1
Protest; Sep 28 2021;
Hundreds gathered at the UN demanding freedom from Indian occupation ;New
York, Sep 26, 2021. “The right of self-determination which was promised to the
people of Kashmir by both India & Pakistan and was endorsed by the UN
Security Council needs to be fulfilled. The Kashmir dispute has no military
solution. It can only be resolved through peaceful negotiations between all
parties concerned – India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu & Kashmir,”
this was stated by Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, newly elected President
of Azad Jammu and Kashmir at a rally organized by Washington-based World Kashmir
Awareness Forum and supported by US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO),
Majlie As Shura, New York and ICNA/Council for Social Justice. The protest was
organized against prime minister, Narendra Modi as he was addressing the UN
General Assembly. Barrister Choudhary said that the international attention is now
focused on Kashmir Holding
banners and placards in their hands inscribed with “Wake UP Wake UP UN WAKE UP”
“Indian Army Out of Kashmir” “WE Demand Human Rights” “India: Free Kashmir” the
participants expressed total solidarity with the oppressed people of Jammu and
Kashmir. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Mir, president, World Kashmir Awareness Forum
(WKAF) said, “We are here today specifically to protest the visit and the
speech of the Hindu Nationalist Prime Munster of India, Mr. Narender Modi. With
all due respect to the office of the Prime minister of India, we believe he and
his government do not deserve to be speaking at this august forum representing
193 countries of the world. We further believe that the region of South Asia
faces an existential threat from the aggressive Hindu Nationalist regime which
is based on Hitler and Mussolini’s Nazi ideology. We believe his regime is a
threat to its neighbors and world peace. “World leaders would
be ill-advised to ignore the danger posed by the Hindu Nationalist regime led
by Narendra Modi, just as it was a grave mistake to ignore the warning signs of
Adolph Hitler’s threat in 1940s. The world knew Mr. Modi supervised Muslim
pogroms in Gujarat and Delhi. He is now doing the same in Assam. His military
and paramilitary forces are actively engaged in massacres and forced
demographic change in the state of J&K. We urge the leaders of the US and
the world to hold PM Modi and his associates’ feet to fire for the grave abuses
of the fundamental rights Kashmiris,” Dr. Mir added. Dr.
Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, (WKAF) said that the president of the
General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, must know that the Prime Minister Modi, who
spoke on Saturday, was declared as 'butcher of Gujarat'. Within the past two
years, Fai said, Modi has made Kashmir a hell for its people. The people of
Kashmir have always been hostile to the presence of India’s troops on their
soil and have resisted to such oppression, and over hundred thousand Kashmiris
have died within the past 30 years alone. "The world powers and the saner
elements in both India and Pakistan need to realize that the participation of
Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue process with India and Pakistan is the sine
qua non that will help to achieve the lasting peace and tranquility in the
region of South Asia," D. Fai added. Imam Saffet Catovic,
former, Bosnian Diplomat and Board Member, Muslim Alliance in North America
(MANA) said, “Someone asked me, what are you doing here, you are not from
Kashmir or Pakistan or other Asian nation.
I replied, yes that is true, my background is from Bosnia and
Herzegovina in Europe. I am here because
as a Muslim and person of faith I am commanded by God in the Quran to stand for
justice and against tyranny and oppression (Quran 4:135). Beginning in 1992 our
Bosnian people were the target of ethnic cleansing and genocide, orchestrated
by religiously driven ethnic chauvinists and ultranationalist who sought to
erase our historic presence and very existence from the face of Europe, not
unlike what has been happening to the Kashmiri people for far too long, under
Indian occupation, even more so now than ever before under this Modi regime. By
the grace of God, the just nature of our cause and through our heroic struggle
and the support of allies and people of conscience across the world we survived
and became free and independent and so shall the courageous people of occupied
Kashmir! as God reminds us in the Holy
Quran (3:139) "Do not lose hope nor despair for you shall be victorious if
you remain true to who you are and your faith" Dr.
Imtiaz Khan, Professor George Washington University Medical Center said, The
presence of Narender Modi at United Nations compromises the sanctity of this
august body which was created to establish a fair world order. Modi terrorizes
his neighbors and has subjugated people of Kashmir. Under his watch atrocities
against Kashmiris have increased manifold. Occupation forces enter the housed
of inhabitants with impunity. They kill the youth, molest the women, and steal
the valuables before raising the houses to the ground. “Kashmiris want to
express their sincere gratitude to PM Imran Khan for exposing the human right
abuses by Indian forces,” Dr. Khan said. Sardar Sawar Khan, former
Advisor to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir called on the U.N. to decisively
move towards implementing its resolutions that pledged the right of
self-determination to Kashmiris. The nation of Kashmir is at the brink of
extinction due to the demographic changes taking place in the State which needs
world attention. “History testifies that all international conflicts were
ultimately resolved through negotiations, including Afghanistan, Kashmir should
be no different,” Sarwar Khan added. Dr. Amerjit Singh, President,
Khalistan Affairs Center said, ‘India’s Modi led regime is based on RSS
ideology which is inspired by Nazi ideology of Hitler’s Party. Sikhs, Muslims,
Christians & Dalits are being subjected to worst kind of persecution. UN
should intervene & implement UN Security Council Resolutions on Jammu &
Kashmir. Sikh Nation is also struggling to free itself from Indian yolk &
establish an independent Sovereign Nation of Khalistan. Dr.
Atif Nazir said that ICNA/Council for Social Justice strives to systematically
facilitate assertive Muslim involvement in the field of human struggle for the
rights of the poor and oppressed in the United States and across the globe. He
said that ICNA/CSJ initiated various campaigns in last few years for the
oppressed people of Kashmir, like, “India end the communication
blockade and the curfew on Kashmir,” “India end the
occupation of Kashmir” “India grant aazadi (freedom) to Kashmir,”Ejaz
Sabir, Esq. said, “The Indian establishment has lost its moral and political
grip to establish the writ of State. It is evident from Indian commandos
burglarizing the home of the Late Syed Ali Shah Gilani and taking away his dead
body, kicking, punching, and leaving his wife bleeding. Ejaz Sabir reiterated
that the international community, especially the UN must take note that Mr.
Modi is following up a fascist agenda of a fascist organization, RSS When the UN failed to enforce or adjudicate
its own oldest resolutions number, (47, 122, 123, and 126) then how can the UN
talk about world peace. It's like one fails to learn the basic alphabet but
stands up to present a thesis. UN must enforce its resolutions. Ghazala Habib,
President, Friends of Kashmir, International from Texas said, “We
demand the implementation of the United Nations resolution on Kashmir so that
the people of Kashmir can exercise their right to self-determination. The world
must intervene and stop the extreme human rights violations being committed by
Indian army against innocent people of Kashmir. We also demand unconditional
release of all political prisoners in Kashmir. Saleem Qadri,
representative of Masarat Alam said that Kashmir issue needs to be
resolved as soon as possible for the sake of international peace and security. He
emphasized that the people of Kashmir have instilled confidence in the
leadership of Masarat Alam who have been wrongfully jailed for over 27 years.
