day Thursday, forcing some news organizations to hand-carry dispatches out of the region In central Srinagar, the region's main city, few pedestrians ventured out of their homes to navigate barbed-wire checkpoints guarded by helmeted soldiers in camouflage, wielding rifles and protective shields. Shopping malls, grocery stores and even clinics were closed. In previous security clampdowns, neighborhood bodegas had opened their doors for a few hours a day after dark so that people could buy basic necessities like milk, grains and baby food. It is not clear whether the stores have opened in the current crackdown. Residents are used to stockpiling essentials, a practice they've honed during harsh winter months when roads and communications lines are often snapped. The communication blackout — with landlines, cell phones and internet all down — means that people within Kashmir can't call one another or speak to friends and relatives outside the region, relying only on limited cable TV and local radio reports.

11. News from the locked Kashmir: Aug., 10, 2019: Indian police used tear gas and pellets to fight back at least 10,000 people protesting Delhi's withdrawal of special rights for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state in its main city of Srinagar on Friday The demonstration soon after Friday prayers was the largest since authorities locked down the revolt-torn region five days ago, cutting off telephone and internet services and detaining more than 500 political and separatist leaders. A large group of people gathered in Srinagar's Soura area The crowd was pushed back by police at Aiwa bridge, where a witness said tear gas and pellets were used against them. “Some women and children even jumped into the water,” a witness said at Srinagars Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, where pellet victims were admitted.“They (police) attacked us from two sides,” another witness said. The police officer said 12 people had been admitted to two hospitals in the city after receiving pellet injuries at Soura, taking the total injured in the protests this week to at least 30. “There were around 10,000 people at the protest in Soura,” the police officer said. “This was the biggest so far:. Political detentions in the wake of the Modi government's decision to revoke Kashmir's special rights were continuing.“Over 500 people are now arrested since Sunday,” he said, including former chief ministers, ministers, lawmakers and leaders and workers from political parties and separatist groups. Indian security forces have fired tear gas and shot live rounds in the air to disperse mass protests in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city as thousands rallied against New Delhi's stripping of the region's autonomy, according to local sources.

12. Chinese support: Aug., 10, 2019: China has announced it will "uphold justice for Pakistan on the international arena" and that it supports Pakistan's decision to approach the United Nations Security Council in the wake of India's decision to revoke Kashmir's special status. A statement released by China's foreign ministry, said that it will "continue to support Pakistan in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests”. According to the statement, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted that China is "seriously concerned about the latest escalation of tensions in Kashmir". China also believes that unilateral actions "will complicate the situation" and should not be taken. Pakistan FM said that China will offer complete support in the decisions taken by the Pakistan government, including that of approaching the UN Security Council, and will continue its cooperation with Pakistan. Pakistan is considering a proposal to approach the International Court of Justice over India's action.

13. Iran on Kashmir: Aug., 11,2019: Iran’s armed forces chief of staff on Saturday cautioned Pakistan and India to avoid any “hasty decision” in Kashmir without considering the wishes of the region’s people, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. “The parties are expected to refrain from any hasty decision on the fate of the (Kashmir) region, without regards to the people’s will,” Major General Mohammad Baqeri was quoted by Fars as telling army chief General Qamar Bajwa, by telephone. THIS IS MUCH LESS THAN WHAT PAKISTAN EXPECTEDFROM IRAN ON KASHMIR.

14. UK MPs: Aug., 11, 2014: Over 45 members of the parliament (MPs) from the United Kingdom and peers have co-signed a letter written by MP Warrington South Faisal Rashid calling on the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to intervene and prevent India’s unconstitutional attack on Kashmir’s autonomy.“We are deeply alarmed by reports that the Indian government has revoked Article 370 of constitution, stripping Kashmir of its autonomous status,” the letter states. The letter terms the unilateral Indian decision a direct attack on the political status of Kashmir and its right to self-governance. It says revocation of Article 370 would have far-reaching and dangerous consequences for the region.“We also note that PM Modi has long been an exponent of militaristic, hostile anti-Muslim views as the political figurehead of a far-right Hindu-nationalist movement. His administration has overseen an aggressive erosion of the legal and constitutional foundations on which the Indian republic stands. “Revocation of Article 370 represents a significant escalation of this process in what is the only Indian-occupied Muslim majority state. As secretary-general, we call on you to urgently bring this matter to the attention of the Security Council as a serious threat to maintenance of international peace and security.”We note with alarm that India and Pakistan, whose longstanding differences in this region nearly led to open warfare just months ago, possess nuclear capabilities. We urge the United Nations to do everything in its power to de-escalate this extremely troubling and tense situation,” it concludes. The letter was signed by MPs Faisal Rashid, Tracy Brabin, Marsha de Cordova, Grahame Morris, Tony Lloyd, Mark Hendrick, Gill Furniss, Tonia Antoniazzi, Lord Qurban Hussein, David Lammy, Rupa Huq, Lord Nasir Ahmed, David Drew, Rosena Allin-Khan, Laura Smith, Angus MacNeill, Mohammed Yasin, Khalid Mahmood, Alison Thewliss, Mike Hill, Kelvin Hopkins, Alex Norris, Matt Western, Thelma Walker, Afzal Khan, Yasmin Qureshi, Stephen Kinnock, Ronnie Campbell, Mary Glindon, Shabana Mahmood, Roger Godsiff, Daniel Zeichner, Kate Osamor, Rashanara Ali, Clive Lewis, Kate Green, Paul Farrelly, Clive Betts, Karl Turner, Nic Dakin, Chi Onwurah, Jim Cunningham, Naz Shah, Catherine West, James Frith, Mary Creagh and lmran Hussein.

15. Diplomatic Effort: Aug., 11, 2019: THE recent Indian move to remove the ‘special status’ accorded to the part of Kashmir under its control has drawn flak from Pakistan, as well as many Indian pundits, politicians and human rights groups. But the reaction from the rest of the world has been predictably muted. China has condemned the absorption of Ladakh — split away from Jammu and Kashmir under the new dispensation — into the Indian union. But it has also called on “the two sides [India and Pakistan] to peacefully resolve relevant disputes through dialogue and consultation and safeguard regional peace and stability”. This advice is not very helpful when India has consistently refused to discuss Kashmir with Pakistan for years. The US State Department has also contributed a mealy-mouthed statement. And despite India’s unilateral move, The Times of London placed both countries on the same level in a recent editorial So what remains? The Muslim ummah remains unmoved at the plight of the Kashmiris, as does most of the world. The size of the rapidly growing Indian economy trumps morality and human rights. And by allowing the rise of militant extremism, we have effectively cast ourselves as the regional villains. Earlier, it was Pakistan that was seen as the aggressor. Now, as demonstrated by the air raid over Balakot, Modi seems determined to show Pakistan who’s boss. This dangerous display of machismo has perilous consequences for the region. And given his overwhelming parliamentary majority and his rabid Hindutva base, there are no brakes to restrain his ambitions.

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Source: https://kmsnews.org/news/

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Kashmir Update 34: Week Jul 29, 2019 to Aug ,4,2019

1. After 23 years: July, 29, 2019: "We are innocent," wrote Ali Muhammad Bhat in his dairy in September 2014 when he was among six men - five of them Kashmiris - awarded life sentences by a court in western India's Rajasthan state."They had no witnesses against us. Police also said in court that these Kashmiris are innocent," he wrote, referring to the May 22, 1996 bomb blast in Rajasthan's Samleti village, in which 14 people were killed. Police accused a now-defunct rebel outfit, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, for the blast, linking the six men to the group. After 23 years of imprisonment in the case without any bail or parole, the Rajasthan High Court on July 23 declared them innocent and ordered their release.

2. Indian solider commits suicide: July, 30, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, an Indian soldier committed suicide by shooting himself in Bandipore district..The Indian army man of 14 Rashtriya Rifles shot himself with his service during duty hours in Chuntimulla area of the district. The injured soldier was rushed to a nearby medical facility, where he was declared brought dead, a police officer told media men. The deceased Indian soldier has been identified as Pawan Kumar, 26, of Unit 18 CA

3. LoC: July, 30, 2019: At least one civilian was killed while seven others were injured in a village in Azad Jammu and Kashmir in yet another "unprovoked" ceasefire violation by Indian forces from across the Line of Control (LoC officials said on Monday. Indian forces began shelling and firing in the Nezapir sector at about 3:45pm and in Khurshidabad sector at around 6pm on Sunday "without any provocation". "They used both small and big arms and targeted civilian populations, restricting people indoors till late night," he said. Rehmat Jan, a 45-year-old woman who lived in Mandhar village, died after being hit by the splinters of a mortar shell, Zaheer told Dawn. Another resident of the village, Begum Jan (48) was injured due to Indian shelling, he said. Three civilians — Zainab Jan (60), Muhammad Naeem Dar (24) and Ulfat Rashid (17) — were injured in Kairni village while Munir Hussain (20), Kausar Parveen (26) and Nosheen (18) were wounded in Kachar Ban. The civilian death toll in the current year has increased to 22, including 13 men and nine women. About 11 army personnel have also been martyred along the LoC in the ongoing year, Qureshi added.

4. EU: July,31 , 2019: The members of European Parliament (MEPs), who are on a visit to Pakistan, Tuesday underlined the need for resolving the longstanding Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India, saying the massive human rights violations being committed in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) could no longer be ignored by the world community.

5. July cost: Aug., 1, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian martyred 11 Kashmiris including a minor girl and a woman during the last month of July.According to the data issued by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, during the month, 80 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force and firing of pallets, bullets and teargas shells by Indian police and paramilitary personnel against peaceful protesters in the territory. At least 46 Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth were arrested. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference chief spokesman, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, was also among the arrested people. The troops damaged 2 residential houses during the period.

6. Trump offers again: Aug., 2,2019: United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said it was up to India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute but he was ready to assist if the two South Asian neighbors wanted him to help in resolving the decades-old issue. Mr. Trump was referring to his last week’s meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, wherein he offered to help resolve the Kashmir issue. India has rejected the offer, while Pakistan has welcomed his statement. It’s really up to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi (to accept the offer of mediation),” Mr. Trump told reporters responding to a question on India not accepting his offer of mediation on Kashmir. Mr. Trump said the Indian Prime Minister asked for this during their bilateral meeting in Japan in June on the sideline of the G-20 Summit. India quickly denied it and said the Kashmir issue was never discussed between Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump.

7. LoC : Aug., 2, 2019: Pakistani officials evacuated more than 50 Chinese nationals working near the Kashmir frontier, authorities said yesterday, after skirmishes with India killed at least three people and injured dozens. The Chinese were working on a dam being constructed in Pakistani Kashmir along the confluence of the Neelum and Jhelum rivers when firing pushed authorities to move the workers late Tuesday, according to a senior local administration official Badar Munir. Another local official Raja Shahid Mahmood said the decision was made after Indian security forces fired a volley of “indiscriminate fire that killed three people including a woman and a child and wounded 31 others during the last 24 hours”.

8. Separatists imprisoned Aug., 2, 2019: More than five months after they were detained without charge, dozens of separatist leaders from Indian-administered Kashmir remain imprisoned as the government in New Delhi seeks to marginalize them, according to sources and figures from a rights group. Authorities in New Delhi see the removal of activists from communities in the Kashmir Valley as a key aspect of the struggle against the armed militant groups and stone-pelting youths who have been fighting Indian rule, according to interviews with 10 people familiar with the situation. The round-up of non-violent separatists, who support Indian-administered Kashmir either joining Pakistan or becoming an independent state, is part of an unprecedented crackdown from India’s government to neuter a movement it believes fuels the armed insurrection, the sources said. That includes restrictions on the movement of the few separatist political leaders who are out of jail, pressure on foreign diplomats not to meet them, and the recent banning of a number of unarmed separatist organizations.

9. Youth martyred: Aug., 3, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred two more Kashmiri youth in Baramulla and Shopian districts, today. The troops martyred one youth during a cordon and search operation in Warpora area of Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Earlier an Indian soldier was injured in an attack in the same area.

10. Youth martyred: Aug., 4, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred three more Kashmiri youth in Baramulla and Shopian districts, today. The troops martyred two youth during a cordon and search operation at Malmapanpora in Sopore area of Baramulla district. Earlier, an Indian soldier was injured in an attack in the same area. The troops martyred one more youth, Manzoor Ahmed Butt, during an over 40-hour long cordon and search operation at Pandoshan in Shopian district, today. The troops had martyred another youth, Zeenat-ul-Islam Naikoo, in the same area, yesterday. Several houses were razed to the ground by the Indian forces during the operation in Pandoshan. Thousands of people participated in the funeral prayers of martyred Zeenat-ul-Islam Naikoo at his native Memmander village in Shopian district. The participants of the funeral raised high-pitched anti-India and pro-freedom slogans on the occasion.

11. Cluster bombs: Aug., 4, 2019: Pakistan on Saturday condemned Indian forces for using cluster munitions on civilian population along the Line of Control in violation of international humanitarian laws and the Geneva Convention. “Indian army on the night of 30th/31ist July targeted innocent citizens, including women and children, in Neelum Valley through artillery using cluster ammunition,” read a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations. “Resultantly, two civilians, including a four-year-old boy, were martyred while 11 got critically injured.” The Pakistan military’s media wing pointed out that because of their severe impact on non-combatants, the use of cluster munitions is prohibited under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. “This blatant Indian aggression against all international norms exposes true character of Indian army and their moral standing,” it said.

12. Cost of Kashmir struggle

Kashmir Update 32: Week Jul 22, 2019 to July,28,2019

1. Muslim States: July, 22, 2019: The Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan has so far remained a localized conflict. But thanks to Iran’s growing influence and entrenchment in Kashmir, particularly targeting its Shia population, that could be about to change. Other Muslim-majority states, from Saudi Arabia to Turkey, are jostling for position in Kashmir too, whether to counter Tehran or push their own political and religious agendas. But India’s politicians, strategic experts and its mammoth intelligence-bureaucracy aren’t ready for this internationalization of the Kashmiri conflict - and its dangerous consequences.

2. Trump offers to mediate: July, 23, 2019: President Donald Trump on Monday offered to mediate the decades-long Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, signaling a shift in long-standing US policy that the issue must be solved bilaterally. “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said at the White House, where he was hosting Prime Minister Imran Khan. “If I can do anything to help, let me know.” Both Modi and India deny that the request to mediate was ever made.

3. Trump offer: July, 2, 2019: Trump first made the claim on Monday at the White House, speaking alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who said he'd request Trump's help in bringing peace to the region."I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago and we talked about this subject," Trump told Khan. "And he actually said, 'Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?' I said, 'Where?' He said, 'Kashmir.' Because this has been going on for many, many years.""I think they'd like to see it resolved and I think you'd like to see it resolved," Trump went on. "If I could help, I would love to be a mediator."

4. Governor: July, 2, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani has said that New Delhi appointed Governor, Satya Pal Malik is openly encouraging violence and civilian killings in the territory. Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar while commenting on a recent statement of the IOK Governor said that it was unfortunate that a country claiming to believe in non-violence and proudly labeling itself the world’s largest democracy was inciting Kashmiri youth to resort to killing of the people. He maintained that by such utterances Indian Governor had unmasked the real face of the so-called proud killers of Gandhi. Syed Ali Gilani emphasized that the oppressor in the occupied territory had always sowed the seeds of corruption in Jammu and Kashmir and had given rise to vandalism, political arrogance and executive highhandedness

5. Indian courts: July, 25, 2019: An Indian court ordered the release of four Kashmiris, who remained illegally detained in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for the past 23 years.These Kashmiris identified as Mirza Nasir, Ali Muhammad Killay, Latif Ahmed Waja and Assadullah Gone, today, reached Srinagar from New Delhi. A Rajasthan court in India ordered their release. They were arrested by Indian police after a blast in Lajpath Nagar in New Delhi.

6. Conspiracy theory: July, 26, 2019: Unsubstantiated reports claim that Trump has been given full authority to resolve Kashmir Issue. Pakistan has said that we will accept whatever Trump decides. If resolved Pakistan will role back defense expenditure by 70% and also roll back completely the atomic weapons program. Apparently India will also reciprocate. This is not verified news.

7. China supports mediation : July, 26,2019: While backing the US President Donald Trump’s mediation offer to help resolve the Kashmir issue, China said it supported the international community including the United States (US) in playing a constructive role in improving Pakistan-India relations through dialogue.“We support the international community, the US included, in playing a constructive role in improving Pakistan-India relations through dialogue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement issued here. “We hope the two countries can peacefully settle the Kashmir issue and other bilateral disputes through dialogue, and make concerted efforts to safeguard peace and stability in South Asia,” she added.

8. More troops: July, 27, 2019: Indian government has decided to deploy 100 additional companies of central armed police forces in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir the Union home ministry issued an order to this effect on Thursday and informed the state officials, including the chief secretary and the DGP, about it on Friday. During the Lok Sabha election. This is widely seen as a harbinger of some terrible news related to Kashmir perhaps article 35-A, 379.

9. Youth martyred: July, 28, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred two Kashmiri youth in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Bonabazar area of the district. The occupation authorities suspended internet service in the district. The troops also conducted a similar operation in Arihal area of Pulwama district.

Kashmir Update 31: Week Jul 15, 2019 to July,21,2019

1. Missing persons: July, 15, 2019: "Almost ten thousand people, mostly youth, have gone missing in Kashmir. This is one of the most horrible chapters of unrest in the valley where (Indian) armed forces and government agencies have unlawfully picked up male members of Kashmiri society from their families, whose whereabouts are yet not known. Mothers are still waiting for their sons, wives for their husbands, children for their fathers, and sisters for their brothers. Parveena Ahangar, who singled-handedly spearheaded the movement against enforced disappearances, when her own son was picked up in August of 1990. She is still waiting for her son, while also helping other women to fight cases for similar incidents after forming the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in 1994. Parveena has received many awards for her work and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005." Listen to her speak: https://youtu.be/KbQqFoqwpac

2. Message from Kashmir: July, 14, 2019: “No one can move. No one is safe. Bullets are fired indiscriminately. Even hospitals are not being spared. The injured are beaten ruthlessly and movement restricted from distant places to the city by authorities, causing more deaths. Hospitals are over flowing with the injured and the dead.”

3. India’s Kashmir Policy: July15, 2019: “Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has devised a step-by-step strategy aimed at systematically tackling the problems. The tough Kashmir policy which has seen new focus since Amit Shah took over as Union Home Minister visualizes a clinical attack on the support bases of militancy in the valley to bring about "irreversible change" by targeting, principally, the separatists and foreign networks. Sources said that the first target will remain the separatists and their funding networks, which have kept alive militancy in the Valley and organized anti-India activities. In keeping with this will be a focus on NGOs who have backed the stone-pelters. These are well-funded operations that have repeatedly tried to derail central government initiatives in trying to control militancy in the valley. It is from involvement in such activity that stone-pelters move over to weaponised training. The third target will be the cross border terrorists who take advantage of border porosity to enter India and join the ranks of militants. The understanding is that the relentless attack on militant bases and on terror funding will also contribute to stopping border incursions into India and with the oxygen supply cut off to local militancy, it will be brutally hit. The program has become more intense with the realization that terrorism, as the Pulwama attack showed, is homegrown even though backed and bankrolled by foreign sponsors. The Al Qaeda is becoming increasingly interested in the Kashmir issue and hardcore IS cadres have found their way into the valley. “This would mean that India will continue

5. Youth martyred: July, 17, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred a Kashmiri youth in Sopore town, today. The youth identified as Adnan Channa was killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation at Gund Brath area of the town.SSP Sopore Javed Iqbal talking to media men claimed that the youth was killed during an encounter with the Indian forces. He further said that his body was recovered from the site. The SSP said that search operation is still underway.