But Masarat Alam has remained determined in seeking a peaceful resolution of Kashmir.
Sardar Niaz Khan, President JKPP said, “We demand the UN to
pressurize Narandra Modi to stop the atrocities committed by Indian occupation
army in Kashmir and allow the children to go to school and have the citizens of
Kashmir acquire the necessities of life. We also demand the UN to implement the
18 UN resolutions that were put forth 74 years ago. Amjad
Nawaz, PTI leader said that whole Pakistani nation is standing with
the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir
and Kashmir till the day of their independence. Khalid
Awan, President, People’s Party, USA said, Fascist Modi government
is committing genocide of Kashmiris and the Indian army is fabricating stories
of oppression and barbarism and the civilized world does not utter a word of
condemnation. The nation of Kashmir has proved that Indian barbarism cannot
kill their desire for right to self-determination. Sardar
Imtiaz Khan (New Jersey) said, “We ask the people of the world to stand up and
speak up for the freedom of Kashmir. Our appeal to Biden Administration is to
seriously engage India, Pakistan, and legitimate representatives of Kashmir in
a results-oriented peaceful resolution of this most serious conflict of the
world that is Kashmir. Sardar Taj Khan said that the atrocities committed on the
peace-loving people of Kashmir are continuing unabated. Thousands of women have
been gang raped, not to talk of mass graves and children who been blinded by
pellet gun wounds. The silence of the world powers cannot be explained. Dr.
Bena Akram Khan expressed her unconditional moral support to the people of
Kashmir for a just and peaceful struggle. She said that she as a physician
would like to see a humane resolution of all international conflicts including
that of Jammu & Kashmir. She added that the killings of innocent civilians
in Indian occupied Kashmir must shake the conscience of all peace-loving
people. Sardar Zulfiqar Roshan Khan said that the only way the world
powers can bring peace to the region of South Asia is by initiating a peaceful
dialogue that will lead to the resolution of Kashmir. And that bilateral talks
between the two nations have never taken off and direct participation of
Kashmiri leadership is needed. Raja Mukhtar emphasized that there is
absolutely no doubt that Modi administration is not only dominated but also
controlled by fascist ideology of RSS. It needs to be exposed before the world
community. He said that despite all these atrocities committed on the innocent
people of Kashmir, the people of Kashmir have never resigned to the military
occupation of India. Amna Habib said that the people of Kashmir have suffered
long and needlessly because of the endless brutalities committed by Indian army
in Kashmir. The people of my homeland demand nothing but peace – peace for
Kashmir and peace for the region. Ms. Tayyiba Khan emphasized that the
brutalities of Indian government cannot and should not go unnoticed. It is the
responsibility of the Kashmiri diaspora to be the voice of voiceless people in
the corridors of powers all over the world. Sardar Shoaib Khan said that it was
the duty of all peace-loving people of the world to support the people of
Kashmir who are struggling for their right to self-determination. Our aim is to
draw the attention of the United States to the situation in Kashmir and help
stop human right violations which have been reported by all major international
NGO’s including UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. Raja
Razzak appealed to the international community to use its diplomatic, moral and
economic leverage with India to fulfill
its commitment of the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and
Kashmir according to the United Nations Security Council resolutions of 1948
and 1949. Sardar Zarif Khan said “The people of Jammu & Kashmir have
not forgotten the pledges made at the United Nations. Instead, pressure from
the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination has grown.
Each time Kashmiris have renewed their demands, Indian army has answered with
renewed repression. These acts of repression have now turned into a systematic
‘reign of terror’ in the Vale of Kashmir, and it must end and end now.” Sardar
Haleem Khan, Emcee of the event and the President of JKLF, USA said that the
people of Kashmir have made it clear that the final solution of the Kashmir
disputes is not possible without the participation of the Kashmiri leadership
in the future negotiations. He appealed to the world leaders to persuade India
to release all political prisoners, including Mohammad Yasin Malik who is facing
a life and death situation in notorious Tihar Jail of New Delhi, India. He is
suffering from multiple ailments and his health was deteriorating with each
passing day in the solitary cell of the jail. Others who spoke
included: Shams Zaman; Naseem Gilgati; Mahmood Akbar; Zahid Khan; Irfan
Tasadduq; Shafiq Shah; Sardar Aftab Roshan Khan; Ms. Amna Habib; Choudahry
Shaban; Ms. Farida Khan, PPP; Ms. Saima Jafri; Naheed Bhatti; Azra Dar; Iram
Malik; Iram Javed; Ms. Shamim; Safoora Bibi; Neelam kaur; Begum Sattar;
Aurungzab; Aslam Dhallo; Sagheer Khan; Daud Maqsood; Zafar The
protest lasted for over four hours, and protestors dispersed after making
prayers for martyrs of the world, including Kashmir.
2
Four youth martyred ;
Sep 29 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred four more Kashmiri youth in
Baramulla district The youth were killed by the troops during a violent
continued cordon and search operation in Gohalanf Uri area of the district.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/28/indian-troops-martyr-four-more-youth-in-baramulla.html
3
Qatar Boycott of Indian goods; Sep 29 2021; After over a year, an Indian embassy in the Gulf again
issued a warning about “false propaganda” against India after an Arabic Twitter
hashtag trended calling for a boycott of Indian products.The reason for the
twin tweets seemingly was one of the top Twitter trends in Qatar. Translated
from Arabic, it meant “Boycott Indian products”.In April 2020, a number of
Indian missions in the Gulf had to also post on social media urging the Indian
community to remain vigilant against attempts to sow religious divisions. There
had been a social media backlash after some prominent Arab Twitteratis
highlighted Islamophobic posts by a couple of Indians based in the Gulf.