6. Protest: July.18, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, a sea of people thronged Baramulla town to attend the funeral prayers of a youth, Adnan Ahmad Channa, who was martyred by Indian troops in Sopore town. Thousands of people chanting pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans received the martyr’s body as it reached from Sopore to Old Baramulla, the hometown of martyr, Adnan Channa. Multiple rounds of funeral were held to accommodate the huge rush of the people. Adnan was killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Gund Brath area of Sopore town, yesterday. Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed in northern Kashmir’s Baramulla town, today, to mourn the killing of the youth. All shops and business establishments were closed while a thin movement of traffic was witnessed on the roads. The occupation authorities closed schools and colleges in Baramulla to prevent students’ protests. However, people, particularly youth took to streets and clashed with forces’ personnel. Over a dozen youth were injured when troops fired pellets and teargas shells on the protesters in the town

7. Policeman killed; July, 19, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, an Indian policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Bijbehara area of South Kashmir’s Islamabad district, today. The killed policeman was appointed as Personal Security Officer (PSO) of pro-India Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Sajad Mufti. Sajjad is a cousin of PDP President and former puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti.

8. Human cost of Kashmir struggle: July, 20, 2019: - More than 300 people died in the Kashmir region claimed by India and Pakistan in the first half of the year, according to previously unreported data - one of the deadliest periods in the disputed territory’s recent history . India launched 177 cordon and search operations - in which troops seal off an area and conduct a security sweep - in the first half of the year, according to the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCSS), the leading human rights group in the region, up from 116 in the same period last year. One in three of those led to gun-battles between militants and troops in which at least one person was killed, according to previously unpublished data from JKCSS. That has made the first half of 2019 one of the deadliest in recent memory, with 301 deaths on both sides of the contested border, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a global database of violent incidents in conflict zones. That would be the worst six-month period since it began publishing data from both parts of Kashmir in 2016. The death toll in the first half of 2019 at 271, on a par with last year, which it says was the deadliest in a decade. One of those killed during the period was Rizwan Pandit, the school principal who died in police custody. The attitude of security forces to those believed to be sympathetic to militants is hardening, an Indian security official said, a process that began two years ago after the killing of a prominent militant leader, but has grown stronger since the February attack. “Troops have been given a free hand,” he said, referencing the speech given by Modi a day after the February bombing, claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist militant group.

9. "Don't let despair
distract you from the path
Don't forget to write,
not just with stones
But on pieces of paper,
on the leaves of the trees,
and those bloodied roads
the beloved word
Azadi
Remember
...I write from a bleeding heart."
— Inshah Malik

10. LoC firing: July, 21, 2019: A Pakistan Army officer was martyred and three civilians got injured on Saturday as "the Indian Army resorted to unprovoked firing" and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC), the Army's media wing reported. According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Indian Army used rockets and mortars to target the civilian population and the Army posts in Battal, Satwal, Khanjar, Nikyal and Jandrot sectors. "During the exchange of fire, Havaldar Manzoor Abbasi embraced martyrdom while four citizens, including two young girls and a woman, got injured," read the statement.

11.

Kashmir Update 30: Week Jul 8, 2019 to July,14,2019

1. UNHRC: July, 8, 2019: The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner's Office has released a update to the 2018 report. Please download and share Update on Kashmir The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner's Office has released an updated report on Kashmir. Please download it and circulate this link in Kashmir and in other parts of the world. https://t.co/2bFWIZNjwM?amp=1

2. Burhan Wani: July,9,2019: A complete shutdown, marked by curfew imposed by Indian forces, was observed across occupied Kashmir on Monday to commemorate the third martyrdom anniversary of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, an iconic young mujahid commander

3. CWC19 semi final: July, 11, 2019: Soon after India’s Cricket World Cup lost to New Zealand in the tournament’s semi-final round, residents of Srinagar in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) could not hide their joy and took to streets to celebrate the defeat Wednesday night. The Indian team who were widely seen as one of the favorites to lift the trophy was bundled out for 221 at Old Trafford with Matt Henry’s bowling spell wreaking havoc on their batting top order. Videos and images soon vent viral of the people of Srinagar setting off firecrackers and chanting slogans against the Indian regime in the war-torn valley. Twitterati also went into overdrive following the Men in Blue loss with users trolling Indian team’s captain Virat Kohli saying: “Kohli tujhse nahin hota chase.”

4. Martyrs day: July, 12, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown will be observed, tomorrow, to mark the Kashmir Martyrs’ Day, the 13th July. Call for the shutdown has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership to reiterate the urgent need for a peaceful and just resolution of the Kashmir dispute and to put an end to repression against the Kashmiri people and Hurriyat leaders. The JRL has appealed to the people to conduct a march towards the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Naqashband Sahib in Srinagar and offer prayers for the martyrs collectively. It was on the 13th of July 1931 when the troops of Dogra Maharaja had killed 22 Kashmiris, one after the other, outside Central Jail in Srinagar during the court proceedings against one Abdul Qadeer who had asked Kashmiri people to defy the Dogra rule.Meanwhile, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani, and other Hurriyat leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai in their statement paid glorious tributes to the martyrs of 13th July.

5. Hindu settlement; July, 13, 2019: A leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that his Hindu nationalist party is committed to helping bring back some of the estimated 200,000-300,000 Hindus who fled Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) in the aftermath of an armed revolt that began in 1989.

6. Rape: July, 13, 2019: In first 6 months of 2019, at least 24000 cases of rape of children have been registered in India, out of which 50 (11126 women raped in last 20 years) cases have taken place in Jammu & Kashmir.

7. Indian media and Kashmir: July, 14, 2019: DEMOCRACY and laws stop at the Pir Panjal Range. They cover Jammu but the Kashmir Valley, which is predominantly Muslim, is left out. Outrages in the Vale do not move the Indian public or India’s institutions. India’s intellectuals ignore the ones New Delhi commits in Kashmir. But it provides no comfort to journalists in Kashmir. The editor of the Daily Afaq, Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, is 62 years old and a known hypertensive who has spent more than 35 years in public life. On the night of June 24, his house was raided by the police in connection with a case filed in the 1990s. He was arrested. Cases were filed also against eight journalists including two veterans, Sofi Ghulam Mohammad of Srinagar Times and Ghulam Mohammad Arif of Daily Hamdard, who have already passed away. Ghulam Jeelani Qadri was granted bail the next day. He was not given any cause for the arrest or the raid. He had been issued a passport twice in the previous 30 years, which testified to the fact that the police had nothing against him. The Kashmir Editors’ Guild (KEG) immediately denounced the action. “How can a person be a proclaimed offender if he is available in his office in the heart of Srinagar for more than 15 hours daily?” Obviously, the action was designed to intimidate the media. The press in India took no notice of this outrageous behaviour. One exception stands out. The fearless Kolkata daily The Telegraph reported that the National Investigation Agency had been questioning Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo, KEG president and editor of Greater Kashmir, the largest circulated English newspaper in Kashmir. Also questioned was the daily’s highly respected and popular general manager, Rashid Makhdoomi. Both were interrogated for a week. The Telegraph reported “In February, governor Satya Pal Malik’s administration stopped sending government advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader, apparently for providing coverage to pro-independence groups as well as allegations of rights abuses by security forces.” Newspapers that report excesses committed by the army, the central or the local police are intimidated if they perform their professional duty. Journalists are part of civil society, and naturally share its outlook. For the National Investigation Agency to summon Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo and Rashid Makhdoomi, all the way from Srinagar to Delhi, is itself wrong. The agency has its men all over the place. Obviously, the object was to intimidate and silence an independent newspaper. The Press Council of India has a disgraceful record on Kashmir. It set up a committee to look into charges of rape and much else at the instance of the Indian army. No written complaint was filed. It said that there was no rape by army personnel in the Kunan Poshpora incident of February 1991. This was proved false. Now comes the report of the press council’s subcommittee “examining the Report of Interlocutors on Media and Media Scenario of Jammu & Kashmir”. The three interlocutors constituted a bogus body. Its ‘report’ was also a bogus document. So is the council’s endorsement of the subcommittee’s findings: “The media industry, thus, has become a huge job provider to young journalists. But since private business has been shrinking, there is little scope for private advertising and this is making the media heavily dependent on government advertisements. The union and state governments reportedly at times use this situation to their advantage by arm-twisting the media without any legitimate reasons.” Did the press council ever censure that? It continued: “During the committee’s interaction with various newspaper editors, owners and journalists, they all spoke about the discrimination they, particularly medium and small newspapers/periodicals, faced in the issue of government advertisements and the rates….” The conclusion? “The gap between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the national media should be bridged. Inter-regional media exchange will promote a better understanding among Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh journalists. Similarly, J&K journalists should be encouraged to visit other parts of the nation and interact with their counterparts there. Journalist teams from other parts of the nation should similarly visit [J&K] to interact with [local] journalists to understand J&K. The government should encourage professional journalist organisations/ associations to hold sessions and seminars in [J&K].” But not a word about the repressions. This is the reality — the deep disconnect between the people of Kashmir and India. Hence the repression. Why bar foreign correspondents from visiting Kashmir?

Kashmir Update 30: Week Jul 8, 2019 to July,14,2019

7. Youth martyred: July, 17, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred a Kashmiri youth in Sopore town, today. The youth identified as Adnan Channa was killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation at Gund Brath area of the town.SSP Sopore Javed Iqbal talking to media men claimed that the youth was killed during an encounter with the Indian forces. He further said that his body was recovered from the site. The SSP said that search operation is still underway.

8. Protest: July.18, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, a sea of people thronged Baramulla town to attend the funeral prayers of a youth, Adnan Ahmad Channa, who was martyred by Indian troops in Sopore town. Thousands of people chanting pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans received the martyr’s body as it reached from Sopore to Old Baramulla, the hometown of martyr, Adnan Channa. Multiple rounds of funeral were held to accommodate the huge rush of the people. Adnan was killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Gund Brath area of Sopore town, yesterday. Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed in northern Kashmir’s Baramulla town, today, to mourn the killing of the youth. All shops and business establishments were closed while a thin movement of traffic was witnessed on the roads. The occupation authorities closed schools and colleges in Baramulla to prevent students’ protests. However, people, particularly youth took to streets and clashed with forces’ personnel. Over a dozen youth were injured when troops fired pellets and teargas shells on the protesters in the town

9. Policeman killed; July, 19, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, an Indian policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Bijbehara area of South Kashmir’s Islamabad district, today. The killed policeman was appointed as Personal Security Officer (PSO) of pro-India Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Sajad Mufti. Sajjad is a cousin of PDP President and former puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti.

10. Human cost of Kashmir struggle: July, 20, 2019: - More than 300 people died in the Kashmir region claimed by India and Pakistan in the first half of the year, according to previously unreported data - one of the deadliest periods in the disputed territory’s recent history . India launched 177 cordon and search operations - in which troops seal off an area and conduct a security sweep - in the first half of the year, according to the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCSS), the leading human rights group in the region, up from 116 in the same period last year. One in three of those led to gun-battles between militants and troops in which at least one person was killed, according to previously unpublished data from JKCSS. That has made the first half of 2019 one of the deadliest in recent memory, with 301 deaths on both sides of the contested border, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a global database of violent incidents in conflict zones. That would be the worst six-month period since it began publishing data from both parts of Kashmir in 2016. The death toll in the first half of 2019 at 271, on a par with last year, which it says was the deadliest in a decade. One of those killed during the period was Rizwan Pandit, the school principal who died in police custody. The attitude of security forces to those believed to be sympathetic to militants is hardening, an Indian security official said, a process that began two years ago after the killing of a prominent militant leader, but has grown stronger since the February attack. “Troops have been given a free hand,” he said, referencing the speech given by Modi a day after the February bombing, claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist militant group.

11. "Don't let despair
distract you from the path
Don't forget to write,
not just with stones
But on pieces of paper,
on the leaves of the trees,
and those bloodied roads
the beloved word
Azadi
Remember
...I write from a bleeding heart."
— Inshah Malik

12. LoC firing: July, 21, 2019: A Pakistan Army officer was martyred and three civilians got injured on Saturday as "the Indian Army resorted to unprovoked firing" and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC), the Army's media wing reported. According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Indian Army used rockets and mortars to target the civilian population and the Army posts in Battal, Satwal, Khanjar, Nikyal and Jandrot sectors. "During the exchange of fire, Havaldar Manzoor Abbasi embraced martyrdom while four citizens, including two young girls and a woman, got injured," read the statement.

Kashmir Update 28: Week Jul 1, 2019 to July,7,2019

1. Pakistani soldiers killed; July, 4, 2019: Five Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred and one other sustained injuries in an explosion that took place a few metres from the Line of Control in Chamb sector of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Wednesday. Those killed include : Subedar Muhammad Sadiq, aged 44, resident of village Bandi P/O Jura, tehsil Athmuqam and district Neelam; Sepoy Muhammad Tayyab, aged 26, r/o village Surakhi, tehsil and district Khushab; Naik Sher Zaman, aged 36, r/o village Shamashaki, district Karak; Sepoy Zohaib, aged 20, r/o village Nandi Nar Ghamir Manhdala, tehsil Hajira and district Poonch; Sepoy Ghulam Qasim, aged 22, r/o village Sahiwal, tehsil Sahiwal and district Sargodha.

2. 2019 killings: July, 4, 2019: The first six months of 2019 recorded 271 killings in Jammu and Kashmir in various incidents of violence, which include 43 civilians, 120 militants and 108 Indian armed forces personnel, a human rights group Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society said on Wednesday. JKCCS said that among the 43 civilians killed in the first half of 2019, 14 were killed by Indian armed forces and police, 12 were killed by unidentified gunmen, 8 civilians died after falling victim of cross LOC shelling in the border areas of J&K, 5 civilians were killed by suspected militants, 3 died due to an explosion while the agency responsible for the killing of 2 civilians remains unknown – as both police and militants blamed each other for these two killings.“Among the 43 civilians killed, 9 were minors,” the statement by JKCCS read. JKCCS said that among the 108 Indian armed forces and Jammu Kashmir police personnel killed in Jammu., the highest (80) forces personnel were killed in counter-insurgency related incidents, including in a suicide militant attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on 14 February 2019, which resulted in the killing of at least 48 CRPF personnel, while 8 Indian armed personnel were killed at the volatile Line of Control (LOC). “15 armed forces committed suicide, 3 CRPF troopers were killed in a fratricidal incident by a CRPF trooper in Udhampur district of Jammu and 2 Special Police Officers (SPO) of Jammu Kashmir Police were killed by suspected militants,”

3. Youth martyred: July, 5,, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a violent cordon and search operation in Narwani area of the district. The operation continued till last reports came in. An Indian police official talking to media men claimed that the youth was militant and was killed in an encounter with the troops

4. Security for Yatra: July, 6, 2019: Whilst the Muslims in occupied Kashmir and India are not being allowed to perform their religious obligations, the Indian state leaves no stone unturned to facilitate the Hindu pilgrims during the annual Amarnath yatra that continues for several weeks. The occupation authorities have deployed around 60,000 Indian troops on the routes of the ongoing Amarnath yatra, which commenced on July 01, an official statement said. it said that this year, no stone has been left unturned by the Indian Army’s 1-Rashtriya Rifles battalion and police to ensure clear and secure passage for yatris, especially through the sensitive Islamabad town.“Stringent security arrangements have been put in place for smooth conduct of the annual pilgrimage. A robust security cover has been put in place, which includes satellite and chip-based tracking of vehicles and deployment of forces in various layers,” it said. Occupation forces have also banned Kashmiri traffic on raids whilst the Yatra is continuing. The JKLF Acting Chairman, Abdul Hameed Butt, in a statement issued in Srinagar said banning civilian traffic on highway and halting train services for a lame excuse of providing security to Amarnath pilgrims actually shows the religious fanatic face of Indian rulers who are hell bent upon inflicting miseries and hardships on common citizens of occupied Kashmir

5. Youth Thrashed; July, 6, 2019: A group of Hindu extremists abused and thrashed three Muslim youth and forced them to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan after asking their names in Ranchi city of Indian state of Jharkhand. A group of Hindu extremists attacked the youth and forced them to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. The youth, who sustained injuries, were immediately admitted to hospital. Aamir Wasim, who had lodged a complaint at the Doranda police station in Ranchi, said he and his friends, Altaf Ali and Ali Ahmed, had gone to the airport area to take photographs. “We were riding our two-wheelers and were in kurta pajama when some people besieged us. Without any provocation, they beat us up and told us to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. As the crowd got bigger, we fled from the spot,” he said. Tabrez Ansari, a 24-year-old youth, was beaten to death by a mob in Saraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand last month. On Friday, Muslims took out a rally to protest against attacks on the community in Ranchi.

6. Banners: July, 7, 2019: Banners reading “#Justice for Kashmir” and “India stop genocide & free Kashmir” were flown over Headingley during India's World Cup clash with Sri Lanka on Saturday. An insurgency in Indian-occupied Kashmir over the past three decades has left more than 70,000 dead, mainly civilians.

Kashmir Update 27: Week June, 24,2019 to June ,30,2019

1. AFSPA: June, 25, 2019: As many as 334 soldiers were killed from 2016 to 2018 in areas where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is in force, Indian Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh told Parliament.113 soldiers were killed in 2016, 125 in 2017 and 96 in 2018 in areas where the AFSPA is in force

2. Dr. Rita Pal: June, 26,2019: Here are some useful links that should be bookmarked: 1. India's human rights record since 2014 https://thewire.in/rights/india-human-rights-record-since-2014; 2. June 2018 Report on Kashmir https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf; 3. Correspondence from UNHRC to the Indian Government https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24476; 4. Response from the Indian Government https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=34631; 5. Torture Report https://scroll.in/latest/924117/j-k-human-rights-groups-release-report-on-alleged-torture-of-civilians-by-security-forces; 6. India slams Torture Report https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/india-slams-un-report-on-civilian-torture-in-kashmir/; 7. Download Torture Report http://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TORTURE-Indian-State%E2%80%99s-Instrument-of-Control-in-Indian-administered-Jammu-and-Kashmir.pdf

3. Youth martyred: June, 26, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district, today., the troops martyred the youth, Shabbir Ahmad Malik, during a violent cordon and search operation at Branpathri Kahlil in Tral area of the district., people took to the streets near bus stand and in Nagbal area of Tral town and staged demonstrations against the killing of the youth. Indian police and troops fired pellets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, injuring several of them.

4. Youth martyred: June, 27, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Islamabad district. The troops martyred the youth, Aadil Rehman Das, in a fake encounter during a cordon and search operation at Sirhama in Bijbehara area of the district, last evening. The dead body of Aadil Rehman Das was found on a hilltop at Boomteng near Sirhama area of the district

5. Torture: June, 27, 2019: The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) on Wednesday observed the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and renewed its determination to fight against the phenomenon of torture in Jammu and Kashmir. The most brutal techniques of torture listed in the Istanbul Protocol of UN-OHCHR have been used by the Indian armed forces against the people. The report highlights this based on a study of 432 testimonies, APDP and JKCCS call for the ratification of the UNCAT and unconditional access be provided to the UN-OHCHR, all UN Special Rapporteurs and other Special Procedures to assess the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir

6. Youth martyred: June, 28, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Badgam district, today..The troops martyred the youth during a violent cordon and search operation at Gund Chekpora in Nowgam area of the district. The troops also destroyed a residential house in the area. Meanwhile, the killing of the youth triggered forceful demonstrations in the area. Indian police and troops fired bullets, pellets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, injuring several of them critically. A youth, Shabbir Ahmed, who sustained bullet injury, was shifted to SMHS hospital in Srinagar. As per the doctors, Shabbir sustained bullet wound in his lower abdomen and is being operated upon. They said that his condition was not well.

Kashmir Update 26: Week June, 17,2019 to June ,23,2019

1. Indian Army Officers killed: June, 19, 2019: fierce gunfight raged on in Achabal area of South Kashmir's Anantnag on Monday. An Army officer was killed while another officer and two troopers were injured in the encounter. As per the details, the encounter took place when the security forces had launched a cordon and search operation. An Army Special Forces convoy, on its way at Arihal village of South Kashmir's Pulwama district, was also attacked by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), locals and officials said. The convoy was targeted by the terrorists near Eidgah Arihal on the Arihal-Lassipora road, a police official said. Five jawans were injured in the attack. The site of the blast is 27 km from the area where a convoy carrying security personnel was attacked by a suicide bomber on February 14 in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed.

2. Youth martyred: June, 23, 2019: The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation at Bujtalan in Boniyar area of Uri. The troops also launched a similar operation in Drabgam and Monghar villages of Pulwama district and continued searches in Kishtwar area of Jammu region on the second consecutive day, today. A driver was injured after Indian troops fired at him near Romeshi rivulet in Pulwama district, last night

3. Leaders arrested: June, 23, 2019: occupation authorities placed the Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest in Srinagar, today. Indian police arrested Hurriyat leader, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, in Islamabad town and lodged him at Sherbagh Police Station in the town.

4. Muslim countries: June, 23, 2019: Chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, has said that the Muslim countries should play their active role to bring an end to the human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian troops in the territory.. Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai in a statement issued in Srinagar hailed the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MCCIO) for supporting Kashmiris and setting up a Parliamentary Kashmir Group. He appreciated the efforts of MCCIO chief, Muhammad Azmi Abdul Hamid, to highlight the Kashmiris’ sufferings.

Kashmir Update 25: Week June, 10,2019 to June ,16,2019

1. Assessment: June, 11, 2019: Mounting rights abuses and political disengagement could push more young people towards militancy in Indian-administered Kashmir, residents warn, following some of the deadliest violence the troubled region has seen in a decade. Last year was Kashmir’s deadliest since 2008 and the bloodshed has worsened since. The Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a local rights group, says more than 586 people were killed in 2018, including militants, Indian security forces, and 160 civilians. The Indian government puts the civilian death toll at 37. This year is already threatening to surpass the last year,the rights group recorded 162 total deaths from January until March. Local rights advocates fear a growing humanitarian crisis fed by years of conflict and unchecked human rights abuses. For Mohammad Ashraf Wani, there is no doubt that India’s controversial policing policy is counterproductive and instilling a fearlessness in Kashmir’s youth. In 2016, he was hit by a hail of pellets from an officer’s pump-action shotgun and collapsed in a pool of blood. Despite multiple surgeries, Wani lost all sight in his right eye and has partial vision in his left. Shotgun pellets have been used as a crowd control method in Kashmir since 2010 – the only Indian state in which they are deployed. More than 6,221 people received pellet gun injuries in the seven months following the July 2016 unrest, according to the Jammu and Kashmir government.“Anyone here who sees their brother, sister, father, or mother in some ways abused by the state machinery creates a situation where the youth are so fed up that they will take to the streets and won’t care whether it’s a pellet that hits them or a bullet,” said Mohammad, who now leads a lobby group for pellet gun victims. “Preliminary data shows that Jammu and Kashmir recorded a turnout of only 29 percent compared to a nationwide average of 67 percent. Hundreds of polling stations recorded no voters at all. .Parvez, who has received death threats for his work and was detained for two and half months in 2016 after attempting to travel to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said the actions of the suicide bomber in the February Pulwama attack – Kashmir’s first suicide car bombing in nearly two decades – should be a warning sign. Parvez blames Indian authorities for ignoring the will of ordinary Kashmiris for self-determination, and the international community for what he sees as a conspicuous silence.Under Modi’s first term in office, the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has been accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment across the country, which has seen a spike in hate crimes. In March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned India of increasing reports of harassment and targeting of Muslims.The constant tension between the army and the civilian population appears to be leaving a lasting humanitarian impact. A May 2016 survey by Médecins Sans Frontières found that 45 percent of the population in the Kashmir valley were under “significant mental distress” and nearly one in five Kashmiris showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Strikes, protests, and resulting curfews have also shut down schools for long stretches, while clashes have interrupted jobs and livelihoods. A JKCCS report, released last month, documented decades of allegations against Indian forces in Kashmir including “water-boarding, sleep deprivation and sexualised torture”, which the rights groups said are used as an “instrument of control” to quash dissent. Despite the potency of the conflict, it took until 2018 for the first UN report into the human rights situation in Kashmir to be published. As well as decrying violence committed by authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and armed groups on both sides, Indian forces came in for the most scrutiny. Detailing hundreds of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and sexual violence, the report highlighted the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives Indian forces operating in Kashmir immunity from the gravest of crimes. “In the nearly 28 years that the law has been in force in Jammu and Kashmir, there has not been

2. Geeelani Sahib blasts Modis statement on Kashmir: June, 11, 2109: In a strong reaction to the statement of Prime Minister Modi, in Maldives, pertaining to Kashmir issue, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani termed it “blatant negation” of the hard facts of history of Indian division of 1947. Terming Kashmir as an “outcome of non-compliance of Indian Independence act of 1947, the basic formula for the partition of India, the Hurriyat leader laid stress on the early resolution of Kashmir issue by granting right to self-determination in a peaceful atmosphere, which has been guaranteed by the United Nations and India is the signatory to it.” Urging the United Nations and other world powers including USA, Britain, France, Russia and China to expedite their moral, diplomatic and political efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute and deter Indian barbarism, ruthless killings of innocent people, incarceration of political activists and gross violation of human rights in Kashmir

3. ISIS claim attack: June, 12, 2019: The Islamic State (ISIS) announced this afternoon that their terrorists have carried out a deadly attack against the Indian Army in the Kashmir region near. According to an official statement from the Islamic State’s media wing, their terrorists attacked an Indian Army post in the town of Zein Bora.The terrorist group’s statement said they opened fire on the Indian Army post with their machine guns; this allegedly resulted in the death of a number of Indian soldiers. The Indian Ministry of Defense has not yet issued a statement about this alleged attack by the Islamic State terrorist organization.

4. Kashmir intifada official song: June, 13,2019: https://tribune.com.pk/multimedia/videos/1984813/

5. Attack: June, 13, 2019: Five CRPF jawans of 116 Battalion were killed and one police officer was among four injured in an attack on security forces in south Kashmir’s Anantnag on Wednesday afternoon. An unidentified militant was also killed. A senior police official said two militants attacked a joint deployment of the CRPF and the police. The militants, who came on a motorbike, fired at the security forces and lobbed grenades on a busy stretch near Oxford School on K.P. Road around 4.55 p.m. “Five CRPF jawans were killed and the body of one freedom fighter was recovered from the spot.

6. Governors Rule: June, 13,2019: Indian Cabinet has extended the President’s rule in occupied Kashmir for six more months.A meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for the extension of the President’s rule which has been continuing in occupied Kashmir since December 20, 2018.Indian Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, talking to reporters in New Delhi said that President’s rule in occupied Kashmir would be extended for six more months beginning July 03 and the Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod in this effect.

7. Amnesty International: June, 13, 2019: The President of London-based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), Dr Syed Nazir Gilani, has said that stopping Amnesty International from voicing opposition to atrocities committed by Indian forces and putting in place a ‘strong state doctrine’ by Modi Government to use brute force and kill as many Kashmir’s as possible, has no merit. Dr Nazir Gilani in a statement issued in London said that such measures would not succeed to suppress the voices of dissent and elements of resistance in occupied Kashmir. The Indian government is widely misusing a law allowing for detention without trial in the Indian-occupied Kashmir region, and fuelling animosity with it, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.The Public Safety Act (PSA) was a “lawless law” under which the authorities hold children, old people and the disabled, and it should be scrapped, the group said. “This act is contributing to inflaming tensions between the state authorities and local populace and must be immediately repealed,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India. India has long defended the 41-year-old PSA as essential to maintain law and order in the Muslim-majority region where Kashmir’s have been battling the security forces since the late 1980s. https://www.facebook.com/ViralKashmirNews/videos/444673796317961/UzpfSTE4MzcwMzY1MzMyODMwODc6MjMyMzk3MzYxNzkyMjcwNw/

8. Two martyred: June, 14, 2019: Two freedom fighters were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Friday .According to a police official, security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in Braw Bandina area of Awantipora in the district in south Kashmir after receiving intelligence input about presence of militants in the area. As the forces were conducting searches in the area, the militants fired upon them. The security forces retaliated

10.

Kashmir Update 24: Week June, 3,2019 to June ,9,2019

1. OIC: June, 3, 2019: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has appointed Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Aldobeay as its special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir, reiterating its support for the legitimate right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people in accordance with UN resolutions, the Foreign Office said on Saturday. The Foreign Office said the summit communiqué called for expediting establishment of a UN commission of inquiry to investigate grave human rights violations and urged India to allow the commission and other international organizations access to Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). The conference also commended the report of OIC’s Human Rights Commission, highlighting rights abuses in IOK. It welcomed Pakistan’s offer to host 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad in 2021.

2. Suicides: June, 3, 2019: Within one weak three members, of Indian Armed Forces, including a Colonel, committed suicide in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Indian army man Yogesh Singh (27) was found hanging with a tree near an abandoned building at 16 Corps unit in Nagrota area of the district. The Indian army soldier was presently posted at 16 Corps, Nagrota, area of city outskirts in Jammu,” a police official said. He said the after postmortem conducted at Government Medical College and Hospital in Jammu, the body was handed over to the Indian Army authorities.»

3. Three martyred: June, 3, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, India troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three civilian youth in Shopian district, today. The youth were killed in firing by Indian troops in Moolu Chitragam area of the district. The killing triggered anti-India protests in the area. Several people were injured after Indian police and paramilitary forces fired pellets and shells on protesters in different areas of the Shopian and Islamabad districts.»

4. Rita Pal on PTM: June. 3, 2019: “Since Junaid Quereshi, self styled guru of counter-terrorism at EFSAS started to feature PTM, we looked narrowly at him. As time went on, we discovered that PTM was part of India's hybrid warfare against Pakistan and probably Kashmir. This week, as most Kashmiris have witnessed, the human rights groups - Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have happily featured the armed group PTM. They have not featured the 100+ injuries due to pellet guns etc in Kashmir. To raise awareness on PTM, we decided it was important to write a petition on why we believe PTM should be declared a terrorist outfit. Please sign and share this link https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/Government_of_Pakistan_and_PM_Imran_Khan_Declare_PTM_as_a_Terrorist_Organisation_and_ban_them/details/”

5. Youth martyred: June, 7, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three more Kashmiri youth in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, today, taking the number of the slain youth to four since yesterday. The troops launched a violent cordon and search operation at Panjran in Lassipora area of the district, last evening, and martyred one youth. Three more youth were martyred by the troops in the same area, today. The bodies of the youth were recovered from the debris of two residential houses destroyed by the troops in the area.

6. Youth martyred: June, 8, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred another Kashmiri youth in Islamabad district, today, raising the number of the martyred youth to five since Thursday evening. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation at Nowgam in Verinag area of the district. The operation was going on till last reports came in. The occupation authorities have suspended mobile internet service in Islamabad district.

10.

Kashmir Update 23: Week May,27,2019,April ,2,2019

1. Indian Election Results: May, 27, 2019: There seems to some surprise and dismay at the victory of Modi and his BJP. Congress lost due to poor leadership. I have long maintained that Rahul Gandhi is not talented enough to lead Congress. His sister may be better than him or perhaps Congress should think of leaders other than from Nehru’s family. . Congress carries the same message that BJP does. It is only watered down and stated more softly. Their actions may not be as blatant and brazen as BJPs but they have the same results nevertheless. Congress is dubbed as a “B” team to BJP .Besides elite Hindus resent the inclusion of minorities into Congress .The electorate chose to go for the real deal rather than vote in the watered down version. .There has been a debate in India on the essence of India and Hinduism. One narrative is that India should nominally be a multi cultured democracy could be dubbed Nehru’s version. The other sponsored by BJP and RSS and Co. is to make India blatantly Hindu.Hinduism is difficult to define. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and others wrote whole books to just define Hinduism. Hinduism at any point in time is what people say it is, there are no central scriptures. There is lot of diversity and duality in Hindu religious thought and some of it is contradictory. Wendy Doniger presented some of this duality and contradictions.There is attempt to create an artificial structured Hinduism. This effort is now supported by the majority of Indian citizens. The TV dramas or series aired related to the Mahabharata, Ramayana and other classics found a very sympatric cord in a majority of Indian s. Gita is pushed to be declared as the central scriptures. This should explain the recent results which saw Modi and Co. achieve an even greater majority in the elections. The expectations that the Indian electorate will punish Modi and Co. were based on false premise.

2. Article 370: May, 27, 2019: “Article 370, a temporary transitional provision, is the biggest injustice with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, while the Article 35A is a constitutional blunder which was included through back door without the consent of Parliament and the President…. We wish the early abrogation of both these constitutional provisions,” Raina was quoted in the report as saying. .

3. People hurt: May, 30, 2019: At least 90 people were injured in clashes in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday as protesters helped rebels escape a siege by government forces, police and hospital authorities said. While protests in support of the surrounded rebels have increased on the Indian side of the divided territory in recent years, it is rare for insurgents to escape. Thousands of villagers poured onto roads Wednesday as two suspected rebels fought a gunbattle with soldiers from inside a house in the Kulgam area in southern Kashmir. Protesters pelted government forces with stones to give the fighters cover to escape, they said. Fifty people were taken to a local hospital after government forces fired shotgun pellets and live bullets to push the protesters back, witnesses and hospital officials said. “The house was blown up but the militants escaped in the confusion. No dead bodies were found in the debris,” a top police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. .

4. Youth martyred: May, 30, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, a civilian was martyred and several others were injured when Indian troops opened fire on protesters in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, today. According to Kashmir Media Service, reports said that youth took to streets and clashed with the troops who had launched a cordon and search operation in Pinjura area of the district. The martyred was identified as Sajjad Ahmad Parray of Badrahama, Shopian.Besides martyrdom of Parray, a youth identified as Muhammad Shafi Malik also received a bullet injury while a girl was hit by pellets on her face.

5. BJP election Victory: May, 31, 2019: After the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a thumping victory in the general elections last week, one question loomed large on everyone's minds: what does this mean for Kashmir and its people? Many in Kashmir are of the opinion that it makes no difference whether India is ruled by a secular Congress or a communal BJP. For them, the two are no different. The gradual erosion of Kashmir’s special status began during the Congress rule: at one point in time, Kashmir had its own prime minister but the Congress changed that into chief minister, bringing the state at par with others. Democratically-elected governments in Kashmir were dismissed by the Congress: the Farooq Abdullah-led government was removed in 1984. Draconian laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts were extended to Kashmir by the Congress. The past five years saw a second full-time National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in India, and during this period, Modi only tried to perfect these practices in Kashmir for which Congress laid the base. In the NDA’s first tenure from 1998 to 2004 under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee leadership, various measures were undertaken to address the conflict in and over Kashmir. General Musharraf and the Indian prime minister formulated a framework for a composite dialogue that led to a number of confidence-building measures. Under Modi, the BJP tows the historical Sangh Parivar line that calls for a complete integration of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Union. It means no separate Kashmiri constitution and flag. In these general elections, abrogation of Article 370 — which gives Jammu and Kashmir a special status in the Indian Constitution and was one of the BJP's main promises in its manifesto. In its new term, the BJP might push to dissolute and weaken the NC and the PDP further by facilitating groups like the People's Conference and try to cause defection in their ranks by offering their leaders more power. After all, nothing corrupts like power. The BJP leadership is confident that the new chief minister in Kashmir is going to be from their party. They hope to win more than 50 of the 87 assembly seats in the Jammu and Kashmir elections that are a few months away. That number is not possible without the support of Kashmir-based parties. The NC and the PDP are unlikely to offer their backing to Modi, but the People's Conference is likely to be roped in by the BJP to take their share of seats a little higher than last time. This is equally challenging for the Indian state, too. The more it tries to choke resistance politics in Kashmir into submission through violence, the greater the possibility for the emergence of more radical forms of response.

6. Youth martyred: May, 31, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three more Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Dragad Sugan area of the district. The operation was going on when last reports came in. Forceful anti-India demonstrations erupted in the area as people took to the streets against the killing of the youth. Indian police and troops fired pellets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, triggering clashes between the demonstrators and the forces’ personnel. »

7. Turkey: May, 31, 2019: Turkey is "deeply" concerned with the security and humanitarian situation in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said on May 29. "Turkey sincerely desires that Kashmir issue is resolved through peaceful means between India and Pakistan based on relevant UN resolutions in line with aspirations of the people of Kashmir," Çavuşoğlu tweeted. His remarks came after a Jeddah meeting of Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir in Saudi Arabia, where he will hand over Turkey's presidency of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to Saudi Arabia

8. Five martyred: June,2 ,2019: Police said a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) was launched jointly by police and army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles in Draggad-Sugan village of Shopian during the search operation five lost their lives . The police identified the martyred freedom fighters as Abid Manzoor Magray alias Saju Tiger, Bilal Ahmed Bhat and Jasim Rashid Shah, all locals

9. May killings: June, 2, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred 34 Kashmiris including 3 in custody during the last month of May. the killings rendered 4 women widowed and 10 children orphaned. During the month, 601 people were critically injured due to the firing of pellets, bullets and teargas shells by Indian army, paramilitary and police personnel on peaceful protesters in the occupied territory while 156 civilians including a woman were arrested. Most of the arrested persons were Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth. Seven of the arrestees were booked under black law Public Safety Act. The troops also molested 5 women and damaged and ransacked 39 houses during the period.

Kashmir Update 22: Week May,20,2019, May ,26,2019

1. Youth martyred: May, 20, 2019: Four freedom fighters, were killed in twin operations in Kashmir on Saturday. The police said Showkat Dar from Pulwama’s Panzgam, Irfan War from Baramulla’s Sopore and Muzaffar Sheikh from Pulwama’s Tahab, were encircled in a midnight operation at Pulwama’s Panzgam. They were killed in the gunfight that lasted for several hours. A house was damaged in the operation

2. India arming Hindu extremists: May, 20, 2019: In order to harass and keep the local Muslims under constant threat, Indian Army has started providing armed training and weapons to the notorious anti-Muslim elements, mostly associated with Hindu extremist outfits, organized in the name of Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in Jammu region. Lieutenant Colonel Abhinav Navneet, defence spokesman for Indian army’s Udhampur based Northern Command while confirming the training and weapon supply to the VDC members said, “Army regularly meets VDC members in most remote areas of Jammu

3. HRC Report on IHK: May. 21, 2019: A prominent rights group in occupied Kashmir is advocating for the United Nations to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate what it calls the endemic use of torture by Indian forces that have faced a decades-long anti-India uprising in the disputed region. The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) on Monday released a detailed report saying that the Indian government is using torture as a "matter of policy" and "instrument of control" in Kashmir, where locals have struggled against Indian rule since 1989."Torture is the most under-reported human rights violation perpetrated by the state," the report noted. "Due to legal, political and moral impunity extended to the armed forces, not a single prosecution has taken place in any case of human rights violations" in the region, the report said. The 560-page report, researched for a decade, recommends an investigation be led by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It also urges India to ratify the UN Convention against torture and also allow global rights groups "unhindered access" to occupied Kashmir.Last year, the UN in its first report on Kashmir called for an independent international investigation into reports of rights violations like rape, torture and extrajudicial killings in the region.The report, which JKCCS helped with field research, particularly criticised Indian troops for firing shotgun pellets against protesters, blinding and maiming hundreds of people, including children. India rejected the UN report as "fallacious". The new report includes 432 case studies involving torture and maps trends and patterns, targets, perpetrators, locations and other details. The cases include 293 civilians and 119 militants, among others, and 27 were minors when they were tortured. Monday's report said the institutions of the state like legislature, executive, judiciary and armed forces use torture "in a systematic and institutional manner".Indian-occupied Kashmir is patrolled by military, paramilitary and armed police and remains one of the most militarised regions in the world. Reacting angrily to a submission from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) on the alleged violations in Jammu and Kashmir, India has informed the United Nations body that it will no longer entertain any communication with the HRC’s Special Rapporteurs on its report. The report from the UN body came at the same time a report from two NGOs in the State on the alleged cases of torture was released in Srinagar, which was endorsed by a former UN Special Rapporteur. The current Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions, Torture, and Right to Health — Agnes Callamard, Dainius Puras and Nils Melzer — had referred to a June 2018 report of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) and written to the government in March 2019, asking about steps taken by New Delhi to address the alleged human rights violations listed in the report. In addition, the Special Rapporteurs had listed “13 cases of concern” from 2018 alone, in which “four children were among eight civilians killed by members of the security forces.” Read full report at http://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TORTURE-Indian-State%E2%80%99s-Instrument-of-Control-in-Indian-administered-Jammu-and-Kashmir.pdf

Made to stare at high voltage lamp	3
Threatened	10
Made to face harsh weather conditions directly	11
Solitary confinement	11
Slits/incisions/cuts made with sharp objects	12
Animals (dogs, rats, piglets,snakes) rubbed with body	15
Chilli/salt/petrol rubbed on wounds/eyes/genitals/	15
Kept in dark/underground/poorly ventilated rooms	17
Sleep deprivation	21
House ransacked/looted/blown up/burnt	23
Foreign objects inserted into rectum	23
Water-boarding	24
Forced Starvation/adulterated food/scarce food	29
Verbally abused	31
Forced to drink or eat (unacceptable) things	33
Flesh cut/skinned/Nails plucked out/beard (hair)	35
Trampled over	37
Forced to overdrink (chilli) water	37
Forced labour in detention	43
Blindfolded	48
Legs stretched	56
Body (parts) burnt	70
Dragged/slapped/kicked/punched/glass bottles broken		93
Head dunked in (chilli) water		101
Stress position/hands tied/feet tied/restrained to		105
Hanged upside down/aeroplane		121
Electrocuted in genitals		127
Roller			169
Stripped naked			190
Electrocuted				231
Beaten					326

4. UN Hailed: May, 22, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir Chairman, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai has appreciated the UN’s effort to seek from India details of cases, related to torture and killings of civilians in Kashmir. Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai strongly condemned India’s refusal to provide any clarifications on such cases. He also hailed Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and J&K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) for doing an amazing job to highlight human rights abuses and releasing a comprehensive report on torture and brazen human rights violations in Kashmir. The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, Shabbir Ahmed Dar, in a statement also welcomed the clarifications sought by the United Nations Human Rights Council of 76 cases of killings and torture of civilians by Indian forces. The Special Rapporteurs Agnes Callamard, Danius Puras and Nils Melzer wrote a letter to India asking it for clarifications in the scheduled time of sixty days, but India failed to comply with.