Screenshots of an older tweet of a BJP member of parliament were also
circulated The latest Twitter trend was largely related to the shooting by Assam
police firing during an eviction drive in Darrang,
which led to the death of at least one person. The video of the shooting had
gone viral. At the time of Indian embassy in Qatar posting the tweet, the hashtag,
“#مقاطعه_المنتجات_الهنديه” was
at number 2 on Tuesday night. It remains in the top five of Twitter trends in
the Gulf state on Wednesday. Most of the posts with the trend claimed that the
Indian government has been persecuting Indian Muslims and called for a boycott
of products from Indian companies. https://thewire.in/government/false-propaganda-indian-embassy-in-qatar-after-boycott-indian-products-trend-on-twitter
4
Women in Kashmir; Oct
1 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops are
deliberately targeting the Kashmiri women to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing
struggle for securing freedom from India’s illegal occupation of their soil. An
analytical report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said Kashmiri women
are the worst victims of Indian state terrorism in IIOJK and they have faced
harassment, abuse and sexual violence at the hands of Indian forces for the
last over seven decades particularly since 1989 when the Kashmiris intensified
their freedom struggle. The report pointed out that the Kashmiri women are
raped, dragged out and sometimes beaten mercilessly by the troops especially
during cordon and search operations in the occupied territory. It cited the
recent incident in which Indian Army personnel assaulted a family during a CASO
in Tral area of Pulwama. The troops broke into Seer Jageer village in Tral and
ruthlessly beat up members of a family including woman on Monday night The
report said that Indian forces are using rape as a tool to humiliate the
Kashmiris and intimidate them into submission. It said that the forces’
personnel have raped 11,246 women since January 1989 till date in IIOJK and
Kunanposhpora mass rape and Shopian double rape and murder case are glaring
examples of barbarity of Indian forces in the occupied territory. Indian troops
had molested around 100 women during a siege and search operation in
Kunanposhpora area of Kupwara district on the night of 23 February 1991. Indian
men in uniform abducted two women Aasiya and Neelofar on 29 May 2009 in
Shopian, raped and subsequently killed them in custody. Their bodies were found
in a shallow stream in the town, next morning. The report said that Indian
troops and police personnel are enjoying complete impunity for their brutal
actions as not a single soldier or policeman has been punished for sexual
abuses of Kashmiri women. It said that Indian’s illegal occupation on Jammu and
Kashmir is the main cause of victimization of women in IIOJK. It added that the
world community must hold India accountable for its atrocities especially for
using rape as a weapon of war in IIOJK.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/30/india-targeting-women-to-suppress-kashmiris-freedom-struggle.html
5
Youth
martyred; Oct 1 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,
Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred a Kashmiri youth
in Shopian district.. According to Kashmir Media Service, the youth was killed
ny troops during cordon operation in Rakhama area of district.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/10/01/indian-troops-martyr-a-youth-in-shopian.html
6
Arab Protest; Oct 2 2021; People across
Middle Eastern countries have started a campaign on social media to boycott
Indian products to protest against the Assam police’s brutality against Muslims
during an eviction drive. The incident drew wide condemnation after the video
of the police shooting a Muslim man went viral. The boycott of Indian products
on social media in the Arab world is currently in full swing. The widely
circulated video also shows an Assam government photographer repeatedly
stomping on a dead man during the eviction drive. The horrific video has
triggered a backlash in the Gulf countries On September 30, Middle East
Monitor, a portal focused on reporting from the region, revealed that members of the Kuwait
National Assembly had condemned “the atrocities
committed by the Indian authorities and Hindu extremist groups against the
Muslim community”. Kuwait’s National Assembly members issued a joint statement
condemning the attacks on Muslims in India. “The lawmakers said in a joint
statement that in the wake of the wave of violence and discrimination committed
against Indian Muslims, including killing, displacement and burning, the
lawmakers stand in solidarity with Muslims in India. They called on
international, humanitarian, human rights and Islamic organisations to
immediately work to stop the Indian authorities’ actions and restore security
to Indian Muslims,” Middle East Monitor reported. Kuwaiti member of Parliament
Shuaib Al-Muwaizri called for a boycott of Indian goods. Kuwaiti news outlet Sabr
News on September 29, quoted Al-Muwaizri as saying, “The Islamic World
Organization, the leaders of Islamic countries, the leaders of the Gulf
Cooperation Council, the United Nations, where are you about the heinous crimes
committed by the Indian government against Muslims, men, women and children?
Boycotting India and its products is a legal duty.” Oman’s Grand Mufti Sheikh
Ahmed Al Khalili, one of the most influential clerics in the country, had
tweeted on September 28, about violence against Muslims in India. He claimed
the violence in India was “a blatant aggression against Muslim citizens at the
hands of extremist groups—supported by official bodies—it hurts everyone with a
conscience.”Sheikh Ahmed Al Khalili said, “I appeal—in the name of humanity—to
all peace-loving countries to intervene to stop this aggression, and I also
appeal to the Ummah as a whole to stand united in this matter.” The same day,
the Grand Mufti of Oman, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hamad Al-Khalili, also tweeted a post
in Arabic from his official handle, seeking international intervention. In such
a situation, the hashtag ‘India kills Muslims’ has been trending in Arab
countries in which India has been accused of genocide. In these trends, many
people expressed their support for the displaced families and condemned the
treatment meted out to them by the authorities. Khaled Beydoun, author and
researcher of the book Islamophobia, described it as “state-sponsored
Islamophobia” and “Hindutva violence”. Former director of Islamic Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (IESCO), A. Altwaijri, tweeted that the
Narendra Modi’s “Hindu Government” is abusing and persecuting Muslims “within
the framework of a systematic policy and in light of international silence and
Islamic inaction.” Abdul Rahman Al-Nassarm who has over 3,18,000 followers on
Twitter tweeted the viral video of violence at Darrang and said, “There are
more than 3million Hindus in the Gulf, they bring tens of billions of dollars
to India, and we treat them with respect, so why are our brothers in India
being killed just because they are Muslims?” Al-Mutairi, who has over 65,000
followers on Twitter, also said that Islamic countries should come together to
take action against India. He said, “The frequent news about what is happening
to Muslims in India require action from all countries in the Islamic world and
everyone who claims to support human rights.” Calls for boycott of Indian
products are being made by others as well. Social media is up in arms with the
boycott campaign. The campaign under the hashtags of (
#IndianMuslimsUnderAttack, #الهند_تقتل_المسلمين, #مقاطعه_المنتجات_الهنديه, #مقاطعه_المنتجات_الهنديه عمان) is gearing momentum among
Arabs and all Middle Eastern countries. https://www.siasat.com/assam-police-brutality-gulf-calls-for-boycott-of-indian-products-over-anti-muslim-violence-2200463/
7
Media restricts
Kashmiri voices; Oct 2 2021;“Companies like Twitter and
Facebook are platforms for people to speak out and make themselves heard, not
just to those in power but also to one another,” said Seshu, who is based in
Mumbai In SWK’s online poll with 32,000
followers about the experience of censorship, the report says, it received a
response from 311 followers in which 62 percent of respondents said they had
experienced some kind of censorship on the three platforms of Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram. The document says: “Corporations are siding with India’s
suppression of Kashmiri digital rights, including the government’s blockade of
internet and telecommunications access in the region, as well as its
weaponisation of the law and policy to curb the expression of Kashmiri
political aspirations in the digital space.” In its six months of
research, including surveys and interviews with people based in and outside
Kashmir, the group found that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are censoring and
crippling their online spaces of expression. India, which has a vast
internet market of nearly 700 million users, announced strict rules to regulate
content on social media earlier this “…
users’ accounts were disabled, suspended and permanently deleted. Users
reported their account privileges were restricted or account content was
removed. Users also say platforms offered dishonest technical reasons for the
censorship of their accounts,” the report said. It said the majority of
Kashmiri users felt the platforms did not redress the censorship issues they
were facing in an effective and timely manner. In October 2019, two
months after the scrapping of Kashmir’s special status by the Indian
authorities, when the region was under a crippling digital and military
lockdown, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a global media watchdog,
revealed in a report that “hundreds of thousands of tweets blocked in India
since August 2017” had focused on Kashmir. The report said the vast
majority of the withheld accounts were from the group that referenced Kashmir,
hosting more than 920,000 tweets between them. The Twitter transparency
report also revealed that more accounts were withheld in India in the second
half of 2018 than in the rest of the world combined. The regional government
has frequently ordered internet shutdowns on the ground it is being used to
incite protests. In recent years, many users have been booked, summoned and
questioned over their social media content.Last year, two Kashmiri journalists,
Masarat Zahra and Gowhar Geelani, were booked under the anti-terror law for
their social media posts. The police claimed their posts were “prejudicial to
the national integrity, sovereignty and security of India”.India, which has a
vast internet market of nearly 700 million users, announced strict rules to
regulate content on social media earlier this year. Under the new rules, social
media companies are under a legal obligation to remove posts and share
information on the origin of content at the request of the government. The
rules, called the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, have
sparked criticism from digital rights activists and raised concerns about the
freedom of speech in the country. Mir
Suhail, a Kashmiri artist based in New York who is also quoted in the SWK
report, has accused the social media corporations of restricting his social
media reach. “In early 2020, on an almost daily basis, I started getting
notifications that my Instagram posts were being removed for hate speech or
symbols,” Suhail, who has about 50,000 followers on Instagram, was quoted as
saying in the report. “The same thing was happening on Twitter. I was drawing
on different subjects related to the experiences of marginalised communities in
India about the experiences of Indian Muslims, the new citizenship laws and on
Kashmir,” he said. “To this day, there is a sensitivity filter on my Twitter
account for each and everything I post, even if it is something entirely
unremarkable. I share my work on these platforms and in doing so trust them to
be ethical in how they handle it.”