5. Musa Martyred: May, 25, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, prominent mujahid commander, Zakir Musa, who was martyred by Indian forces in a gunfight that lasted for most of the night intervening Thursday and Friday in Dadsara area of Tral in Pulwama district, gave a tough fight to the forces. While Zakir Musa is believed to have been killed after engaging the forces for several hours, his body was recovered in the morning from the debris of the house, which was blown up by the forces to eliminate him. Zakir Musa, an engineering student, was on Thursday evening trapped and later gunned down in the same house in which his makeshift studio was busted by the Indian forces in December 2016. On the other hand, braving curfew and heavy rains, tens of thousands of people thronged Musa’s native Noorpora village on Friday amid pro-freedom and pro-Islam slogans to participate in the funeral and to have his last glimpse. Funeral prayers were offered to the deceased 12 times. “I came from Palhalan Pattan to have last glimpse of Zakir Musa,” said Muhammad Wajid. Several mujahideen showed up at the funeral and one of them offered gun salute to Musa. People kissed his face, and those who couldn’t kiss him touched his body before bidding him final adieu.

Kashmir Update 21: Week May,13,2019, May ,19,2019

1. Youth martyred; May, 16, 2019: Indian troops in their fresh acts of state terrorism martyred five Kashmiri youth in Pulwama and Baramulla districts. The troops martyred three youth, Naseer Pandit, Umar Mir and Khalid Ahmed, and destroyed a residential house during a cordon and search operation (CASO) in Dalipora area of Pulwama district in wee hours, today. Another youth identified as Rayees Ahmed Dar was martyred and his brother, Younis Ahmed Dar, was injured in the firing of the troops in the area. They are believed to be the sons of the house owner. Earlier, one Indian soldier was killed and two others were critically injured in the same area. The operation was going on till last report came in. Following the killing of the youth, massive clashes between protesters and Indian forces’ personnel were reported from the area.

2. Shutdown: May, 17, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown is being observed, today, to protest against the ongoing killing spree by Indian troops in the territory. Call for the shutdown has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership. All shops and business establishments are closed in Srinagar and all other major cities and towns of the occupied territory while traffic is off the road.

3. Continued terror activities of IAF: May, 18, 2019: Five freedom fighters, two army soldiers and two civilians were killed Thursday during two gun battles in disputed Kashmir that triggered anti-India protests and clashes, officials and residents said. The first gun battle broke out in a neighborhood in southern Pulwama town as police and soldiers scoured the area looking for militants, said Col. Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman. He said as troops began conducting searches, they came under heavy gunfire, leading to a clash that killed three militants and a soldier. A civilian was also killed and his brother was wounded during the fighting, police said. Two soldiers were also injured. Local residents said troops damaged one civilian home with explosives.

4. Indian army martyred two youth: May, 19, 2019: In the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK), security forces martyred at least two Kashmiri youth on Saturday during their newest act of state ter. Indian troops martyred the young Kashmiris during an early morning cordon and search operation in Bunpora Panzgam area of Pulwama district. Meanwhile, Indian troops also destroyed a house in the area using explosive material and conducted a cordon and search operation in Dehruna area of Islamabad district.

5. Muslim man killed: May, 19, 2019: A Muslim man was fatally shot and another was injured by Hindu vigilantes in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday over allegations of cow smuggling. A group of Hindu men intercepted the two Muslims in the outskirts of southeastern Bhaderwah town before dawn and shot at them after an altercation, police said. A 50-year-old man died and another man was injured. Residents say the attack was carried out by so-called cow vigilantes. The injured man, Yasin Hussain, told reporters the two were taking three horses, not cows, with them. He said at least eight men intercepted them, hurled abuses and without checking the animals fired shots at them. Nayeem Ahmed Shah was hit in the head and died on the spot, Hussain said, adding that the attackers fled. After the incident, the victims’ families and their neighbors took to the streets demanding the arrest of the attackers. As more people assembled, the protesters attacked a police station with stones and damaged vehicles. Police fired tear gas and bullets in the air to quell the protests. Police officer Shabir Ahmed Malik said police registered a murder case and detained at least seven people for questioning. In Kashmir, where anti-India sentiment runs deep among the mostly Muslim residents, dozens of shops selling beef openly operate in the main city of Srinagar and other Muslim-majority areas despite a ban on cow slaughter.

Kashmir Update 20: Week May,6,2019, May ,12,2019

1. Indian Elections: May, 5, 2019: Suspected separatist shot dead a local leader from Narendra Modi's ruling party in Indian Occupied Kashmir ahead of the latest round of India’s marathon elections, The killing in Anantnag district of India's only Muslim-majority state is the latest in a string of attacks that have marred India's staggered elections which began last month. The gunmen opened fire on Gul Mohammad Mir, 65, who headed a local unit of the Hindu nationalist BJP, at his house in south Kashmir on Saturday night.

2. LoC Firing: May, 6,2019: A young boy and a woman were 1(illed and another woman was injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Sunday amid `unprovoked` shelling by Indian troops from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), the casualties occurred in Maal Gujran and Sehra villages in Khuiratta and Hajira subdivisions of Kotli and Poonch districts, respectively, where Indian troops resorted to shelling from 10am onwards Pooch District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO) Rubia Kanwal identified the victims as 45-year-old Nasreen Begum, wife of Chaudhry Wazir Hussain, and 24-year-old Sonia Nadeem. Shariq Talat, the DDMO of the neighbouring Kotli district, told Dawn that a 12-year old boy, Mohammad Shahid, son of Mohammad Shabbir, lost his life in Maal Gujran village, two kilometres off the LoC in Anderla Kotehra sector. According to AJK officials, the latest casualties have pushed the death toll in ceasefire violations by Indian Army this year to 16, including six women, while the number of injured civilians has gone up to 82, including 33 women.

3. Elections: May, 7, 2019: the political spectrum in Kashmir is likely to change in the coming months. IAS-turned-politician Shah Faesal’s Peoples’’ Movement would be keenly watched. Faesal is attracting a massive crowd in his native district of Kupwara after he started door-to-door campaigning last month. At the same time, Sajad Gani Lone’s People’s Conference (PC) would complete a decade in the mainstream politics this year. In 2009, Lone shifted to the mainstream politics and unsuccessfully contested from north Kashmir’s Baramulla parliamentary constituency. Since then, Lone has made his party a competitor to regional parties. The NC and the PDP claim that the new parties are created to fragment the political spectrum of Kashmir. Faesal, who recently floated the J&K Peoples’’ Movement, says he along with Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) chief Engineer Rasheed is bringing respect to the mainstream electoral politics which has been snatched because of the misdeeds of the existing political parties. “The democratic institutions can be utilised to enforce and protect the rights of people. Electoral politics is not all about taking dictations from Delhi. It is about representing Kashmir in Delhi, not Delhi in Kashmir,” he says. Both Lone and Faesal are trying to lure the youth towards the electoral politics and have thrown new and young faces into Kashmir politics. Lone says the political landscape has remained unchanged for a very long time and has remained dominated by two dynasties — the Abdullahs of the NC and the Muftis of the PDP. “There are clear signs that people are fed up with and tired of the dynasties. I believe people see in us a vehicle that will transcend the state of changelessness into a state of change,” The PC fielded candidates for all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir. It is likely to put a good show in the Baramulla and Srinagar parliamentary constituencies. He has also decided to contest from all 87 seats of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature. How far Lone’s development slogan will gain resonance in Kashmir will depend much upon the Lok Sabha results. Rasheed says people have accepted his brand of pro-Kashmir mainstream politics and it is on display in the Lok Sabha election campaigning in north Kashmir, where people came out to listen to him during night hours also. .All new entrants are gaining space because the PDP, which emerged as the largest political party in J&K in the 2014 Assembly elections, is going through a crisis, resulting into a political vacuum in Kashmir. Who will gain that lost political space among the new entrants will be seen in the next few months.

4. Youth martyred: May, 11, 2019: On Friday (May 10, 2019), in occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today. The troops martyred the youth, Ishfaq Ahmed Sofi, during a cordon and search operation in Amishpora area of the district. Youth took to the streets soon after the culmination of Juma prayers, today, at historic Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar and staged anti-India demonstrations. Indian police and troops fired pellets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, injuring several of them. Six youth were hit by pellets.

5. Cross border shelling: May, 12, 2019: Islamabad has approached New Delhi suggesting that both stop using artillery in the contested Kashmir region. Pakistan has also vowed to remove Special Forces from the area. The Pakistani army had made the peace offer using existing military-to-military channels An Indian defense official said there were over 100 instances when shelling was recorded in the troubled state of Kashmir, but now the use of artillery “has considerably reduced.” Moratorium aside, Pakistan’s military ordered its Special Service Group (SSG) – an analogue of the American Green Berets – to withdraw from the Indian border. Islamabad seems to be willing to defuse tensions around Kashmir, Indian officials believe. “These are clear on-ground signals from Pakistan for de-escalation,”

6. ISIS in Indian occupied Kashmir: May, 12, 2019: ISIS claimed for the first time that it has established a “province” in India, after a clash between militants and security forces in the contested Kashmir region killed a militant with alleged ties to the group. ISIS’s Amaq News Agency late on Friday announced the new province, that it called “Wilayah of Hind”, in a statement that also claimed ISIS inflicted casualties on Indian army soldiers in the town of Amshipora in the Shopian district of Kashmir. The ISIS statement corresponds with an Indian police statement on Friday that a militant called Ishfaq Ahmad Sofi was killed in an encounter in Shopian. ISIS’s statement establishing the new province appears to be designed to bolster its standing after the group was driven from its self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in April, where at one point it controlled thousands of miles of territory. ISIS has stepped up hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks, including taking responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombing in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people

Kashmir Update 19: Week April,29,2019, May ,5,2019

1. Rizwan Assad Pandit: May. , 2, 2019: 28-year-old Rizwan Assad Pandit died while in police custody, sometime between 17 and 18 March. ‘The police barged into our home just before the midnight of [the] 17th and detained Rizwan, while the rest of us remained huddled inside one of the rooms,’ Zulqarnain Assad, Rizwan’s younger brother says, as he serves me tea and biscuits in the family’s modestly-built home. In late 1980, after a heavily-rigged regional election thousands of Kashmiris, embraced armed struggle to bring about an end to the Indian rule. New Delhi responded with heavy counterinsurgency tactics, sending hundreds of thousands of military and police personnel into the region, in addition to creating and sponsoring informal paramilitary groups. Known as the world’s most densely militarized zone, more than 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir during the past three decades, thousands tortured and around 10,000 disappeared. Rizwan, a teacher at a local private school, who also used to deliver guest lectures at the nearby Islamic University of Science and Technology, is one of the latest victims of state violence. According to his brothers, he was also a committed social activist and ran a campaign for eradication of drug abuse in the neighbourhood. ‘He also helped many poor students, from different villages, by providing them with the school fees and buying them textbooks,’ Zulqarnain says. The family, however, vehemently rejects that Rizwan was involved. Even the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s prime counter-terrorist agency, that is probing the suicide attack, in a statement, also firmly denied that Rizwan was a suspect in its investigation. ‘When the NIA has cleared him of any involvement, how could my son be a prime suspect in the attack?’ Assadullah, Rizwan’s father, tells me. ‘Even if he were a dreaded terrorist, custodial torture and killing is still not justified. The suicide-attack label is now being used as a strategic ploy, to undermine any calls for justice’ Assadullah adds. The preliminary medical reports suggest that ‘profuse bleeding from vessels caused due to multiple injuries’ and ‘extravasation of blood’ that may ‘result in Kidney [sic] failure’ could have been the cause of Rizwan’s death. Other reports also revealed that ‘a “roller” may have been applied over his legs, causing the veins and arteries to rupture,’ pointing to a widespread torture technique among Indian forces deployed in Kashmir, involving the use of a round, metal object which is placed over the body parts of a detainee, and on which the perpetrator then sits. ‘His legs were swollen, and his body was full of cuts and bruises,’ Zulqarnain revealed. ‘They returned his body without any clothes, wrapped in only a police-issue blanket. Absurdly, the police, however, maintain that Rizwan died after escaping from their custody and have, posthumously, filed criminal charges against him.

2. Human Rights in Indian Occupied Kashmir: May, 2, 2019: The Indian army, paramilitary forces and police have long been accused of carrying out systematic torture in the region. A WikiLeaks cable in 2010 revealed that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had repeatedly briefed US diplomats in India about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees in Kashmir. The cable also discloses that the ICRC had even told the diplomats that Indian authorities ‘condone torture’ in the region and that the ‘torture victims, civilians as well as militants, were routinely killed’. While some estimates suggest that one out of every six Kashmiris have been tortured, a 2014 report put the number of torture centres that still remain functional across Kashmir at 471.A detainee, one of the lucky few who emerged alive from a torture centre at the peak of armed insurgency in the 1990s, described his two-month ordeal as ‘a lived experience of hell’.‘They try to break you, physically as well as mentally. And, believe me, they actually succeed,’ he says. ‘Our days were marked by bone-breaking beatings. They also regularly stripped me and tied a wire around my penis to give electric shocks. At the first shock, you lose all sense of place and time.

3. Pulwama Attack : May , 2019 : Around 15:15 local time (09:45 GMT) on 14 February, Adil Ahmad Dar drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a convoy of 78 buses carrying Indian paramilitary police in Pulwama, on the heavily guarded Srinagar-Jammu highway. It was a devastating attack - the worst carried out against Indian forces in decades. It shocked the country, as newspapers and TV screens were filled with stories of soldiers and their shattered families. Some had just returned from a visit home; others had called a family member hours before the attack; a few were speaking to them on the phone when the explosives went off. Adil Ahmad Dar was identified hours later, when the Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, released a video online saying it had carried out the attack. In the video, Dar appears to show no remorse for what he is going to do. He said he joined the group in 2018 and was eventually "assigned" the task of carrying out the attack in Pulwama. Dar was a high school dropout and had been doing odd jobs as a mason when his parents reported him missing in March last year. He was 22, and, by all accounts, shy and quiet. His family say his anger against the Indian state grew after he was injured while participating in a protest against the killing of a popular militant in 2016 There has been an armed rebellion against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir since 1989. Since 1989, Kashmir has been convulsed by regular episodes of violence that have killed more than 70,000 people, including many Kashmiri Hindus targeted by militants in the early 1990s. Critics say India's heavy-handed tactics have alienated local youths. A UN report on violence in the region between June 2016 and April 2018 pointed to excessive force used by Indian security personnel, including the firing of pellet guns that have blinded hundreds "Kashmiris who were born after the 1990s have never seen peace," says Abdul Ahad Bhat, 68, a resident of Pulwama. "They were born amid curfews and died before they ended." Militancy in the valley had declined by the 2000s but grew again after the killing of young militant leader, Burhan Wani, in 2016. And it has been on the rise since - 2016 saw the deaths of 150 suspected militants and more than 230 died in 2018, according to official figures. Wani was extremely active on social media. India considered him a terrorist but for many locals he represented a new Kashmiri generation. When he was killed in a gun battle with Indian security forces, protests engulfed the valley. Dozens were killed and hundreds injured as security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at protesters. Many were also blinded by pellets. Adil Ahmad Dar, who took part in the protests, was shot in the leg and bedridden for 11 months. "That day changed him," says his father, Ghulam Hassan Dar, 62. "A shy boy transformed into a volcano of anger but he rarely expressed it." He, like other locals, believes many of the boys and men who protested at Wani's killing joined the insurgency. Adil Ahmad Dar spent more time praying and reading on the internet while recovering than mingling with his friends. He ran away from home to join the militants in March 2018 Others speak of his frustration with the political situation in Kashmir. "He was saddened by militants 'dying like chickens', without putting up a fight or inflicting casualties on the other side," said Altaf, another relative, who arrived with hundreds of villagers to attend Dar's funeral the day after the attack. Jibran Ahmad, a Pulwama resident, says: "You become a militant in a police station or an army camp, not inside the four corners of your house."Many of those arrested by police in 2016 joined the militancy. Perhaps they thought it was better than being humiliated every day."Some of the men joining the militants recently have been highly educated and come from financially stable families. A federal minister told India's parliament in December that at least 26 of these new militants in 2018 were graduates and he referred to them as "misguided youth". One policeman based in Kashmir who wished to remain anonymous says India's approach has not worked. He said he did not want to be identified because he feared being rebuked by his superiors for speaking publicly about such a sensitive issue."When you kill one militant, two more are ready to join. Political outreach is important but in recent years we have focused on killing militants," he says. Author and counter-terrorism expert Ajai Sahni says India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has demonised the valley and "created an enemy for the entire country" which may be a "successful election strategy but is disastrous for national security".

4. Pesh Imam tortured: May, 4, 2019: Jammu, May 04 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, Indian army personnel tortured a pesh imam (prayer leader) of a Jamia Masjid in Loran area of Poonch district in Jammu region without any reason. The Indian troops targeted the pesh imam, Maulana Abdul Hameed Naeemi, when he was returning from Srinagar to Poonch. The troops asked him to get down from vehicle in Kulgam and subjected him to torture for more than an hour. The people of the area took to streets against the brutal action of the Indian troops and held protest demonstrations at several places. The speakers addressing on the occasion demanded of the occupation authorities to take strict action against the men in uniform involved in the heinous crime.

5. Masud Azher : May.,2, 2019: Designation of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as 'global terrorist ..Is Pakistan helping BJP to come to power? The timing of this decision is intriguing, in the mid of Indian elections, this coupled by Pakistani PMs remarks that Modi’s victory could assist in progress in India Pakistan affairs and in resolution of the Kashmir dispute .

6. Freedom fighters martyred: May., 3, 2019: Three freedom fighters including a top Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Lateef Ahmad Dar, who was the last member of Burhan Wani’s group, were killed and an army man was injured in an encounter in Shopian The encounter took place on Monday morning in Adkhara village of Imam Sahib locality of Shopian, when a team of 34 RR of Army, CRPF and Special Operations Group of J&K police launched a joint crackdown following a tip off regarding presence of militants

Kashmir Update 18: Week April,22,2019 April ,28,2019

1. Dr. Fai: Apr.,23,2109: Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai has said that Kashmir has been internationally recognized as a disputed territory since the adoption of the United Nations resolutions in 1948 & 1949.Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai during the 44th Annual Convention of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) said the most tragic aspect of the present situation is the inflexible position taken by the Government of India – its refusal to recognize the internationally mandated status of Kashmir and its stubbornness of parroting that Kashmir is its integral part. India’s obduracy has become an impediment to the creation of an atmosphere of peace and stability in the region of South Asia, he said

2. Yasin Malik: Apr.,23,2109: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown is being observed across the valley, today, against the ill-treatment meted out to the ailing and incarcerated Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik by India’s infamous National Investigation Agency in New Delhi. Call for the protest strike was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership. The strike is also being observed against India’s ongoing aggression against Kashmiri resistance leaders, activists, senior businessmen, trade union leaders and relatives of resistance leaders by NIA and Enforcement Directorate. All shops are closed while traffic is off the roads in all major cities and towns of the valley.