8
UN on Kashmir;
October 2): The United Nations has strongly reacted to India’s recent
rejection of the UN Human Rights chief, Michelle Bachelet’s remarks wherein she
voiced her continued concern over the situation in Indian illegally occupied
Jammu and Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, inaugurating the 48th session of the UN
Human Rights Council on September 13 said, “Indian authorities’ restrictions on
public assembly, and frequent temporary communication blackouts, continue in
Jammu and Kashmir, while hundreds of people remain in detention for exercising
their right to the freedom of expression, and journalists face ever-growing
pressure.” Ongoing use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act throughout
India is worrying, with Jammu and Kashmir having among the highest number of
cases in the country,” the UN rights chief said in the section on the disputed
territory, adding that “such restrictive measures can result in human rights
violations and foster further tensions and discontent.” India had stated that
Michelle Bachelet’s comments on the situation in IIOJK are “unwarranted and do
not reflect the ground reality.” Craig Mokhiber, director of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights’ New York office, on Thursday said, “We will
never side with India or Pakistan on Kashmir. But our job is to protect the
vulnerable and take the perspective of the victim.”He maintained that the UN
Charter internationalized the human rights for all of the members of the UN and
it is the responsibility of the governments to ensure freedom from fear for the
people. Kashmir is a difficult issue, he said, because of tensions between
India and Pakistan, as well as the roles that both countries play in the
international community. Mokhiber said the UN Human Right Office “will always
protect the identity of vulnerable witnesses and victims everywhere”. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/10/01/un-reacts-to-rejection-of-rights-chiefs-comments-by-india.html
9
HR Violations
|
(From Jan 1989 till Sep 30,
2021) |
|
|
Total Killings * |
95,875 |
|
Custodial Killings |
7,195 |
|
Arrested |
162,262 |
|
Arson (Houses, Shops, etc.) |
110,433 |
|
Women widowed |
22,934 |
|
Children orphaned |
107,842 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
11,246 |
|
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody |
|
|
September-21 |
|
|
Total Killings * |
18 |
|
Custodial Killings |
3 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
60 |
|
Pellet Injured : |
|
|
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged |
|
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
|
|
Civilian arrested |
202 |
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed |
9 |
|
Women Widowed |
2 |
|
Children Orphaned |
3 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
0 |
|
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody |
|
|
(Jan
2020 – Sep 21) |
|
|
Total Killings * |
400 |
|
Custodial Killings |
58 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
1,162 |
|
Total pellet Injured |
185 |
|
Persons who lose eyesight |
0 |
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
12 |
|
Civilian arrested |
3,815 |
|
Arson (Houses etc) |
974 |
|
Women Widowed |
30 |
|
Children Orphaned |
57 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
71 |
|
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody |
|
|
From
Aug 5, 2019 |
|
|
Total Killings * |
442 |
|
Custodial Killings |
67 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
2,136 |
|
Total pellet Injured |
584 |
|
Persons who lost eyesight |
2 |
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
24 |
|
Civilian arrested |
15,324 |
|
Arson (Houses etc) |
1,040 |
|
Women Widowed |
26 |
|
Children Orphaned |
67 |
|
Women disgraced / Molested |
116 |
|
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody |
|
|
(From
July 8, 2016) |
|
|
Total Killings * |
1,483 |
|
Custodial Killings |
126 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
29,843 |
|
Inured by pellets |
11,400 |
|
Eye-sight damaged/ at the verge of blindness |
2,000 |
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
|
|
Arrested |
27,207 |
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed |
4,355 |
|
Women Widowed |
125 |
|
Children Orphaned |
272 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
1,053 |
Human rights Kashmir
media Service
Kashmir
Update 147: Week , Sep 20, 2021 to Sep,26,2021
1
Women and Kashmir:
Sep., 20, 2021: Indian forces sexually assaulted more than 11,245 women in
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) during the past three
decades as they use harassment and molestation as a weapon of war in the
territory. A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said Indian
forces’ aggression in the occupied territory has left 22,923 women widowed
since January 1989 till date. It revealed that nearly 100 women were raped by
brutal Indian troops in IIOJK’s Kunan and Poshpora villages on February 23, 1991.
Rape is sanctioned as a matter of official policy in the occupied territory, it
added. The report said, India is deliberately targeting Kashmiri women to
humiliate and demoralize the Kashmiris and is using rape as a war tactic to
create fear among in the territory.It said, Kashmiris will never forget the
horrific incidents of mass rape in Kunan-Poshpora and other villages in IIOJK.