3. Youth martyred: Apr., 26, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth including a scholar of Physiotherapy, Burhan-ud-Din Ganai, in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district, today. Burhan-ud-Din Ganai and another youth, Safdar Amin, were martyred by the troops during a cordon and search operation at Bagender Mohalla in Bijbehara. Meanwhile, flouting restrictions thousands of people including women and children participated in the funerals of the martyrs, Burhan and Safdar Amin in S K Colony and Bijbehara areas of Islamabad district, today. Following multiple funerals, the martyrs were laid to rest amid high-pitched pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans

Kashmir Update 15: Week April,15,2019 April ,21,2019

1. Young man martyred: Apr., 15, 2019: Owais Ahmad Mir, a seventh-grade student was shot by security forces in Kupwara district. Last week. Security forces killed Owais Ahmad Mir, a 13-year-old boy, during protests. Hailing from Mandigam village of Kupwara district, Owais was a seventh-grade student. He was hit by multiple pellets on his head, neck and chest. According to doctors who operated on him in the district hospital, the boy had was “brought dead,” with serious injuries to the chest.

2. Young boy killed by Army vehicle: Apr., 17, 2019: A 13 year old boy was crushed to death by an army vehicle at Gulpore area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon, the minor boy namely Sajad Ahmad son of Mohd Taj of Gulpore was injured critically after being hit by an army vehicle in the area, he was pounced dead by the hospital

3. UN Rapporteur for human rights: Apr., 17, 2019: Amid India’s ongoing elections and the recent controversial decision to partially ban civilian movement on the highway in Jammu and Kashmir, Michael Forst, UN Rapporteur for human rights has called the region an ‘information black hole’ for the global agency. Citing various examples, Forst said numerous communications conveyed to both India and Pakistan regarding human rights violations in Kashmir went unanswered. “We send communications to India and Pakistan and don’t receive replies. So, it’s complicated because it’s sort of a black hole in which there is no real possibility to operate as we do in other countries,” Forst told Free Press Kashmir on the sidelines of International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in Serbia. On being asked about erstwhile UN military observers’ office in Srinagar, in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, Forst expressed a desire to engage with the government of India to resolve human rights abuses in the region. “I am trying for an academic visit to India but it is difficult as I have been prevented from traveling to the region,” Forst added. Forst also spoke about how Kashmiri groups, individuals who provide inputs on the ground situation and seeking protection feel abandoned by the international community at large owing to numerous restrictions from the Indian government. Indian-administered Kashmir is the ‘most heavily militarised zone in the world’ with the presence of one soldier for every ten native Kashmiris. With instances of enforced disappearances, pellet gun violence, and sexual abuse, the region is mired with reports of human rights abuses. On the arrest of Kashmiri activists, Forst condemned the government for harassing activists and confiscating their passports after they return from UN meetings. “Activists are now prevented to travel or have their passport confiscated or blocked from leaving the country. That’s a signal on what’s wrong in this part of the world,” Forst said. As India’s elections are underway in phases and the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has used Kashmir as a flashpoint in the backdrop of the Pulwama attack to garner votes, Forst said the trend is simil”ar globally. When elections are approaching in any part of the world, we see a lot of pressure put on those who promote free and fair elections, against oppression, or advocating free assembly from public officials.” Forst also added that despite UN’s negligible presence in Kashmir owing to restrictions, its desk offices in Geneva follow the situation and try engaging with both the countries seeking for a solution. Highlighting attacks on journalists in the region including photojournalist Kamran Yousuf’s arrest, Forst said the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved if the civil society in the region is repressed. “Solidarity is the best protection for human rights defenders” he concludes.

4. Elections in IOK: Apr., 19, 2019: In Srinagar PC elections, Zadibal, a predominantly Shia area witnessed 8.3% voter turnout. Budgam, another Shia dominated area had 18.8% votes. Char-e-Shareef has highest voter turnout at 32.1%, followed by 24.3% Khansahib, Beerwah 23.6% and Kangan 23.5%. There are some people making speculative arguments that Shias, Gujjars & Paharis have voted en masse, which is an old propaganda aimed at fragmenting Kashmiris

5. LoC Trade: Apr., 19, 2019: The Indian government on Thursday suspended the cross-LoC (Line of Control) trade between the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and the part of Kashmir it occupies, in a move that evoked strong reactions from traders who feared the decision could force them into destitution. According to a notification issued by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, the trade was suspended from both Chakothi-Uri and Tetrinote-Chakan da Bagh crossing points of the LoC because of the alleged "misuse of these routes by unnamed elements in Pakistan". The unilateral decision spread fear among traders who have invested billions of rupees in the barter trade launched pompously in October 2008 as the second Kashmir-specific confidence building measure (CBM) between India and Pakistan after cross-LoC travel. “The LoC travel and trade were initiated by India and Pakistan on the persuasion of the international community. Now when India has suspended this activity on flimsy grounds, the international community should step in once again,” At least 1,200 traders and hundreds of other workers were associated with the activity on both sides of the LoC “who will now be economically devastated if the decision is not reversed”.

6. Freedom fighter martyred : Apr.,21,2019: A freedom was killed in an encounter with security forces in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir .The encounter took place at Watergam town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Some weapons and war-like stores were recovered from the site of the operation, the freedom fighter was yet to be identified

Kashmir Update 16: Week April,8,2019 April ,14,2019

1. Solider killed: Apr.,8,2019: Unidentified militants on Saturday shot and killed a soldier at point blank rage close to his house in north Kashmir’s Warpora village. The soldier, who was on leave, was identified as Mohammad Rafiq Yatoo. The police said he was shot around 5:30 pm when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him near his house. Yatoo was taken to a hospital, but he died of the injuries he suffered in the shooting. Soon after the killing, the army and police launched a search operation in the area. A fortnight ago two militants were killed in the same village in an encounter with security forces that lasted two days.

2. Student Martyred: Apr., 8, 2019: Engineering Student Who Joined Terror Group Among 2 Killed In Jammu and Kashmir Gunfight. The gunfight took place in Parguchi village when personnel of the army's counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles and special operations group (SOG) of state police were carrying out a search operation in an orchard area in Imam Sahib.

3. Article 370: Apr., 8, 2019: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that the party was committed to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian constitution, which grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir.The Hindu extremist BJP, which released its election manifesto at its New Delhi headquarters, said that the party reiterated its position since the time of Jan Sangh to abrogate both the Articles.

4. Human rights: Apr., 9, 2019: Dr. Shireen Mazari, during her visit to the Belgian capital, Brussels, has expressed her serious concern over the state terrorism being perpetrated by Indian forces in Occupied Kashmir and has highlighted the need for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, adding that Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir were increasing with each passing day and that the international community must take immediate notice of the human rights violations. She made the comments at a dinner hosted by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the European Union Naghmana Hashmi on Wednesday. Mazari also condemned the ruthless torture of women, children and youth in the occupied territory and thanked European parliamentarians for raising their voices in support of Kashmiris. She also stressed the need to take effective measures to ensure Kashmiris’ right to self-determination and called on the European parliament to take further steps to highlight the issue. All parliamentarians present on the occasion expressed their support for the minister’s comments.

5. Election casualties: Apr., 10, 2019: unknown gunmen burst into a hospital in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and killed Chandrakant Sharma, a regional leader of a Hindu group linked to the BJP, along with his bodyguard. Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in the town of Kishtwar, bordering the contested Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and sent troops to the area.

6. BJP Manifesto: Apr., 13, 2019: With the aim to fully integrate Indian-administered Kashmir into the Union of India, the manifesto promises to revoke Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution, both of which define permanent residents of restive Jammu and Kashmir and grant them special status, right to employment and scholarship. The BJP’s reference to Article 370 and Article 35A has caused deep anxieties in India-controlled Kashmir. And these anxieties are not unfounded. Permanent residents of Muslim-majority Kashmir feel they are facing a demographic threat and existential crisis with a right-wing Hindu government at the helm in New Delhi since May 2014 – and there are chances of it returning to power in the 2019 elections. Article 35A allows the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define permanent residents of the region.

7. Youth killed: Apr., 13, 2019: Indian troops martyred two Kashmiri youth in the Shopian district of occupied Kashmir. Saturday the individuals were killed during a ‘cordon and search’ operation in the Gahand area of the district. On April 12, a 12-year-old boy was martyred as Indian forces continued their state-sanctioned brutality in the occupied valley.

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1. Youth martyred: Apr., 2, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred four youth in Pulwama district, today. The youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Lassipora area of the district. The martyrs were identified as Tawseef Ahmad Ittoo, Zafar Ahmad Paul, Aqib Ahmad Kumar and Mohammad Shafi Butt. Tawseef belonged to Pulwama while other three martyrs were residents of Shopian district. Meanwhile, three Indian troops and a policeman were critically injured in an attack in the same area. The authorities suspended Internet service in Pulwama and Shopian districts. The troops also launched violent cordon and search operations in Qazigund and Veernag areas of the Islamabad district. The killings sparked complete shutdown in the entire South Kashmir.The High Court Bar Association of occupied Kashmir in a statement issued in Srinagar criticised Principal District and Sessions Judge, Srinagar, for disallowing a seminar saying the judge had made the decision under pressure from the Indian authorities. The seminar was meant to memorize the renowned human rights lawyer, Advocate Jaleel Andrabi, who was killed in custody of the Indian army in March 1996.»

2. Solders martyred: Apr., 4, 2019: Three Pakistan Army soldiers have been martyred due to unprovoked firing by the Indian army across the restive Line of Control (LoC) at Rakhchikri Sector in Rawalkot .Subedar Mohammad Riaz from Jhang, Lance Havaldar Aziz Ullah from Noshero Feroz, and Sepoy Shahid Mansib from Abbottabad embraced martyrdom while one soldier got injured, said the military's media wing. Later in the day, the ISPR said that Indian forces also opened fire in Khuiratta sector of Kotli district, and deliberately targeted civilian population. It said that an 18-year-old boy got killed while three women got injured as a result.

3. Highways closed: Apr., 2019: Authorities have announced that an arterial highway in Indian-administered Kashmir will be closed to civilian movement twice a week to facilitate the movement of army convoys in the region. The 300km-long Baramulla-Jammu national highway connects the disputed Kashmir region to the outside world. It also links the southern and northern parts of the region to the capital city, Srinagar.The decision comes after a suicide bomber rammed his car into a military convoy on the same highway - a lifeline for a large number of civilians - in Kashmir's Pulwama town, killing at least 40 army personnel in February. The civilian population, as well as regional mainstream leaders, have said that India was "importing Israeli policies to turn Kashmir into Gaza", referring to the Israeli policy of barring Palestinians from using many roads, citing security reasons. For Muhammad Afaq, 50, a resident of Baramulla, the closure of the highway means his children will be unable to reach their school."This means my children will not be able to go their school as they travel 15km on the highway every day in their school bus. There are scores of schools, colleges, and hospitals on the highway that does not only connect Kashmir to India but also the other districts with the main city. It will be catastrophic," he said. Shah Faesal, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, told Al Jazeera that the policy "seems to be inspired by Israel's lockdown of Gaza strip".

4. Srinagar restrictions: Apr., 5, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, the authorities imposed curfew in Nowhatta area of Srinagar and stringent restrictions in other parts of the city, today, to prevent people from staging demonstrations against the injuring of detainees at Srinagar Central Jail by Indian forces’ personnel. Protests erupted in the Central Jail last evening after the word about shifting of some inmates to the prisons outside the Kashmir valley spread. Indian police and troops fired pellets and teargas shells on the protesting detainees, injuring several of them. Three barracks and a building suffered damages amid a number of blasts inside the jail. The occupation authorities sealed historic Jamia Masjid at Nowhatta in Srinagar, today, and prevented people from offering Juma prayers. The authorities placed under house arrest the Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who delivers weekly Friday sermon at the historic mosque

5. Fatalities in Kashmir: Apr., 7, 2019: At least 162 people have been killed in various incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in the first three months of 2019, a human rights report said, the fatalities include 83 Indian forces personnel, 58 militants, and 21 civilians. The numbers are significantly higher than those in the first three months of 2018, during which 119 people had been killed. This is the first time in 29 years of armed conflict in the region that more Indian armed forces personnel have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir than militants in a three month period, the report added. The report placed the number of paramilitary personnel killed in the February 14 suicide bombing on a convoy in south Kashmir at 48. Seven Indian personnel committed suicide and three were killed in fratricidal killings. Among the civilian deaths, seven people were killed by unidentified gunmen; six were killed in cross-border spellings and four in grenade and IED explosions.

Kashmir Update 14: Week March,25,2019 March ,31,2019

1. Three youth martyred: Mar., 28:2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three youth in Shopian district, today.The youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation at Yarwan area of the district. The martyrs were identified as Sajad Khanday, Aqib Ahmad Dar and Basharat Ahmad Mir, all residents of Pulwama. A police official talking to media men said that the soldiers of 23 PARA cordoned off Yarwan, Keller, a forest area on the tail end of the district and started a search operation at around 2:30am. An Indian official claimed to have killed three militants in Shopian district on Thursday. The operation was going on till filing of the report

2. Shut Down: Mar., 28:2019: In occupied Kashmir, intense clashes between local youth and Indian forces erupted at Muran Chowk in Pulwama amid a spontaneous shutdown in Shopian and Pulwama districts against the latest killings by Indian troops in Shopian and Kupwara districts, today. Three of the martyred youth identified as Sajjad Khanday, Aaqib Ahmad Dar and Basharat Ahmad Mir were residents of Pulwama district. Another youth was martyred in Langate area of Kupwara distri

3. Indian troops martyr two more youth in IOK: Mar., 29, 2019: Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two more Kashmiri youth in Badgam district, today.The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Sutsoo Kalan Nowgam area of the district. Earlier, five Indian troops were injured in an attack in the same area. The operation is ongoing at this point of time. ..A police spokesman claimed that the youth were militants and were killed in a clash with the troops. He said the identity of the youth is being ascertained. Three soldiers were also injured.

4. EU Demand Pellet guns not be used in IOK: Mar., 30.2019: European parliament members write to PM Modi, seek ban on pellet guns in Kashmir."The members said they were particularly concerned about the usage of pellet shotguns, responsible for blinding, killing and traumatizing hundreds of people in Kashmir" Over 50 members of the European parliament have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought a ban on the use of pellet guns in Kashmir.“We, the undersigned, in our capacity as elected Members of the European Parliament, are writing to you to express our grave concern about the past and ongoing human rights violations against people in Kashmir, as reported in a recent OHCHR1 report,” said the members in the letter, dated March 25, 2019.The members said they were particularly concerned about the usage of pellet shotguns, responsible for blinding, killing and traumatizing hundreds of people in Kashmir.“We particularly note the tragic case of 19-month old child who was gravely injured by a pellet gun (BBC report). We are concerned that The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA) and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 1978 (PSA) give security forces virtual immunity against prosecution for any human rights violation,” read the letter further.“Therefore, we, the undersigned MEPs, urge the Indian government to immediately end the use of pellet-firing shotguns in Jammu and Kashmir and bring all relevant Indian laws into compliance with international human rights standards,” added the letter.The MPs also sought repealing of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 and amending of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978. “…provide full and effective reparation and rehabilitation to those who have been injured by pellet-firing shotguns, and to the families of those killed.”The members asked the Indian government to establish independent and impartial investigations into all “accidents where the use of pellet-firing shotguns led to deaths or serious injuries.”The signatories include Wajid Khan MEP, Julie Girling MEP, Alex Mayer MEP, Tunne Kelam MEP, Amjad Bashir MEP, Jose Inacio Faria MEP, Sajjad Karim MEP, Lucy Anderson MEP, Julie Ward MEP, Richard Corbett MEP, Jonathan Arnott MEP, Jude Kirton-Darling MEP, Theresa Griffin MEP, Maria Gabriela Zoană MEP, Helga Stevens MEP, Barbara Lochbihler MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Mary Honeyball MEP, John Howarth MEP, Csaba Sógor MEP, Derek Vaughan MEP, Momchil Nekov MEP, David Martin MEP, Linda McAvan MEP, Margrete Auken MEP, Jakop Dalunde MEP, Baroness Nosheena Mobarik MEP, Klaus Buchner MEP, Liliana Rodrigues MEP, Edouard Martin MEP, Rory Palmer MEP, Josef Weidenholzer MEP, Anthea McIntyre MEP, Eva Kaili MEP, Maria Arena MEP, Eugen Freund MEP, Arndt Kohn MEP, Brando Benifei MEP, Ana Gomes MEP, Paul Brannen MEP, Siôn Simon MEP, Fabio Massimo Castaldo MEP, Bart Staes MEP, Jordi Solé MEP, Soraya Post MEP, Andrejs Mamikins MEP, Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP, Claude Moraes MEP, Elena Valenciano MEP, Caroline Nagtegaal ME.

5. Indian solider commits suicide: Mar., 31, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, another Indian soldier committed suicide by shooting himself dead in Srinagar on Sunday morning. He is the second Indian soldier who committed suicide in less than twenty-four hours. The deceased soldier was identified as Ramphul Meena and he was associated with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). A police officer said that the soldier Meena shot himself with his service rifle inside his camp at Sericulture Office in Solina area of Srinagar while he was on duty.

Kashmir Update 13: Week March,18,2019 March ,24,2019

1. Kashmiri leadership: Mar., 18, 2019: In a bid to intimidate and harass the Kashmiri leadership, the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday summoned them once again to appear before its New Delhi headquarters for questioning in fake cases. Chairman of Hurriyat forum Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Naseem Gilani, the son of All Parties Hurriyat Coference (APHC) chairman Syed Ali Gilani and Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM) chairman Zaffar Akbar Bhat were among those who received the summon. Meanwhile, hate crimes against Kashmiris continued unabated throughout India, according to Kashmir Media Service. In one such incident, a Kashmiri shawl seller was attacked with a sword and deprived of almost Rs200,000 by a gang of Hindu extremists in Kolkata. The victim, Shakoor Ahmad Shah who was taken to a hospital in critical condition, belonged to Budgam district of occupied Kashmir.

2. US HR Report: Mar., 18, 2019: The US State Department, in its annual report released in Washington on Saturday, cited widespread human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir and called for an international probe into the rights abuses in the territory. The report noted that the draconian Indian Public Safety Act, which applies only in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, permits the authorities to detain persons without charge or judicial review for up to two years.

4. Extra Judicial killing: Mar., 19, 2019: Rizwan Assad, a young teacher from Awantipora has been killed inside the Air Cargo camp, controlled by notorious Special Operations Group of Jammu & Kashmir police. Police has ordered investigation, but apparently not filed FIR for murder under section 302.He was recently arrested and taken to SOG Air Cargo camp, the concerned Police Station asked the family to not communicate to anyone about the arrest In the past, he was arrested and despite obtaining bail, he was kept in illegal detention for 20 days.