Rights’ bodies around the globe have documented many cases of rape and gang
rape by Indian forces in the territory and despite evidence, not a single
Indian soldier has been punished for committing rape. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/19/indian-forces-sexually-assaulted-over-11245-women-in-iiojk-in-3-decades.html
2
Turkey on
Kashmir at UN: Sep., 21, 2021: The people of Kashmir
thank President Erdogan for the reference to Kashmir: Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai,
Secretary General, Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum expressed his
deep appreciation for the reference Honorable Recep Tayyib Erdogan, President
of Turkey made to Kashmir during his address to the United Nations General
Assembly on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. President Erdogan articulated his
consistent policy towards Kashmir by repeating, “We maintain our stance in
favour of solving the ongoing problem in Kashmir for 74 years, through dialogue
between the parties and within the framework of relevant United Nations
resolutions.” These words have given the people of Kashmir encouragement. The
President has underscored the need for peace in Kashmir as elsewhere. And for
this, President has the sincere thanks of the people of Kashmir. The significance
of the message of President Erdogan is aimed at promotion of a dialogue among
all parties to the dispute. This is the only means of achieving a genuine and
lasting peace in this volatile conflict. As we all know that the
people of Kashmir have suffered long and needlessly because of this brutal
conflict. They demand and they deserve peace. The people of Kashmir also
share the assessment of President Erdogan that “Our General Assembly needs to
be strengthened so that the international community can contribute more
effectively to the solution of global issues.” It is important because the
stakes are higher today than in the past. As we all observe very well that when
weapons fall into the hands of irresponsible persons – both state and non-state
actors – even a small conflict can threaten to take on deadly proportions. Let
us hope it is not going to happen
3
EU Protest; Sep 24
2021; A one-day protest camp was organized by Kashmir Council Europe
(KC-EU) in front of European External Action Service in Brussels on Thursday to
highlight the Indian brutalities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. People from
different walks of life visited the camp and were briefed about severe
situation of human rights in Kashmir. At the end of the camp, a delegation led
by Chairman of Kashmir Council Europe Ali Raza Syed met representatives of EU
External Action Service for South Asian Affairs. The delegation updated the
EU’s officials concerning latest situation in occupied Kashmir and handed over
a letter to them in the context. The memorandum urged the EU’s authorities to
stop human rights violations and extra judicial killings in occupied Kashmir.
EU should use its influence in order to release Kashmiri prisoners, end black
laws in occupied Kashmir and stop India from changing demography of Jammu and
Kashmir, the memo added. Chairman of International Forum for Justice and Huma
Rights of Jammu and Kashmir Mohammed Ahsan Untoo from Srinagar also addressed
the participants of the camp. Informing about latest situation in the valley,
he said, authorities started to terminate people who participate in the protest
and their relatives. He asked United Nation to take serious notice of situation
of human rights in occupied Kashmir. The protest held two days before the
Indian PM Narendra Modi’s address to the 76th Session of UN General Assembly
(UNGA), which is scheduled to be held on September 25 in New York. Chair of
KC-EU said, we want to aware the world about Indian brutalities in occupied
Kashmir and Indian propaganda in favour of its so-called claim of largest
democracy prior to Indian PM’s address to the United Nation. Ali Raza Syed
added, atrocities committed by the Indian forces against the oppressed
Kashmiris is rapidly going and India is attempting to change demographic
situation of Jammu and Kashmir as New Delhi has altered domicile rules in the
disputed territory. Indian aim of such action is to change the majority to
minority in the Jammu and Kashmir. He urged EU to pressurize India to stop
violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir, prevent genocide of Kashmiris,
release all prisoners, withdraw its forces from Jammu and Kashmir and allow all
international human rights organizations to visit occupied Kashmir. EU should
also force India to implement UN resolutions about Kashmir issue and other
international agreements concerning human rights in Jammu and Kashmir. Ali Raza
Syed condemned the recent ban on travel of Kashmiri intellectuals and
journalist from occupied Kashmir to other parts of the world and asked for
immediate withdrawal of this embargo. He asked International community
including UN and EU to play their role for a peaceful resolution of Kashmir
issue through a process participated by the Kashmiri leadership. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/23/protest-in-brussels-against-indian-brutalities-in-iiojk.html
4
UK Parliament
debate: Sep., 24, 2021: James Daly
MP speaking at the Kashmir human rights debate in Parliament today; 23rd
September 2021.”The Indian army, illegally occupying Kashmir, carry (carries)
out tortures, rapes and mass killings. Kashmiri political prisoners are jailed
without trial. India are (is) acting with impunity. We as an international
community tolerate this. How can we look at ourselves in the mirror and allow
it to happen? The United Nations need to step up to the plate! The UK must play
its part!?
5
Large grazing area lost to growing Chinese presence
in eastern Ladakh; Sep 24 2021;
Villagers have lost access to a vast grazing area near Gogra in eastern Ladakh
owing to growing Chinese presence in the area, Konchok Stanzin, a councillor
from Chushul has claimed. Gogra is one of
the several friction points in eastern Ladakh where Indian and Chinese troops
have been engaged in a stand-off since April-May 2020. The troops have
disengaged from the north and south banks of the Pangong Tso and Gogra sector,
creating “no zones” in areas along the undemarcated Line of Actual Control
(LAC) that was regularly patrolled by Indian troops pre-April 2020. Stanzin told The Hindu that the Army has
stopped the villagers’ access to the Kiu La pass that was till a few years ago
frequented by the villagers of Lukung, Phobrang and Yourgo for cattle-grazing.
“A group of villagers marched to the Kiu La pass a
few days ago but they were denied access by the Army. There used to be a bunker
on the upper reaches, but it is no longer there. We fear that the Chinese are
nibbling away at our territory. This was never a disputed area,” Stanzin said.
He added that the area does not have a phone or
Internet connectivity and the villagers had decided to go there on their own
initiative. Since April 2020, Chinese troops have blocked Indian troops from
reaching at least 10 patrolling points (PPs) in eastern Ladakh — running from
Depsang plains in the north to the Pangong Tso lake in the south. In all, there
are more than 65 PPs from the base of the Karakoram to Chumar. Stanzin said that China has constructed permanent
structures and roads close to the LAC while the Indian side could only boast of
a few roads. “There is no mobile connectivity in border areas and despite
repeated pleas, the administration has not acted. It is frustrating. They fix
the phone lines for a few hours whenever a VIP arrives here. It’s back to
square one once they leave,” he said. On
April 2, the Ministry of Defence in a communication to Stanzin said, “Due to
the present operational situation in Ladakh, grazers have been asked to
restrict their cattle movements”. The Hindu
6
Youth martyred; Sep
24 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred three more Kashmiri youth in
Baramulla district, raising the toll to four in a single day, today.Three youth
were killed by the troops in a fake encounter in Uri area of the district. The
violent operation was launched by the troops on September 18 in the area. Earlier,
the troops martyred a youth in Chitragam area of Shopian district.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/23/indian-troops-martyr-2-kashmiri-youth-in-uri-baramullah.html
7
Biden
to Modi; Sep 25 2021; In his first meeting with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden spoke about the need for non-violence,
tolerance and diversity in current times, even as he said that both countries
are destined to be “stronger, closer and tighter”. Biden’s comment marks the
second time the US has spoken to Modi in public about the importance of
democracy in as many days. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said “it is
imperative that we defend democratic principles and institutions within our
respective countries”. These remarks come against the backdrop of growing
concerns abroad over the rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric in India and curbs on
dissent. “Kamala Harris presses India’s Modi gently on human rights in historic
meeting,” the Los Angeles
Times reported in its headline. https://thewire.in/diplomacy/biden-to-modi-gandhis-message-of-tolerance-respect-diversity-needed-more-than-ever
8
HRs Organations on India in Kashmir and India; Sep 25 2021; As Indian Prime Minister
is set to address the United Nations
General Assembly
(UNGA) forum in New
York on September 25, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the
international community to "spotlight the human rights abuses" of his
government.
On September
22, the U.S. congressional briefing on 'Religious freedom in India' by the Human Rights Watch revealed an appalling record of
the human rights violations by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP). The testimony of John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director put forward "scathing
criticism" of the Indian government's assault on religious minorities inIndia. The U.S. congressmen were briefed that the attacks against
religious minorities in India,
especially Muslims,
had increased especially since the BJP came to power in 2014. The testimony
also documented the Indian laws and policies to discriminate against religious
minorities, the bias against Muslims in the Indian justice system, ongoing clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP's government's empowering of vigilantes and crackdown on civil society
for raising these issues. It was highlighted that the BJP leaders and
affiliated groups had long stigmatized minority communities as a "threat to national security and to
the Hindu way of life", and making hate-filled remarks against Muslims around state and national elections. The Modi government has adopted laws and policies that systematically
discriminate against Muslims and other minorities.
9
This divisive political discourse
has served to normalize violence against minorities, especially Muslims, in India. The prejudices embedded in the government have infiltrated independent institutions, such as the police, empowering nationalist groups to threaten, harass, and attack religious minorities with impunity.
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/modis-rights-abuses-in-spotlight-ahead-of-un-1359060.html
10
UK on Kashmir; Sep 26
2021; The Members of British Parliament have called on their government
to use its weight to help resolve the decades old Kashmir dispute, and that the
entry of the Indian High Commissioner in the parliament be barred. In a debate
on a motion moved by the MPs from the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG)
on Kashmir in the House of Commons on Thursday, the parliamentarians asked the
UK government to use its influence to ensure investigation of the terrible
situation. “The Pakistani government allowed us unfettered access. We used our
meetings to ask pointed questions related to human rights issues highlighted in
United Nations reports,” she said. “Kashmiris must be at the heart of a
trilateral peace building process.” Robbie Moore, the Conservative MP for Keighley,
said, “we can use our influence to ensure that this terrible situation is
investigated and that our government uses its weight and its influence to put
pressure to seek a solution.” In a passionate speech, Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP
for Bolton South East, outlined the human rights abuses faced by Kashmiris,
saying, “In the last two years, human rights groups have documented the
everyday reality of this governance for Kashmiris. Mass arrests and raids,
torture, the suppression of free assembly, the crushing of the Kashmiri press,
the decimation of the local economy, the crippling of the education system, the
incarceration of thousands of people.” Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford
East, said he expected the UK government to suggest that disputes in the region
should be resolved bilaterally and also stand up for the rights of oppressed
people. In a passionate speech, which was critical of India and its actions in
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Imran Hussain said the UK and other countries
needed to speak up and end their silence. He told the House of Commons: “For
over 70 years, the sons and daughters of Kashmir have been subjected to
persecution, oppression, injustice in the most brutal manner. For over 70
years, they have been butchered, maimed and killed at the hands of an occupying
Indian military operating under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act.”
Labour MP Tahir Ali called for the Indian high commissioner to the UK to be
barred from Parliament because of the military occupation of Kashmir. The
Birmingham Hall Green MP said action should be taken by the UK because the
situation in Kashmir is “another example of the mess left by the British
government in 1947”. “British parliamentarians, Indian politicians sympathetic
to the Kashmiris, international observers are all denied access to the
Indian-occupied Kashmir Several MPs mentioned that Pakistan’s High Commissioner
Moazzam Ahmad Khan had sent them a dossier on human rights abuses in IIOJK
which was an eye-opener. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/25/mps-call-for-uk-influence-to-resolve-kashmir-dispute-ban-indian-envoys-parliament-entry.html
11 Kashmir; Sep 26 2021; "India
remains in occupation of an internationally recognised disputed territory whose
final disposition needs to be decided in accordance with the democratic
principle of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, as provided for
under numerous resolutions of the Security Council," she said. https://youtu.be/WPX2Gv48rDU?t=6
https://www.dawn.com/news/1648371/pakistan-hits-back-at-indian-claims-at-unga-reiterates-kashmir-not-internal-matter
Kashmir Update 146: Week , Sep 13, 2021 to Sep,18,2021
1
HRs; Sep 13 2021;
Pakistan has released a comprehensive dossier, exposing the scale of war
crimes, human rights violations, fake encounters, false flag operations and use
of rape as war tool by the Indian occupation forces in Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Giving detail of the Indian atrocities, compiled in
the 131-paged dossier, Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, the
Hindutva-inspired BJP regime in India has unleashed a series of atrocities
against the people in occupied territory. He said communication blockade in
IIOJK continues by design to hamper international media and observers from
reporting the heinous crimes being committed by the Indian occupation forces.
He said the dossier contains three chapters and first one carries detail of war
crimes and genocidal acts of the Indian troops; the second one exposes false
flag operations in IIOJK to suppress the indigenous freedom movement while the
last chapter tells that how human rights law are being openly being violated by
India https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/12/pakistan-presents-another-dossier-exposing-indian-war-crimes-in-iiojk.html
2
Dossier on HRs violations in Indian Occupied
Kashmir; Sep 13 2021; https://mofa.gov.pk/.../2021/09/IIOJK_HRV_Dossier_2021.pdf
3
Dossier; Sep 14 2021; Foreign Minister
said Pakistan had completed its dossier on the Indian forces’
human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The 131-page dossier contains reports of 32 human rights watchdogs
and 14 reports by Pakistan in an apparent bid to ensure impartiality, the
minister told reporters. The document also underscored how the Indian
government had linked Kashmir's legitimate struggle for independence to
terrorism, he added. The dossier covers accounts of 3,432 cases of war crimes
in which 1,178 troops have been found to be involved, including one major
general, four inspectors general, seven deputy inspectors-general, five
brigadiers, 31 colonels and 188 majors and captains. The minister also demanded
that the UN record the names of individuals and units involved in these war
crimes and impose sanctions on them. The dossier read that “human rights
violations have reached epic proportions” after the Narendra Modi-led BJP came
to power. Since 1989, over 96,000 extra-judicial killings, around 162,000 cases
of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries were
recorded. Moreover, 11,250 women were raped, around 23,000 widowed and over
108,000 children orphaned. The document also provided details of the 8,652
unmarked mass graves that have been identified in 89 villages of IIOJK. Another key factor highlighted by Pakistan
was the suspected use of chemical weapons by India against Kashmiris. It was
pointed out that the bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by the Indian troops
were completely beyond recognition. The document read that the use of chemical
weapons was in complete contravention to the ‘Chemical Weapons Convention’ and
that it necessitated “an impartial international investigation”. The dossier
further maintained that Kashmiris were also being used as human shields by
positioning women and children in the line of fire during encounters, making
them sleep at military camps, forcing them to dig minefields and tying youth to
military jeeps. As many as 16 Kashmiris,
including a nine-year-old, had been killed by Indian snipers. New Delhi has
also been violating the international ban on the use of cluster ammunition, it
stated. In July 2019, India deliberately targeted 14 villages along the Line of
Control with cluster ammunition that caused four deaths and 14 injuries. The
dossier also shared the GPS coordinates of five ISIS training camps. It said
one such camp was located in Gulmarg, three in Rajasthan and one in Uttarakhand.