5. Kashmiri Parties, Elections : Mar.,19,2019 : Omar and Mehbooba Mufti, whose parties National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), respectively, dominate Kashmir’s unionist camp, were “fairly assured" the elections would be timely and simultaneously. Early elections, they hoped would help devote time on improving the state’s economy, which has been in a perpetual slump since the 2014 floods. Unlike other Indian states, the desperation for elections in Kashmir’s political class is not about seizing power alone. The entire unionist camp is facing a “disempowering phase". All of a sudden, they have started not mattering at all. Informally, the leaders of all the mainstream parties say their suggestions are being taken with a pinch of salt and they are increasingly being dubbed as “part of the problem". After the fall of the BJP-PDP alliance, Kashmir’s unionists see their narrative evaporating. “We are under BJP’s direct rule. For the first time, Jammu and Kashmir has a governor who even thinks he is the chief minister," PDP ideologue and former minister Naeem Akhtar said. “The governor has blurred the lines between party interest and constitutional position," he added, regretting that “overt and covert muscular policy" is the only response to whatever happens in Kashmir. In wake of the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, one of Kashmir’s oldest socio-religious party, the NC and the PDP were publicly rebuked by the governor. He even said his government will treat them at par with anti-nationals. This was quickly followed by finance minister Arun Jaitley who said the two parties have a “dangerous" agenda.The frustrated leadership of the NC and the PDP was keen to get into polls to halt the entire process that, they believe, has undone a lot in past nine months after President’s rule. They say they are facing a peculiar situation, which is an outcome of Delhi’s direct rule. “We expected people would vote not because they love elections but because they are scared of the situation they stand forced into," Parra said. The chief insecurity is the feeling that the BJP is enforcing its agenda on Kashmir and rediscovering the Ek Vidhan Ek Pradhan (one Constitution, one prime minister) mantra of the 1960s era. While doing away with Article 370 is impossible, the political parties believe that the BJP can tinker with Article 35(A), which protects the demographic identity of Jammu and Kashmir. They made one such bid, effortlessly. In the penultimate cabinet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommended to the President—obviously on the suggestion of governor Satya Pal Malik-led State Administrative Council (SAC)—an amendment in the Presidential Ordinance of 1954. This presidential proclamation is considered the soul of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution and Article 370. Article 35(A) is also part of this presidential order.The amendment brought certain changes to the reservations of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and brought them up to date with the central government norms, apparently an innocuous intervention. Legally, any constitutional amendment can take place if the government—an elected government—makes a recommendation. In this case, governor Malik, like Jagmohan of 1990, has made the move.“The centre was experimenting with the idea of triggering an intervention," one former BJP-PDP minister said. “It was just the discovery of the route, so the next level is (used) next time." Kashmir’s political landscape is hugely fractured. The ideological base has split the space between separatists and unionists. Once it was the NC alone, then the Congress started getting in. Finally, the PDP emerged as an alternative to the NC. Now Sajad Lone is attempting taking his Peoples’ Conference (PC) to a new level. Shah Faesal, Kashmir’s first IAS topper who recently resigned and joined politics, launched his political party Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement on Sunday. That is in addition to various small stakeholders already retaining their political fiefs. The newest in the political grapevine is the BJP is planning to create a new political party for Gujjars and Pahadi (Muslim) population. “Why are new political parties emerging more in Kashmir than in Jammu," Omar Abdullah recently asked at a meeting in Srinagar.In fact, the feeling is that this Lok Sabha may exhibit the “changed politics". Three political parties could end up controlling the three belts that marked Kashmir’s medieval administrative division—Kamraz (North Kashmir), Maraz (South Kashmir) and Yamraz (Central Kashmir). Political parties do see changing fortunes in delayed assembly elections. “State BJP was against the simultaneous polls because it did not want two electronic voting machines in a booth where the voter would decide the fate of a member of Parliament on basis of the performance of the local member of legislative assembly," one senior NC leader said. “The party also wanted the disinterest towards Lok Sabha to play in its favour as only committed cadre will vote." But state assembly elections under a BJP-led central government can have, as one political leader said, “an element of manufactured consent". Kashmiri separatist created a boycott of polls as a tool of protest. An election later, the unionists literally used it to their advantage. Normally done at micro-levels, they would somehow contribute to the boycott in pockets of opponent’s influence. In 2018 fall, the BJP used this tack to its advantage in municipal body polls (it swept peripheral municipal bodies, including nine in restive South Kashmir where migrant Kashmiri Pandits filed papers and were declared winners unopposed).

9. Indian Elections: Mar., 20, 2019: The rhetoric espoused by Modi and the B.J.P. has also intensified tensions in Kashmir. India, under Prime Minister Modi, views Kashmir as a purely military problem that needs to be dealt with through harsh and repressive action. BJP leaders, including Modi, claim that ‘Jammu and Kashmir’s special status [under Indian law] has only served to encourage Kashmiri separatist elements, and Hindu nationalists have long sought its removal from the Constitution.’ The relentless crackdown in the region by security forces has not only intensified the movement, but it has also provoked a rising wave of militancy. The recent attack in Pulwama in which over 40 CRPF personnel were killed was the inevitable outcome of such short-sighted policies by the Delhi government. Following the attacks, Indian security forces have been carrying out uninhibited persecution of the Kashmiris while Kashmiri students around the country have been subjected to shameful treatment. The government’s strategy of subjugation through brute military force has radicalized the movement. The Modi government has clearly failed to comprehend the rationale behind the resurgence of the uprising and therefore, has been unable to devise an effective policy response. According to one analyst, the Kashmir movement as it stands today ‘is probably driven less by geopolitics than by internal Indian politics, which have increasingly taken an anti-Muslim direction.’ Pulwama is a powerful warning that unless India finds a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir imbroglio, stability in the region will continue to unravel.

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JKLF banned: Mar., 22, 2019: India's government has for the second time this month banned a top pro-independence organization in IndianOccupued Kashmir, accusing it of "supporting extremism and militancy". Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was involved in "anti-national and subversive activities intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India". "JKLF is supporting and inciting claims for the secession of a part of the Indian territory from the Indian union and supporting terrorists and separatist groups fighting for this purpose," the statement said Its leader, Yasin Malik, was arrested last month and charged on March 8 under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which stipulated that a person can be jailed for up to two years without bail.

12. Arundhati Roy: Mar., 23, 2019: Is Kashmir the most dangerous place in the world? https://www.aljazeera.com/

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Kashmir Update 12: Week March,11,2019 March ,17,2019

1. Army Jawan; Mar., 10, 2019: An army jawan was reported missing from central Kashmir's Budgam district on Friday evening with police suspecting he could have been abducted by a terror group, officials said. The family of Mohammad Yaseen, posted with Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment, informed police that some people came to their house at Qazipora Chadura and took him away.

2. Freedom fighters : Mar., 12, 2019: Three freedoms were killed in an encounter with security 4.

Kashmir Update 11: Week March,4,2019 March ,10,2019

2. ICJ on right of self determination (Chagos): Mar, 4, 2019: The International Court of Justice has given a near-unanimous opinion that the separation in 1965 of the

Chagos archipelago from the then British colony of Mauritius was contrary to the right of self determination, and that accordingly the de-colonization of Mauritius by the United Kingdom had not been in accordance with international law. The ICJ held that Britain’s continued administration of the archipelago was an internationally wrongful act, which should cease as soon as possible. The Chagos Archipelago consists of a number of islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean. The largest island is Diego Garcia, which accounts for more than half of the archipelago’s total land area. Mauritius is located about 2,200 km south-west of the Chagos archipelago. Between 1814 and 1965, the Chagos archipelago was administered by the United Kingdom as a dependency of the colony of Mauritius. In 1964, there were discussions between America and Britain regarding the use by the United States of certain British-owned islands in the Indian Ocean, in particular in establishing an American base on Diego Garcia. It was agreed that the United Kingdom would be responsible for acquiring land, resettling the population and providing compensation at its expense; and that Britain would assess the feasibility of the transfer of the administration of Diego Garcia and the other islands of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius. The ICJ reviewed the various UK and ECHR cases brought by Chagossians seeking the right to return to the archipelago, and noted that:: To date, the Chagossians remain dispersed in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Mauritius and Seychelles. By virtue of United Kingdom law and judicial decisions of that country, they are not allowed to return to the Chagos Archipelago. The first substantive issue was to what extent was there a customary right in international law to self-determination in 1965-8. The ICJ noted the obligation (under Chapter XI of the UN Charter) for UN Member States administering territories with peoples without full self-government to develop the self-government of those peoples. The ICJ held that it followed that: the legal régime of non-self-governing territories, as set out in Chapter XI of the Charter, was based on the progressive development of their institutions so as to lead the populations concerned to exercise their right to self-determination. The adoption of UN resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960, which affirmed that “[a]ll peoples have the right to self-determination” represented “a defining moment in the consolidation of State practice on decolonization “the General Assembly has a long and consistent record in seeking to bring colonialism to an end” rather than being about a resolution of a territorial dispute between two states. This evaded the inevitable consequence of its finding that decolonization process concerned was illegal, meaning that either the UK has no sovereignty over the archipelago, or it does have sovereignty but is obliged to hand over sovereignty to Mauritius. General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) clarifies the content and scope of the right to self-determination. The Court notes that the decolonization process accelerated in 1960, with 18 countries, including 17 in Africa, gaining independence. During the 1960s, the peoples of an additional 28 non-self-governing-territories exercised their right to self-determination and achieved independence. There was a “clear relationship between resolution 1514 (XV) and the process of decolonization following its adoption.” Accordingly, resolution 1514 (XV) indicated that self determination was a customary norm in international law.The ICJ went on to hold that both State practice and opinio juris at the relevant time confirm the customary law character of the right to territorial integrity of a non-self-governing territory as a corollary of the right to self-determination. It therefore followed that any detachment by the administering Power of part of a non-self-governing territory, unless based on the freely expressed and genuine will of the people of the territory concerned, is contrary to the right to self-determination.The second issue was whether the detachment of the Chagos archipelago had been done in accordance with international law. The ICJ held that at the time of its detachment from Mauritius in 1965, the Chagos Archipelago was clearly an integral part of that non-self-governing territory. The ICJ considered the background to the agreement of the Mauritius Council of Ministers in 1965 to that detachment and held that it is not possible to talk of an international agreement, when one of the parties to it, Mauritius, which is said to have ceded the territory to the United Kingdom, was under the authority of the latter. So heightened scrutiny should be given to the issue of consent in a situation where a part of a non-self-governing territory is separated to create a new colony. The Court considered that this detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned.Hence, the United Kingdom was obliged under international law as at 1965 to respect the territorial integrity of its colonies, and accordingly, as a result of the Chagos Archipelago’s unlawful detachment and its incorporation into a new colony, known as the BIOT, the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when Mauritius acceded to independence in 1968. With respect to the third substantive issue, the ICJ in short order held that The Court having found that the decolonization of Mauritius was not conducted in a manner consistent with the right of peoples to self-determination, it follows that the United Kingdom’s continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act entailing the international responsibility of that State… Accordingly, the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible, thereby enabling Mauritius to complete the decolonization of its territory in a manner consistent with the right of peoples to self-determination. This has implications for Indian Occupied Kashmir .Wonder if Pakistan will take up this issue

3. Security personal killed: Srinagar, May 4: In occupied Kashmir, bodies of two people, including a constable of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), were recovered in Ramban district in Jammu region. SSB constable Dinesh Kumar Thakur, a resident of Chhattisgarh India, was found dead with head injuries near TCP Banihal along the Jammu-Srinagar Highway, SHO of the Banihal Police Station Ajaz Wani said. According to preliminary investigation, the soldier had left Srinagar for his home on February 25. Another deceased was identified as Surinder Paul, an employee of the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) whose body was recovered from a stream in nearby Digdole area of Ramban, police said. Meanwhile, an Indian solider identified as Naik Kuldeep Singh was killed when an avalanche hit an Indian Army patrolling party in Batalik area of Ladakh.

4. Pulwama : March 05 : In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation at Mir Mohalla in Tral area of the district. The troops also blasted a house with explosive material and razed it to the ground. The operation, which was launched last night, was going on till last reports came in. A senior officer of Indian police talking to media men claimed that the youth were militants and were killed in a clash with the troops.

5. Barter trade resumes; Mar.,6,2019: India and Pakistan resumed barter trade at a border crossing in Kashmir on Tuesday Trade across the border, known as the Line of Control (LoC), was part-suspended after repeated mortar and small arms fire at Uri, a border town where the exchange of goods takes place. But on Tuesday the route re-opened after firing in the region eased Thirty-five trucks left for Chakothi on the Pakistani side of the border with a similar number moving in the opposite direction. Trade across the LoC operates on a barter system, where no money is exchanged. .“I send cumin and chilli seeds to Pakistan and in return order prayer mats and cloth,” he said. “If there is any difference, it is adjusted in the next consignment. It is all trust-based trade but it is working.”Indian traders export cumin, chilli pepper, cloth, cardamom, bananas, pomegranate, grapes and almonds. Prayer mats, carpets, cloth, oranges, mangoes and herbs return from the Pakistani side.

6. Signs of a Thaw: Mar., 6, 2019: In a first sign of de-escalation in tensions, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood, is returning to New Delhi while the talks on Kartarpur Corridor would also go ahead as planned. Pakistani delegation would visit New Delhi on March 14 as planned for talks to finalise the modalities for the Kartarpur Corridor. Indian team would then pay a return visit to Islamabad on March 28. Another significant move taken by Pakistan was to inform the Indian side of its commitment of “continued weekly contact at the military operations directorates’ level.” The Pakistan and Indian militaries have a hotline through which the military operations directorates of the two neighbours interact with each other on a weekly basis.Pakistan told reporters that 44 suspects were taken into custody. Among those who were detained include Hammad Azhar, the son of Maulana Masood Azhar and Mufti Abdur Rauf, the brother of head of banned Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM).These two individuals were also named in the dossier India had recently shared with Pakistan regarding the Pulwama attack.

7. Banned organizations: Mar., 6, 2019: Pakistan's Interior Ministry says authorities have arrested dozens of suspects, including the brother of the leader of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad group that India has blamed for the Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed 40 troops. 44 suspects were arrested, including prominent members of the outlawed militant group. Among those arrested was Mufti Abdul Rauf, the brother of the group's leader, Masood Azhar. The brother was among suspects listed in a file on the February bombing that India gave to Pakistan over the weekend. Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and is claimed by both in its entirety.

8. Women’s day: Mar., 9, 2019: As the world is observing the International Women’s Day, today, the miseries and victimization of Kashmiri women by Indian troops and police personnel continue unabated in occupied Kashmir. According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, today, thousands of women were among 95,316 Kashmiris martyred by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel since January 1989 till date. At least 667 women have been martyred by Indian troops since January 2001 till date. The report pointed out that since January 1989; the unabated Indian state terrorism rendered 22,899 women widowed. The Indian forces’ personnel molested 11,113 women that included victims of Kununposhpora mass rape and Shopian double rape and murder. An eight-year girl, Aasifa Bano, of Kathua, was abducted, gang-raped and subsequently murdered by Indian police personnel, last year. The report said that thousands of women lost their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers in the occupied territory who were subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian Army, police and paramilitary personnel. As per the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, more than 8,000 Kashmiris went missing in custody during the past 30 years, it added. The report said, during the ongoing mass uprising triggered by the extrajudicial killing of prominent youth leader, Burhan Wani, on 8th July in 2016, hundreds of unarmed Kashmiri youth, school boys and girls have been injured due to the firing of bullets and pellets by the Indian forces’ personnel on peaceful protesters. Of these injured at least 70 young boys and girls including Insha Mushtaq and Ifra Shakour lost eyesight while 18-month baby Hiba Nisar and 32-year-old Nusrat Jan suffered partial damage to their eyesight, it said. The report said that several women including Hurriyat leaders, Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi and Naheeda Nasreen were facing illegal detention. They are being victimized only for the reason that they represent the Kashmiri people’s aspirations. The report further pointed out that majority of the Kashmiris suffering from multiple psychic problems was of womenfolk. Many mothers are waiting for their disappeared sons while widows and half-widows are in pain.

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Kashmir Update 10: Week Feburary,24,2019 March ,3,2019

1. Kulgam : Feb.,25,2019: A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)-rank police officer, a soldier and three freedom fighters ( including Rakib Ahmed Sheikh and Gulzar Ahmed Butt) were killed and six persons, including three civilians, were injured in an encounter in Kulgam on Sunday. The Kashmir Valley remained tense for the second straight day and observed a shutdown over fears of an escalation of India-Pakistan tensions and scrapping of Article 35A ( for more details related to article 35A refer to : https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-article-370.html). Three security personnel, including a Major-rank officer, were injured in the encounter. Three civilians were injured, two of whom sustained bullet wounds, in the clashes near the encounter site

2. OIC invitation to India: Feb., 2, 2019: Senate on Tuesday unanimously demanded of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to withdraw invitation to India for attending its 50th session starting from March 1 in Abu Dhabi. India, for the first time, has received an invite as the “guest of honor” to the upcoming foreign ministers’ conclave of OIC. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is set to attend the Abu Dhabi summit.

3. Indian air strikes: Feb., 27, 2019: Indian military planes violated the LoC early on Tuesday, intruding from the Muzaffarabad sector, following which "Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled" and Indian aircraft went back challenged them, they had crossed the LoC."Their approaching of the border, the challenge and their return took four minutes," said the ISPR DG."If they had struck any military position, then an engagement would have happened. But they did not do that because if they had done so, our soldiers were ready," he added. They entered from Kashmir's Tangdhar — they were timely and effectively challenged, and repulsed by the Air Force. On their way back, they jettisoned their payload. Four of their bombs fell in [Balakot's] Jabba and they went back. Referring to Indian media's claims that "350 terrorists have been killed and a hideout has been destroyed", Maj Gen Ghafoor said: "I called you [journalists] so I could take you there [to the site] and show you on the ground reality but unfortunately, I cannot take you by air due to rough weather."But the local media is there and have shown that there was not even a single brick there. They are claiming that they killed 350 terrorists; I say even if they had killed 10, what about their bodies, their funerals, their blood [...] the spot is open for anybody and everybody: for ambassadors, defence attaches, UN military observer group in Pakistan.

4. Two Indian Migs downed: Feb., 28,2019: On Wednesday, the IAF jets entered Pakistani airspace after the PAF strikes on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistani airspace PAF undertook strikes across LoC from Pakistani airspace. Sole purpose of this action was to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self defence. IAF crossed LoC` after the PAF strikes in India-occupied Kashmir (IOK). PAF shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace. One of the aircraft fell inside AJK while other fell inside IOK. One Indian pilot arrested by troops on ground. The detained IAF pilot was identified as Wing Commander Abhi Nandan. The downing of the Indian plane resulted in expression of happiness by the Kashmiris .

5. Pulwama Dossier: Feb., 28, 2019: Pakistan received a dossier on the Pulwama attack, the Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday. It was handed over to Pakistan’s acting high commissioner in New Delhi by the Indian government on Wednesday. The dossier will be reviewed by the FO following which any and all legal evidence will be probed. Pakistani PM made this offer to India during a televised speech to which India has responded Islamabad will take action against credible evidence provided by India

6. Indian pilot: Feb., 28, 2019: Prime Minister of Pakistan announced on Thursday that his country would be releasing a captured pilot (Wing Commander Abhi Nandan )on Friday, from India after days of military conflict, offering a way out of the crisis and seeking to position Pakistan as the cooler head in a confrontation that has put the world on edge.

7. Pilot returned: Mar, 2, 2108: Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan, who was captured by Pakistan after his MiG 21 Bison aircraft was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet, was handed over in a gesture of peace to India at the Wagah border late Friday. Abhinandan was arrested on Feb 27 after his aircraft was shot down by the PAF upon violating Pakistani airspace. A new videotaped statement of Wg Cdr Abhinandan was broadcast on national television shortly before his release."My name is Wing Commander Abhinandan," he stated for the record in the statement."I am a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force. I was in search of the target when your [Pakistan] Air Force shot me down. I had to eject the plane which had sustained damage. As soon as I ejected and when my parachute opened and when I fell down, I had a pistol with me.""There were many people. I had only one way to save myself: I dropped my pistol and tried to run," he was heard saying in the video."People chased me, their emotions were running high. Just then, two Pakistani Army officials came and saved me. Pakistani army captains saved from the people and did not let any harm come to me. They took me to their unit where I was administered first aid and then I was taken to the hospital where I further underwent a medical exam and received more aid," he said."The Pakistan Army is a very professional service. I see peace in it. I have spent time with the Pakistan Army [and] I am very impressed." "Indian media always stretches the truth," he regretted. "The smallest of things are presented in a very incendiary manner and people get misled

8. LoC Violations: Mar.,3,2019: Two Pakistan Army soldiers embraced martyrdom at Nakiyal Sector in exchange of fire while targeting Indian posts undertaking firing on civilian population," the ISPR statement read. "Martyrs include Havaldar Abdur Rub and Naik Khuram. Reports of casualties of Indian troops and damage to post due to effective response by Pakistan Army," it concluded. Earlier, ISPR had reported Indian firing across the LoC, as a result of which two citizens were martyred while two others, including a woman, were injured. Separately, our correspondent reported that a 19-year-old youth, identified as Abdul Ghaffar, was injured in Darra Sher Khan when he was shot at by an Indian sniper from across the LoC.