“The latitudes and longitudes of these ISIS camps have been included in the
dossier,” the minister said. Pakistan also highlighted Indian attempts to
change the demographic structure of the IIOJK. It said contrary to the Geneva
Convention, after the introduction of the new ‘Domicile Law’ in March 2020,
India has already granted over 4.2 million domiciles (31.5% of the 13 million
population of the territory).The document pointed out that a delimitation
commission was constituted in March 2020 with the singular purpose to enhance
Hindu representation and likely installation of a Hindu chief minister.
Following the amendments in property laws, all Indians were now entitled to
purchase land in the disputed territory with the sole objective of converting
the proportion of the large Muslim population into a minority. The dossier
pointed out that six draconian laws – Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act;
Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Armed Forces (Jammu and
Kashmir) Special Powers Act, Jammu & Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act,
Prevention of Terrorism Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment
Act 2019 – empowered the Indian troops to declare anyone a “terrorist and
arbitrarily detain without any charge for a period of up to seven years”. The
report noted that Indian forces were subjecting Kashmiris to the worst kinds of
torture. “[A total of] 432 case studies revealed that Indian forces inflicted
torture as a tool of intimidation and coercion.” Since 2014, more than 30,000
people have faced 31 forms of torture, including water-boarding; forced
starvation, sleep deprivation and burning of bodies. The report also identified
239 torture cells across the occupied region – the majority of which have been
established in northern Kashmir with 65 camps in Baramula and 53 in Srinagar.
Of these 144 were controlled by the Indian Army, 52 by police, 19 by the Indian
Special Operations Group and 24 by other agencies.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2319862/govt-shares-dossier-on-war-crimes-in-iiojk
4
mass Graves; Sep 4 2021; According to reports of International People’s Tribunal on
Human Rights and Justice in Jammu and Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir State Human
Rights Commission revealed about existence of 8,652 unidentified mass graves in
89 villages of 6 districts of IIOJK. The discovery of such mass graves had also
generated apprehensions about the safety of thousands of disappeared Kashmiris
whose whereabouts had been still unknown. An investigative report during 2011
by IIOJK State Human Rights Commission (SHR) said that about 3,640 mass graves
were found in Uri, Baramula, Bandipora and Kupwara districts. The SHRC
confirmed about existence of 2,730 graves and recommended forensic examination
and DNA testing of these graves along with setting up of commission of inquiry,
but as usual none of these recommendations were implemented. While the International People’s Tribunal on
Human Rights and Justice in its report during 2009, documented existence of
5,643 unknown mass graves in 55 villages of district Baramulla, Kupwara and
Bandipora. Out of 5,643 graves, 140 graves contained two dead bodies and 23
graves had up to 17 bodies in each grave. Besides, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition
of Civil Society (JKCCS) and International Forum for Justice and Human Rights
J&K (IFJHRJK) also identified 18 places in district Baramulla and Uri
having 925 unnamed graves. Muhammad Yousaf Malik of Kichama village and Atta
Muhammad of Bimyar village, in district Baramulla, had confirmed burial of
430-450 unidentified bodies on the directions of IOFs.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/816233/mass-graves-in-iiojk-raises-concerns-over-fate-of-disappeared-kashmiris/
5 OIC on Kashmir; Sep 17 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and other Hurriyat organizations have welcomed the demand raised by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation through a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council to address the human rights violations committed by occupational forces in Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine.According to Kashmir Media Service, the statement was delivered by Pakistan’s Ambassador Khalil Hashmi on behalf of the OIC at UN in Geneva. The APHC and Hurriyat organizations in their statements issued in Srinagar called upon the UNHRC and OIC to send their teams to occupied Jammu and Kashmir to monitor the scale of war crimes endured by the people of Kashmir at the hands of brutal Indian forces in the territory. They also urged the UN to place sanctions on India for trampling the world body’s resolutions on Kashmir adding that India under Modi has become a Hindutva fascist regime, which if not reined in will endanger the peace of the whole world. Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League, Tehreek-e-Istiqlal and Jammu and Kashmir Social and Justice League demanded immediate release of thousands of Kashmiris including Hurriyat leaders and activists, young boys and journalists from Indian jails. The Kashmir Freedom Front welcomed the dossier issued by the Government of Pakistan on Indian brutalities in IIOJK. Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti, talking to media said that BJP is depriving people of even the little rights, left with them after abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Meanwhile, India’s National Crime Records Bureau in its annual report admitted that in 2020, as many as 287 cases under draconian law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were registered in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Besides Kashmir, the Modi-government registered a large number of cases under the draconian law and sedition charges, mostly against Muslims and farmers in Manipur, Jharkhand, Assam and Uttar Pradesh states for holding protests against the new citizenship law and agri laws, introduced by the Modi regime in 2019 and 2020. The official report by Indian government vindicates that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, was justified in voicing concern over the misuse of the draconian law, UAPA, by the Indian authorities to suppress the dissent particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. The sleuths of India’s Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted raids on the office and home of prominent human rights activist and former officer of Indian Administrative Service, Harsh Mander, in New Delhi. In Washington https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/16/unhrc-oic-asked-to-send-teams-to-monitor-rights-situation-in-iiojk.html
6
Fundamental
Misconceptions About Kashmir ;Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai; Sep 17 2021; 1.Kashmir
acceded to India on October 27, 1947. Wrong The Maharaja of Kashmir allegedly signed an
instrument of accession to India simultaneously with pleading for its military
intervention to prop up his toppling repressive regime on October 27, 1947. A
full-scale internal and indigenous revolt was on the verge of success at that
time. On that date, sovereignty had devolved on the people of Kashmir, and thus
the Maharaja was legally powerless to accede Kashmir to any country and thereby
extinguish its independence. Moreover, as British scholar Alistair Lamb has
convincingly demonstrated in “Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy, 1846-1990,” the
Instrument of Accession is probably as bogus as the ugly Protocols of the
Elders of Zion confected by the Russian Tzar's Ohkrana secret police. An
original of the document has never been produced by India or anyone else. This
understanding of the illegitimacy of what the Maharaja and India had done was inherent
in the accession parchment itself. Then Governor-General of India, Lord
Mountbatton, accepted Kashmir's accession to his nation contingent upon
approval by the people of Kashmir in a free and fair referendum.2. Kashmiri is the
issue of fundamentalism. Wrong. The term fundamentalism is quite inapplicable
to the Kashmiri society. Kashmir has remained the symbol of communal harmony
for centuries. It has a long tradition of moderation and non-violence. The
traditional hallmark of Kashmir has been religious pluralism, amity and an
aversion to the doctrinaire. Its culture cannot and does not generate extremism
or fundamentalism. Its four major
religious groups - Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism - live in
neighborhoods together; they work together; they socialize together; they
celebrate and mourn together; they are a model of religious harmony and
ecumenism. And their adherents have not been segregated into residential
ghettos. A person no less important than Mahatma Gandhi has eloquently
elucidated these sentiments in 1947, “While the rest of the country burns in
communal fire, I see a shining ‘Ray of Hope’ in Kashmir only.” 3. Kashmir is an
issue of terrorism. Wrong At many occasions, virtually all the citizenry of
Srinagar (Capitol city of Kashmir) – men, women and children – came out on the
streets to lodge a non-violent protest against the continuance of Indian
occupation. According to the Srinagar-based newspapers on many occasions in early 1990
more than one million Kashmiris demonstrated against India with 400 memoranda
sent to the United Nations to apprise it of the tragic and intolerable
situation in the Valley.“KASHMIR The Case for Freedom’ a book compiled by luminaries
like: Pankaj Mishra, Arundhati Roy, Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhatt, Angana P. Chatterji
wrote on page 8, “1 March 1990, more than half a million people march to the
offices of the UN Military Observer Group in Srinagar to demand the
implementation of UN resolutions.” Arundhati Roy wrote in her article, “Azadi:
The Only Thing Kashmiris Want” in 2011, “On 16 August, 2008, more than 300,000
people marched to Pampore, to the village of Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz,
who was shot down in cold blood five days earlier. Ms. Roy added: “On 18
August, 2008, an equal number gathered in Srinagar on the vast grounds of the
TRC (Tourist Reception Centre, not the Truth and Reconciliation Committee),
close to the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP), to submit a memorandum.” Reuters news agency reported on August 18,
2008, “Tens of thousands of Muslims marched peacefully past the United Nations
office in Kashmir on Monday, calling on the international body to intervene
over the disputed Himalayan region. Certainly, terrorists cannot compose the
entire populations of the major towns of Indian-Occupied Kashmir.