9. Kupwara : Mar., 3, 2019: Four security personnel, including an officer, have died during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district today. Sources say a freedom fighter, who was presumed dead, emerged from the rubble of a destroyed house and started firing which took the security personnel by surprise. Officials sources say an Inspector of the Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF, a jawan and two policemen of the J&K Police died after firing resumed during an anti-terrorism operation in Kralgund village of Langate area of the district.

10.

11.

Kashmir Update 9: Week Feburary,18,2019 February ,24,2019

1. Fear grips Kashmir Valley: Feb., 17, 2019: Since Thursday, dozens of Kashmiris living outside the disputed Himalayan region have been threatened, assaulted or forced to vacate their residences. Nisar Ahmad (name changed), 23, who is studying physics at an institute in Dehradun, capital of the northern Uttarakhand state, told Al Jazeera that Kashmiri students were beaten by a mob on Friday. "Following the suicide attack, two Kashmiri students were ruthlessly beaten by a mob in Sudhowala area. We have not even ventured out of our rooms since the attack." Ahmad said a group of around 70 people took out a rally in the area on Saturday, "chanting slogans like 'shoot the traitor Kashmiris', 'drive them out'"."The situation here is very tense. We feel very insecure here," he said. "We want to go back to our home but don't understand how. We are scared of even moving out of our rooms. Our supplies are finished," he said. Asma Ashraf, 24, a student of science in Dehradun, told Al Jazeera that she fears for her life after her hostel was "surrounded by a mob". "They asked the college authorities to throw the Kashmiris out," she said. In the Indian capital, New Delhi, 25-year-old Sara Khursheed told Al Jazeera the Kashmiris are being looked at with "suspicion after the attack"."Yesterday, I was returning home from work. A passer-by shouted at me and said these Kashmiris are happy over the killings. We fear we might be thrown out by our landlords," she said. Bashir, 24, who is pursuing engineering in Haryana state's Ambala city, said "violent mobs threatened" Kashmiri students to leave their rented places "immediately through announcements on loudspeakers". On Friday, Muslim residents in Jammu accused right-wing groups of setting their vehicles on fire and raising slogans against the Kashmiris residing in the city."In the Hindu majority areas of Jammu, wherever they found a car with a Kashmiri number plate, they set it ablaze. Muslims fear to go out. I have not been to work for the past two days," Suhail Ahmad, a resident of Jammu, said. While the governments in both Kashmir and at the centre have taken stock of the situation, it has not been enough to allay the fears of Kashmiris living in India.

2. Pulwara Attack: Feb., 17,2019: https://www.facebook.com/ViralKashmirNews/videos/375588329905138/UzpfSTE4MzcwMzY1MzMyODMwODc6MjI0NDA4NzY5NTkxMTMwMA/

3. Fresh Pulwama killings: Feb., 19, 2019: At least nine people, including three armed rebels, four Indian army soldiers and a police constable, have been killed in a gun battle in India-administered Kashmir. The gun battle on Monday in Pinglan village of Pulwama district comes days after 42 Indian security personnel were killed in a suicide blast a police official told Al Jazeera that a deputy inspector general of police, Amit Kumar, was hit by a bullet in his leg. "An army brigadier was also wounded in the fighting," the official added. Local residents in Pinglan village said that three houses and a cowshed were blown up by the armed forces and one of the house owners, Mushtaq Ahmad, 30, who ran a poultry shop in the village, was also killed."His house was among the one which was blown up, he is survived by two children, aged four and three. He was dragged out of his house early in the morning by the army and killed. Another boy was also hit by a bullet in his leg," Ghulam Nabi, a resident, told Al Jazeera.

4. Muslims targeted: Feb., 19, 2019: At least 6,000 Kashmiri Muslims have taken refuge in several mosques of Indian occupied Jammu district fearing attacks by Hindu mobs in the wake of suicide attack in Pulwama .Around 2,500 to 3,000 people are putting up here. These include stranded Kashmir-bound passengers as well as people living in sensitive zones of Jammu district.” Meanwhile, in Khatika Talab’s Jamia Masjid around 1,000-1,500 people have taken refuge. In Gujjar Nagar, around 1,000-1,500 people have taken refuge. Inside India, after various reports of Kashmiris including students, traders and employees were threatened to leave the place. A 42-year-old cardiologist from Srinagar, who has spent the last 22 years working in Kolkata, has been asked by a group of people to leave the city.

5. Prisoner’s death: Feb., 21, 2019: Indian prisoners have stoned to death a Pakistani inmate (Shakir Ullah) at Jaipur central jail amid mounting tensions over a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on its neighbor, an official said. The Pakistani prisoner had been eight years into a life term when he was attacked on Wednesday at the Jaipur central jail in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. The attack apparently in retaliation for Pulwama attack.

6. Kashmir bus service suspended: Feb., 21, 2019: India has halted a key bus service with the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, severing the only land route linking the divided Himalayan region.

7. UNSC, on Pulwama Attack: Feb., 22, 2019: The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned the Pulwama attack in occupied Kashmir and named Jaish-e-Muhammad as the perpetrators behind the attack The statement further “underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice”. There was no mention of Pakistan in the statement.

8. JeM: Feb., 23, 2019: The interior ministry on Friday announced that the Punjab government has taken administrative control of a mosque-and-seminary complex (Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah) in Bahawalpur that is believed to have been the headquarters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).The campus has a 70-strong faculty and more than 650 students enrolled. A subsequent statement issued by the interior ministry's spokesperson explained that although Indian media outlets are linking the Bahawalpur complex to a JeM training centre, the facility is "purely a madressah and Jamia Masjid (central mosque) where scores of orphans and students from underprivileged families are receiving religious and worldly education". According to the statement, the complex provides worldly education until grade 6, and following their secondary and intermediate schooling, students are provided bachelors- and masters-level education leading to Dars-e-Nizami (madressah degree).A large number of Bahawalpur residents bear the expenses of the madressah through alms and charity, and provide its pupils with rice and grain at no cost."The Special Branch [of police], Counter-Terrorism Department and other departments carry out a formal scrutiny of this and other madressahs on a monthly basis," the ministry's handout stated.

9. DG ISPR: Feb., 23, 2019: DG ISPR also noted certain technical details regarding the Pulwama attack and the claim of responsibility made in a video by a Kashmiri youth that made it appear doubtful that Pakistan had any role in the attack. "India began showering Pakistan with accusations immediately after the attack without sparing a moment to think, and without any evidence in hand," Ghafoor said."From the Line of Control onwards, Indian security forces have layered defences," he said, explaining that there were layered lines of defence, one after another."How is it possible for anyone from Pakistan to cross the LoC and go to some area where the population of security forces is greater than that of locals?""You should question your security forces, that 'You've been sitting here for decades, you spend so much on defence, how was this infiltration possible?'," he stated. "The Pulwama attack happened miles away from the LoC. The explosives that were employed were being used by the administration and security forces in occupied Kashmir, it didn't go there from Pakistan," Maj Gen Ghafoor said. "The car that was used was also local [to Kashmir]. It did not go there from Pakistan." The DG ISPR also pointed out that Adil Dar, the youth who had claimed responsibility for the attack in a video, was a local [to Kashmir] who, like so many other Kashmiri youths, had suffered at the hands of Indian security forces in the past. "In 2017, he had remained under arrest and security forces maltreated him [...] The way he was pushed to the path where he gave this violent response," he said. The army's spokesman said that an expert technical analysis of the claim video ─ looking at quality, the distance from which it was shot, how it was dubbed, what weapons were visible ─ could provide a lot of clues to observers. "Look at the class composition of the soldiers who were killed in the attack," he suggested.

10. AI: Feb., 23, 2109: Amnesty India said it came to their knowledge through media reports that Kashmiri university students and traders in northern states, primarily Uttarakhand, Haryana and Bihar, have been beaten, threatened, and intimidated by some Hindu nationalist groups. Many students are reported to have fled their universities in fear. Two colleges in Dehradun and one in Moradabad have stated that they will not admit new Kashmiri students,” says the press statement.

11. Leadership arrested: Feb., 24, 2019: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik has been arrested in a crackdown on leaders in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK), Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Saturday.

12.

Kashmir Update 8: Week Feburary,11,2019 February ,17,2019

1. Youth martyred: Feb., 10, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian martyred five Kashmiri youth and injured dozens in firing on protesters in Kulgam district, today. The troops killed the youth during a cordon and search operation in Kellam area of the district. . The troops also destroyed, at least, two houses during the operation. The martyred youth have been identified as Waseem Bashir Rather, Zahid Parray, Idrees Butt, Aaqib Nazir and Pervez Butt.

2. Maqbool Butt: Feb., 10, 2019: complete shutdown will be observed and a protest rally will be held at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, tomorrow, to mark the martyrdom anniversary of prominent Kashmiri liberation leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt India had hanged Muhammad Maqbool Butt in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 11th February in 1984. A memorandum will also be sent to UN Secretary General, seeking the intervention of the World Body for settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

3. Srinagar, February 12, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred one Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a violent cordon and search operation in Ratnipora area of the district. Earlier, two Indian soldiers including a commando were killed and another was injured in an attack in the same area.

4. Srinagar, February 13, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two more Kashmiri youth in Budgam district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation at Wathroora in Chadoora area of the district

5. Indian Soldiers killed: Feb., 14, 2019: At least 18 Indian paramilitary personnel have been killed and several others wounded (https://www.indiatoday.in/programme/5ive-live/video/jem-claims-responsibility-for-attack-on-crpf-convoy-in-kashmir-1456234-2019-02-14)a car filled with explosives rammed into a military convoy in Indian-administered Kashmir. In one of the worst attacks to hit India's armed forces in nearly three years, the car rammed into one of the buses carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel Feb., 15,2019: Over 40 personnel of India`s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in a fedayeen-style strike in India-held Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday Reuters said 44 men (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/pulwama-attack-death-toll-of-crpf-personnel-rises-above-42/videoshow/67998148.cms) were killed as a jeep with 350kg of explosives rammed a bus in a large security convoy at Pulwama in the disputed Himalayan region. Indian reports claimed that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group had claimed responsibility for the attack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRA7di7ofo4), the worst in decades. Indian reports said that JeM put out a video and photos of an armed man it claimed was the suicide attacker Adil Ahmad Dar or Waqas Commando from Kakapora in Pulwama. Bullet marks on the bus indicated that more men might have been hiding and might have fired at the convoy, NDTV said. February 15, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Hindu fanatics torched dozens of vehicles of Muslims in Jammu city, today. Amid shutdown, the Hindu mobs set afire at least fifty vehicles of Muslims in Gujjar Nagar and Prem Nagar areas of the city. Earlier, hundreds of members of Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other extremist Hindu organizations poured into the streets of Jammu city and protested against the killing of Indian troops in an explosion at Lethpora in Pulwama yesterday..Eyewitnesses said that the protesters raised anti-Kashmir and anti-Pakistan and other provocative slogans. (http://dunyanews.tv/en/World/478685-Hindu-fanatics-torch-dozens-vehicles-Muslims-Occupied-Kashmir)

6. Suicide Bomber: Feb., 16, 2019: A suicide bomber who killed 44 paramilitary policemen in Indian-occupied Kashmir joined a militant group after having been beaten by troops three years ago, his parents told Reuters on Friday. His mother, Fahmeeda, corroborated her husband’s account. “He was beaten by Indian troops a few years back when he was returning from school,” she said. “This led to anger in him against Indian troops.”

7. Cost of Kashmir struggle

Kashmir Update 7: Week Feburary,4,2019 February ,10,2019

1. UK Parliament on Kashmir: Feb., 3, 2109: After the Indian government lodged a protest with the United Kingdom over a Kashmir solidarity event to be held in the British parliament on Feb 4, the UK government said it would not interfere in the matter.

2. APC: Feb., 3.2019: Major political parties on Saturday demanded an autonomous commission in light of recommendations made by international bodies to investigate into the Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. A joint declaration issued at the end of All Parties Kashmir Conference said peace in the region was not possible without resolving the Kashmir issue. The conference called for revealing human rights violations being committed by the so-called secular state (India) for more than six decades.

3. APC: Feb., 4, 2019: Leaders of religio-political and Kashmiri organizations have called for the OIC to devise a strategy on the Kashmir issue. Addressing an all parties Kashmir conference here, they said that Kashmiris have changed the situation entirely by offering sacrifices against Indian atrocities. But here in Pakistan, they said, some political parties removed Jammu-Kashmir from their manifesto at a time when the Kashmir struggle entered its final phase. Calling the Kashmir issue a guarantee for integrity of Pakistan, they said, Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir.AThe Tehreek Azadi Jammu-Kashmir (TAJK) organised the conference, which was attended by leaders from Milli Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ahle Hadith and others.

4. British Parlaiamnt: Feb., 6, 2019: All parties parliamentary group on Pakistan held international conference on Kashmir in the British parliament on the eve of Kashmir Solidarity Day. The Kashmir conference was attended by all parties from Pakistan and UK. More than three dozen were MPs in attendance including AJK President and opposition leaders. Dozens of Kashmiris representative groups also attended one of the biggest conference on Kashmir ever in UK parliament. Sayeeda Warsi said successive UK governments have sidestepped the issue of Kashmir. “Sexual violence in Kashmir as a tool of war is most horrific. India is failing to fulfill its responsibility. Labour MP and shadow foreign minister Debbie Abrahams said we need to wake up international community to take interest in the issue of Kashmir and their right of self determination. India is a member of the commonwealth and by its rule should respect human rights, he said and added that India, UK and Pakistan can come together as commonwealth countries and hold India to standards of commonwealth, he said. Labour MP Sharron Debbie from Birmingham said united in our sheer horror on what’s happening in Kashmir. Peace can never be achieved by violent means. Kashmir has become a horror story.

5. Kashmir solidarity day in the World: Feb., 5, .2019: In Kabul, Afghan women for the first time staged a rally to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people An International Conference on Kashmir, held in London, has adopted a resolution expressing concerns over the plight of Kashmiri people. The resolution urged the International Community including the United Nations to take immediate and effective measures to address the human rights situation in Kashmir. The Embassy of Pakistan in Tehran in collaboration with ECO Cultural Institute arranged a three day pictorial and cultural exhibition of Kashmir titled "Kashmir, Iran-e-Saghir" to express solidarity with Kashmiris struggling for their right to self- determination. Kashmir Council Europe organized an event of candle light vigil in Belgium's capital Brussels to express solidarity with the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir. In Thailand, an impressive event was held at Embassy of Pakistan in Bangkok today to commemorate the Day. Locals of Iran’s holy city of Mashhad marked the ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ by rallying with posters carrying messages of the Supreme leader of the country Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei on Kashmir. The youth of the country are following Khamenai’s call for resolution of Kashmir dispute according to aspirations of Kashmiris.

7. Government in Exile: Feb., 6, 2019: Mr Baloch(of JI) urged the world community to shun its silence on the Kashmir issue and play its role in motivating the UN for the grant of right to self-determination to the Kashmiris. He also stressed upon the Pakistan government to present a roadmap for the liberation of Kashmir, saying that there could be no talks with India till it stopped considering Kashmir its integral part. Mr Azeem called upon the government to set up a `government in exile` of the Kashmiris under the leadership of veteran leader Syed Ali Geelani. Islamabad should not only recognize such a government, but also establish Kashmir desks at every embassy so that Kashmiri leaders could present their case to the world.

8. Update: Feb., 10, 2109: To begin with, Pakistan needs to comprehend duly that religious diplomacy has a great potential to catch India off guard and bring about a qualitative change in the enduring struggle of Kashmiris for their right to self-determination. Building on the Sikhs-specific Kartarpur initiative, it should now open up Shardah Valley in Azad Kashmir and allow all Hindus, especially those living in Kashmir, to visit the area, freely. Home to Shardah Devi and a centuries-old civilisation, the area is among the holiest places for Hindus who desperately long for visiting it in their lifetime.

9. As the Sikh community strongly reacted to the lukewarm response by Delhi to Pakistan’s Kartarpur initiative, lack of enthusiasm on Shardah Valley would again pit India against its own people — this time around the fundamentalist Hindus. Apart from dispelling cross-border terrorism charges against Pakistan, the decision would eventually compel India to open Chirar Sharif shrine on its side in Srinagar for pilgrims of Azad Kashmir. Needless mentioning that it would be a gigantic leap towards turning the barriers between two parts of Kashmir irrelevant, a prerequisite in the eyes of many for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

10. barring Azad Kashmir to international visitors and rights organizations has historically served Pakistan no purpose at all. Of late, in fact it provided an excuse to the UN Human Rights Office to censure Pakistan in its special report for violation of human rights in Azad Kashmir. Notwithstanding ubiquitous militarization and imposition of draconian laws, India on the contrary has always projected Kashmir under its control as the ultimate destination of tourists and a symbol of its federalism. Removal of iron clad on Azad Kashmir is, therefore, essentially important to let the world make a fair and square comparison between the degree of human rights and civil liberties enjoyed by the Kashmiris living across the divide, respectively.

11. violation of child rights by India in Kashmir also needs to be specifically highlighted at different forums attaching great significance to this issue. According to a report by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), children in the occupied valley are the direct target of Indian forces who, with complete impunity, have exterminated 318 of them in the last 15 years.One could hardly disagree that ghastly incidents such as abduction, rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa Bano and blinding of 18-month-old Hiba Nisar through pellet guns by Indian troops could not have gone almost unnoticed, were they highlighted effectively under various international child rights conventions and protocols. Pakistan should not allow India to go unscathed on such issues.

12. Legal experts in Pakistan should also look into the question of filing law suits in the International Criminal Court against Indian officials and men in uniform for crimes against humanity in Kashmir. Discovery of 2,080 unmarked mass graves in Kashmir by civil society organisations, for instance, makes it a perfect case to approach the court to try India on that count. Irrespective of the outcome of such moves, the very decision would bring the world’s attention back to the Kashmir situation and mount pressure on India to pay heed to the clamours of Kashmiris for an amicable settlement of the issue.

13. Pakistan should now shun ill-advised procrastination on inclusion of Azad Kashmir cricket team in the PSL list. Besides transmitting a softer image of Kashmiris and their struggle for right to self-determination across the globe, the decision would make Kashmir a household name in the cricketing world and open up new vistas

14. Cost of Kashmir struggle

Kashmir Update 7: Week January,21,2019 January ,27,2019

1. UK House of Commons: Jan., 30, 2019: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi invited all parliamentarians of Pakistan and the political leadership of Azad Kashmir to attend a seminar on the Kashmir issue at the United Kingdom’s House of Commons early next month. He urged the Pakistani and Kashmiri political leadership to attend the seminar in the House of Commons on February 4 and a related exhibition in London on February 5.Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua also briefed the standing committee on the report released by the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG) in October 2018.The report highlighted the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act as “draconian laws” under which “Indian occupation forces are committing human rights abuses in IoK with impunity

2. JI; Jan., 30, 2019: Present and past Pakistani governments only verbally terms Kashmir as its jugular vein , Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq has said JI would observe February 5 with great enthusiasm to express solidarity with the innocent Kashmiris who are facing Indian atrocities since many decades and the entire world is keeping silence over the Indian cruelty. “On Kashmir Day, the JI will take out protest rallies from Karachi to Khyber and Kashmir.”

3. Christina Fair: Jan., 31, 2019: What India Does in Kashmir is Not What Democracies Do, Says South Asian Expert (Cristina Fair is a fierce critic of Pakistan) .Urging India to look at police reforms, American political scientist Christine Fair, whose work is focused on south Asian issues, said that India could take a cue from several European forces.

4. Telephone Call: Jan., 31, 2019: Pakistan has reiterated its support for the Kashmir liberation cause and dismissed Indian objections to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s telephone call to All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement on Thursday, 31stJanuary.

5. Jan 31,2019: Pulwama: Freedom fighters killed in encounter in Pulwama dist of Jammu and Kashmir In Jammu & Kashmir, two militants were killed in an encounter that erupted in Drubgam Rajpora area of Pulwama district

Kashmir Update 6: Week January,21,2019 January ,27,2019

1. Dr. Rita Pal: Jan., 21, 2019: We have noted the report by the UNHRC following our complaint detailed here www.kashmirhumanrights.com It was a good report but with no further action. You will agree that the idea of reports is to solve the Kashmir problem. In this case, the emergency remains unsolved and left to escalate with more civilian casualties. There has been no resolution so the HRC is able to vote for a full inquiry ( as was done in the case of Yemen). There has been no UNSC review despite the high death rate of civilians. There has been no consideration of a referral to the ICC or a decision by the ICJ. These options have been concealed by yourselves and not publicised. The people of Kashmir have not been informed of the fact that the UN can do more. No help or advice has been given to the people of Kashmir on how to raise concerns of complain to the UN safely. The UN/UNHRC has left Kashmir to slowly die. It's a conflict zone with a high rate of PTSD, disability, injuries, high numbers of arrests, mass graves, bereavement, torture centres you've turned a blind eye to, sexual exploitation by the military, hybrid warfare inflicted on its people by India and the destructive consequences of India's ineffectual ill thought-out counter terrorism policies. The place is becoming more dysfunctional and dangerous with each vague, ineffective impractical UN statement made by you. It is possible to allocate a individual similar to Owen Dixon in the past. They could mediate an agreement between India and Pakistan. Kashmir is entitled to its own rights of self determination and accountability yet you insist on neglecting their civil rights. You give no reason why this cannot be done for Kashmir The UN has accepted donations from India and given it accolades despite the UNHRC Report on Kashmir, it's potential war crimes and it's neglect of the civil rights of Kashmiri individuals.The UN has failed to hold India accountable in any way or form. It's inaction resulting in lack of hope has increased militancy and made Kashmir volatile and vulnerable to exploitation. You once said you did not tolerate fascism yet you allow the Indian government to execute innocent civilians, use human shields, create mass graves and walk away without any accountability. Kashmiris have been censored and so have foreign activists like us. Prof Kaye has simply written letters and there doesn't seem to be any accountability for India's lack of concern for the UN's view. The net result is a complete silencing of civilians in Kashmir. In conclusion, the UN is seen as a toothless organisation since it's been unable to protect civilians in Kashmir for the last 71 years. Is this what you wish its reputation to be? We therefore conclude that the UN/UNHRC has not done their job yet. There is a lack of confidence in its ability to hold fascist countries to account. We are the complainants to the UNHRC and we are disappointed in the total lack of immediate action for Kashmiris. They deserve better. They deserve an organisation that works for their civil rights. Instead, the UN appears to us to be working to protect its donations from India. This is an insult to the Kashmiris who have suffered terribly at the hands of the cruel inhumane Indian forces

2. Jan., 21, 2019: Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Saturday urged the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres to take immediate steps for implementation of recommendations of United Nations Human Rights Commission report on Kashmir."While the people of Jammu & Kashmir welcomed the long overdue UNHRC report on severe HR violations in J&K, we urge the UN @antonioguterres to walk the talk and take immediate steps to implement the recommendations of the report!," Mirwaiz wrote on Twitter. The UN Chief had said that the UN had done its job by releasing a report on human rights situation in Kashmir.

3. Jan.,22,2019: Indian occupation forces on Monday, Tuesday martyred three Kashmiri youth in the occupied valley as state-sponsored brutality continued in the region Three militants, including the brother of an IPS officer, were killed and a soldier injured on Tuesday in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district..Police sources said Shamsul Haq Mengnoo of Draggud village of Shopian was among those killed in Heff Shermal village by security forces.

4. Jan., 24, 2019: Three militants, including the brother of an IPS officer, were killed and a soldier injured on Tuesday in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district

5. Jan., 24, 2019, Dr. Rita Pal: We have been informed that some foreign activists are being used as proxies by the Indian establishment. Young Kashmiris who pour their hearts out to these activists are being reported to the Indian authorities. Until we have found out the true extent of this, please refrain from disclosing your real name or your personal feelings to any foreign activists. This is very important as confidentiality is at risk My own social networking accounts have been closed voluntarily by me since I discovered Pakistan Defence on Twitter were advertising a foreign "activist" whom we knew to be working with India and fleecing money for non existent causes. I felt this was a danger to Kashmir and an insult to our work for Kashmir and support for Pakistan. It is for this reason; I will not be reactivating my Twitter account for quite a while. One could say I still remain in disbelief that Pakistans finest could do such a thing to us. This includes believing in the lies propagated to them about us. Pakistan online defence have sought to correct this position but that does not excuse the 8 months of damaging consequences caused to Jasmine and myself. We expected better from the people we respected.Regards Dr #RitaPal www.kashmirhumanrights.com

6. #DrRitaPal : Jan.,27,2019: This week, Pakistan pledged to support Kashmir diplomatically. In the past we have asked why Gaza was considered by the UNSC and why Kashmir remained an outlier on its own. This week the US has approached the UNSC over Venezuela. We ask the question again, Kashmir is in an emergency situation, why isn't Pakistan or the UN Secretary General approaching the UNSC. Will everyone remain silent on this again? Will Kashmir be left to it's own devices with civilians being killed and militancy going out of control. Pakistan won't respond to this question much like it doesn't respond to its failure to apply to the ICJ. It will remain quiet on these points while claiming to offer diplomatic support. Kashmir deserves better from the Foreign Office in Pakistan. While Imran Khan has tried to be pro-active, his Foreign Office is nothing but a show master. Says all the great things but actually does very little in the world of accountability

7. Black Day: Jan., 27.2019: Indian troops killed two Kashmiri youths in the Khonmoh area of Srinagar, Kashmir Media Service (KMS) said on Saturday. The killings took place on India's Republic Day, which is observed as Black Day by residents of Indian-occupied Kashmir and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmir Update 5: Week January,14,2019 January ,20,2019

Note: There is a decided change in Indian policy and actions in India Occupied Kashmir in the last few days. This seems to be the impact of the altered American interests in the region. Ever since Trumps, announcement of withdrawal from Afghanistan, Indian are also altering there policy related to South Asia, Afghanistan and also towards Pakistan. This may be temporary as Trumps is very unpredictable. The Pakistani establishment and Government are doing their utmost to force the Taliban to agree to US demands of negotiations between Taliban and Afghan Government. This may be temporary respite for the hapless people of occupied Kashmir but this could also be the harbinger of somewhat better conditions in the near future.

1. Jan., 14, 2019: Encounter: A freedom fighter was killed after an encounter between government forces and militants broke out Saturday evening in Yaripora area of south Kashmir’s district Kulgam.

2. Jan., 14, 2019: Funeral Firing: At least 11 people have been injured after Indian security forces opened fire on mourners, who were attending the funeral of two freedom fighters in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Zeenat ul-Islam was killed along with his associate on Saturday in a gun battle with Indian troops. Thousands of people on Sunday marched towards his village, Sugan in Shopian district, to offer funeral prayers despite the barricades and deployment of troops along the way. To stop people from joining the funeral prayers, government forces fired bullets, shotgun pellets and tear gas to stop the mourners, leading to street clashes as groups of youths pelted stones at the troops

3. Footballers:Jan.,17,2019:,members of a Kashmiri youth soccer team watched their 16-year-old captain, Saqib Bilal Sheikh, and goalkeeper Mudassir Rashid Parray, two years his junior, walk off the field toward a man on a motorcycle. The two teenagers were not seen again until months later, when they were returned to their hometown in body bags.

4. UNGA President: Jan., 19, 2019: The UNGA president is here on a five-day visit. This is the first visit by a UNGA president to Pakistan since 2010. It is also Ms Espinosa`s first to any country in the Asia-Pacific region since her election last September. Mr Qureshi, in his meeting with the UNGA president at the Foreign Of fice, conveyed Pakistan`s deep concern over the systematic human rights abuses in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He underscored the need for the UN to ensure implementation of the Security Council resolutions.

Kashmir Update 4: Week January,7,2019 January ,14,2019

1. Kurile Dispute and its relevance to Kashmir: The Second World War left behind many problems inherited from history, not least in Asia in respect of multiple disputed territories. One of them concerns four islands in the Kurile chain that are claimed by Japan but occupied by Russia as successor state of the Soviet Union. Despite the passage of over 70 years, this dispute has defied solution and prevented the conclusion of a Russo-Japanese peace treaty to draw a final curtain over the detritus of the war. The Kuriles are an archipelago of some 56 islands spanning about 1,800 km from Japan’s Hokkaido to Russia’s Kamchatka. All of them are under Russian jurisdiction but Japan claims the two large southernmost islands, Etorofu and Kunashiri, and two others, Shikotan and Habomai, as its ‘northern territories’. These islands were occupied by the Soviet Union in August 1945, after which the entire Japanese population, numbering less than 20,000, was evicted. The islands are now populated by the various ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union, but only eight of them are actually inhabited. Mr. Abe’s wish to engage with Russia stems from the rapid rise of China, which spends three times more on defence than Japan, and the perceived threat from North Korea, which recently fired two ballistic missiles over Japan as a taunt to the U.S. Russia is now seen in Japan as the lesser enemy, and improving relations with Moscow might drive a wedge in the growing quasi-alliance between Russia and China, a break-up desired by the U.S.-led Western alliance. Tokyo notes that the Russian far east is endowed with plentiful natural resources which are in need of investments, but is hampered by a small population, whereas China has 100 million citizens along that shared land border. Japan has no territorial or demographic ambitions in Russia other than the Kuriles, and has the capacity to transform the vast contiguous areas of Russia. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that both Japan and Russia see merit in pursuing greater collaboration At Vladivostok last September, Mr. Abe declared that Japan-Russia relations held “unlimited potential” and that the absence of a peace treaty was “an abnormal state of affairs”. Mr. Putin agreed, noting that the Russian and Japanese militaries had cooperated for the first time, and urged the immediate conclusion of a peace treaty without preconditions. Japan demurred on the grounds that the Kurile islands dispute had to be settled first before the issue was foreclosed. Nonetheless, Mr. Abe stated that “Japan-Russia relations are advancing at a degree never seen before.” The interactions between Japan and Russia probably hold scant interest for the Indian public. Nevertheless, although no two international problems are analogous, there are important lessons to be drawn from the manner in which traditionally hostile neighbours can identify common interests and explore unorthodox avenues along which to proceed in search of innovative solutions to apparently insoluble disputes. This requires strong leadership and a bold imagination. Neither India nor Pakistan lacks either attribute. Kashmir is essentially a territorial dispute of almost equal vintage as the Kuriles. But if both sides keep waiting for the most propitious time to make the first move, it will never come about.

2. US Afghan Withdrawal: Jan.,,2019:The story of past many years of Indo-Pak relations is a story of how a regional hegemon ‘pushed back’ a smaller neighbouring country by arming its rivals and enemies on the western front, by executing military build-ups on its eastern borders and threatening and setting red lines to execute surgical strikes or initiate limited wars. The carrot of economic participation that it offered to the rest of the world — whether it was the access to its markets or investment in giant sports leagues like Indian Premier League was all at the cost of all of them making a choice — of not looking at Pakistan as a country that was suffering and was being victimised but as a country that ‘harboured terrorist’ and provided them safe havens and exported terrorism internationally. The rest of the world looked at India as a huge vehicle that provided them with indisputable opportunities for making wealth. If Afghanistan descends into a forecasted political upheaval during or beyond the Afghan elections (May 2019), the repercussions for the Indian interests in Afghanistan would be severely damaging. Alliances are ‘power-multipliers’ and while India has benefited from its new found alliance with the Americans in the last decade or so — Pakistan lost its opportunities in the past, but now it is gradually repositioning itself to fight against the Indian-induced regional and international isolation by showcasing its ‘deployable power’ of an efficient and operationally trained force to fight the common enemy of terrorism. Russia, China, Iran and the Central Asian States all respect and admire Pakistan’s anti-terrorism fighting capabilities.The first and the most important step for the Modi government should be a change of mindset. Its anti-Pakistan narrative has miserably flopped. There are multiple actors that have their changing interests that are competing for influence in the region and this region has dynamics of its own, the nature of which also keeps changing. India has tried its best to weaken Pakistan and exploit its vulnerabilities but the world is a witness of the resilience and perseverance of the Pakistani nation that despite its problems it has continued to fight and adapt and respond to all the Indian challenges that it has so far thrown at it. With most of the Indian premises about Pakistan going wrong it is still not late for the Indians to understand that if ‘Pakistan stagnates or is troubled, India will also not remain immune’. It is for India to decide whether to entrench against or engage with Pakistan. For India, living with Pakistan as a friendly neighbour that engages in dialogue to reach political ends rather than bullying with threats of surgical strikes should be the right strategic option. Simply put, for PM Modi to continue to seek and to push Pakistan to a corner and proudly boast that “India has been able to isolate Pakistan internationally” is an Indian policy that in coming days will no more be sustainable. India tried a full-scale ‘policy of isolation’ against Pakistan — this policy of isolation and non-engagement only increased unprecedented risks and uncertainty in the relations between the two countries. The year 2019 may finally prove to be the deathbed of flawed built-up Indian premises, policies and narrative against Pakistan. Through hardships, tests and trials what Pakistan has managed to do is ‘find its way’. In the coming days not Pakistan but it’s India that would be under the ‘world’s spotlight’ to ‘mend its way’ in Kashmir. Even PM Modi and the whole India knows it.

Kashmir Update 3: Week December,30,2018 January ,6,2019

1. Arab News, Dec., 30, 2018: The war-torn disputed territory is now a place on the universe where the mothers often receive the dead body of their sons, fathers announce the venue and time for their funeral prayers, and sisters throw candies and flowers on their funeral procession. When a rebel dies, thousands of people pour out onto the streets and shout pro-freedom slogans. During their funeral prayers, the venue and the lanes and by-lanes remain choked with the rush of people. Most of the time, when the mourners don't find space on the ground, they climb trees to have the last glimpse of slain armed insurgent and bid farewell to him. To wipe out the armed insurgency and crush the dissent of the public, India has increased military deployment, making this small region highest militarized zone in the world. IAK is rife with stories of killing, maiming, enforced disappearance, custodial The list compiled by the rights group, Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) reveals till November 24, 520 people including 144 civilians, 234 armed rebels and 142 Indian armed force and Police were killed in IAK this year killings, rape, torture, crackdowns and censorship on media. n June this year, the United Nations Human Rights office released a 49-page report on human rights violation in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir. It was first ever report issued by UN on Kashmir.

Kashmir Update 1: Week December,16,2018 December,22,2018

1. DECEMBER 15, 2018 07:56 PM Srinagar, Kashmir, : Indian forces who were exchanging fire with insurgents in disputed Kashmir on Saturday fatally shot at least seven civilians when large crowds descended on the site of the gun battle in support of the militants, police and residents said. Residents accused troops of directly spraying gunfire into the crowds. Police said in a statement that they regretted the killings but that the protesters had come "dangerously close" to the fighting. The violence started as troops surrounded a village in the southern Pulwama area on a tip that militants were hiding there. Gunmen jumped out of a civilian home and took positions in an apple orchard while firing at soldiers and counterinsurgency police, said Muneer Ahmed Khan, a top police officer. Residents said at least two civilians, including a teenage boy, were killed away from the gunbattle. Soldiers in an armored vehicle fired at a small group of civilians away from the battle site, and as the vehicle jammed on a roadside, the troops fatally shot one of them, said Ubaid Ahmed. Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday announced that Kashmiri people, under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) group, “will march towards Badami Bagh Army cantonment on Monday [December] 17” to ask the Indian forces to “kill all of us at one time rather than killing us daily”.

2. Norway’s Ex-PM Visit Kashmir: to clear Decks for Manmohan-Musharraf Formula with Govt’s Blessing. Former R&AW chief and Kashmir advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, AS Dulat, said that the fact that Bondevik could travel all the way to Srinagar and meet Geelani meant that New Delhi was also on board. Also known as the Musharraf formula or the Manmohan-Musharraf formula or Chemab solution, the four-point formula is basically an idea of demilitarization, maximum autonomy, making border irrelevant, and joint management of the region. Refer to https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/08/chenab-formula-musharrafs-four-point.html for more details of the Chemab formula

3. December, 18,2o18: Indian authorities imposed a total curfew in parts of Srinagar and locked down several parts of occupied region on Monday as police fired tear gas at protesters defying a curfew to march against the shooting death of 11 civilians in Pulwama at the weekend.Police and Indian para-military forces put up barricades in various parts of Srinagar and patrolled in force to prevent a march towards the Indian army headquarters in Badami Bagh area. Authorities had also shut down mobile, internet and train services.The call for the march was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, against the killings by Indian troops in Pulwama district at the weekend. On Saturday, the Indian troops killed as many as 11 Kashmiri youth during a cordon and search operation and firing of live ammunition on protesters in the Kharpora Sirnoo area of Pulwama. The Indian army, in a statement late on Sunday, warned the people against protesting.

4. OIC: Hours after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called on the international community to “intervene” and stop the ongoing bloodshed in occupied Kashmir, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a statement strongly condemning the "killing of innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces".

5. New Delhi, December 18 (KMS): Former Indian Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju has criticized the Indian Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, for carrying out the massacre of civilians in Pulwama district of occupied Kashmir. Reacting sharply to the killing of 11 Kashmiris in firing by Indian troops in Pulwama on Saturday, Katju¸ who has also been the chairman of the Press Council of India, satirically wrote on twitter: “Congratulations to Gen Rawat whose soldiers killed 7 civilians in a Jallianwala Bagh or My Lai type massacre in Pulwama, Kashmir. How brave of the Indian Army General.” »

6. Parveena Ahanger Dec.,19,2018: Founder and Chairperson of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and a human rights activist in J&K, said that if people wanted to protest, they weren’t allowed to do so. “Forces in Kashmir are killing people indiscriminately. All the laws are made for Kashmiri people (referring to the Armed Forces Special Power Act),” she said.“I have travelled to many countries to inform them about the disappearance of people in Kashmir. However, they said that India never talks about what Kashmiris are facing,” Ahanger said, adding that “they are killing one complete generation of Kashmir.”

7. 21 DEC 2018 Dr. Rita Paul: In the last 24 hours, Twitter has been asked by the Indian government to suspend the accounts of a number of human rights defenders for Kashmir. This includes Jasmine DM. Apparently, circulating the evidence on human rights violations isn't acceptable to India.This is not the first time Jasmine has been trolled and attacked by cybercell India. Clearly RAW has nothing much to do these days. These are the documents given to me by the UN on Kashmir. As the publicity has been shut off by India, please circulate these: 16Aug2017:https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23283
9May2017:https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=23116
28 July 2016 https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=3282 10 December 2018
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Opinion/Legislation/OL_OTH_70_2018.pdf. Imran Khan has spoken to the Secretary General and outlined the importance of the concerns raised in Kashmir https://www.dawn.com/news/1452602 . Dr Rita Pal.

11.

7 comments:

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Both India and Pakistan Must allow Kashmiri's to determine their future."Independent Kashmir" is the most practical and workable solution for lasting peace in the region.
SpadeFebruary 4, 2019 at 7:40 PM
Solutions that are offered envisage a semi autonomous area with links to both countries, a sort of Irish solution, these solutions are called the Chenab formula, and also Mussharaff's four point formula etc.
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Javed's Blog

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Kashmir Struggle News (weekly) Update (JR107)

THIS PAGE WILL UPDATE , ON A WEEKLY BASIS NEW RELATED TO THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM BY THE KASHMIRI PEOPLE.

HR Violations

Casualties during ongoing uprising

Kindly respond with comments or news that you wish included in next weeks update at: jarad_us@yahoo.com

Kindly respond with comments or news that you wish included in next weeks update at: jarad_us@yahoo.com

Kindly respond with comments or news that you wish included in next weeks update at: jarad_us@yahoo.com

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