Unquestionably, half a million people cannot be called terrorist. And more
importantly, terrorists do not believe in submitting the memoranda to the
office of the United Nations as the people of Kashmir do. 4. Pakistan is in
violation of the United Nations resolutions since it did not withdraw its
troops from Kashmir as required under these resolutions. Wrong. Professor
Joseph Korbel who was the first Chairman of “United Nations Commission for
India and Pakistan” has responded to this question in his article, “Nehru, The
UN and Kashmir” published in ‘The New Leader’ on March 4, 1957. He writes,
“According to the Indian delegate, Pakistan prevented implementation of the
section of the UN Commission resolution dealing with a plebiscite by refusing
to carry out other part recommending demilitarization of Kashmir. This is not
true: Pakistan was not expected to withdraw her forces from Kashmir as long as
there was was no agreed-upon plan
for simultaneous Indian withdrawal.” 5. Kashmir is an integral part of
India. Wrong Under all United Nations
Security Council resolutions, agreed between India and Pakistan, negotiated by
the United Nations and endorsed by the Security Council, Kashmir does not
belong to any member state of the United Nations. If Kashmir does not belong to
any member state of the United Nations, then Indian claim that Kashmir is its
integral part does not stand ‘A lady asked me other day, ‘why Gorbachov would
not agree to the Lithuanian demand for independence from the Soviet Union.’ I
countered with the question: ‘Do you believe that Kashmir belongs to India?’
‘Yes, of course’ she said. ‘That is why?’ I said, ‘There are too many Russians
who wrongly believe that Lithuania belongs to the Soviet Union, just as you
believe that Kashmir belongs to India.’ Minoo Masani, Former Indian Ambassador
to Brazil, Dalit Voice, Bangalore, August 1, 1990 6. Third part mediation is an interference in
the internal affairs of India. Wrong. It is commonly accepted that such
objections are sophistry and that all members of the United Nations, by
subscribing to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
become co-responsible for the rights of citizens of all other subscribing
states. This is more applicable in the case of Kashmir which is internationally
recognized as a “disputed territory” and not as a part of India, and whose
future is to be determined by an impartially supervised plebiscite.7.
Abrogation of Article 370 & 35 A pave the way for the development of
Kashmir. Wrong Kashmir Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (KCCI) reported in August 2020 that Kashmir had suffered
economic losses worth $5.3 billion Indian rupees. Over100,000 people have
lost jobs since August 5, 2019. Khalid Shah wrote in ‘The Print’ on August 8,
2020, “Development (in Kashmir) is only visible in Twitter hashtags and shoddy
propaganda films. There is no flood of fresh investments.” New Delhi based “Observer
Research Foundation” reported on January 28, 2020, “The horticulture sector is
in distress, tourism is in shambles, and students are suffering because of the
ongoing internet blockade. It is for the first time in the past 70 years that
rural Kashmir is facing such a great degree of economic slowdown. The apples
industry in Kashmir, worth INR 80 billion which contributes eight percent of
J&K’s GDP, has been worst affected.” Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani has written
extensively on the subject. He says that as a constitutional democracy,
Government of India does not have any powers that it has exercised on August 5,
2019 and has continuously misled the international community that the steps
taken were necessary for the economic development. GOI does not need to resort
to these extreme, illegal and unlawful actions to pursue economic development
in the state, Dr. Gilani added. 8. Jammu & Kashmir Constituent Assembly
endorsed Kashmir’s accession to India. Wrong. The Constituent Assembly of Jammu
& Kashmir was convened without an election in the State. 73 out of 75
members of this Assembly were declared to have been elected unopposed. Secondly,
Indian delegate to the United Nations made a statement at the Security Council
that the Constituent Assembly would not ‘come in the way’ when the UN will hold
plebiscite under its auspices in the State. Thirdly, when in 1956, the
Constituent Assembly declared that Kashmir was the part of India, the Security
Council adopted resolution # 122 on March 24, 1957, clearly reaffirming, “the
affirmation in its resolution 91 (1951) and declares that the convening of a Constituent
Assembly as recommended by the General Council of the "All Jammu and
Kashmir National Conference" and any action that Assembly may have taken
or might attempt to take to determine the future shape and affiliation of
the entire State or any part thereof, or action by the parties concerned
in support of any such action by the Assembly, would not constitute a
disposition of the State in accordance with the above principle 9. Resolution of Kashmir will lead to
disintegration of India. Wrong. A fascinating answer was given to this question
by Jayaprakash Narayan, known in India as “People’s Leader & Second
Gandhi), “Few things have been said in the course of this controversy more
silly than this one. (Will not change in Kashmir’s status lead to
disintegration of India?). The assumption behind the argument is that the
states of India are held together by force and not by a sentiment of a common
nationality. It is an assumption that makes a mockery of the Indian nation and
a tyrant of the Indian state.” Lastly, I wish the world powers take a leaf out
of writings of Justice V. M. Tarkundee – referred to as “the Father of the
Civil liberties Movement in India” - who wrote in ‘Radical Humanist,’ New
Delhi, in March 1990. “The cause of the Kashmir debacle is the initial denial
of the right of self-determination and the subsequent anti-democratic policies
pursued by the Indian government…An early solution of the Kashmir problem will
be of great benefit to the people of both India and Pakistan. A grant of plebiscite to the people of the
Kashmir Valley is the obvious solution.”
7
HRW report;
Sep 18 2021; The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday accused the Indian authorities of
using politically motivated allegations of tax evasion and financial
irregularities to silence human rights activists, journalists, and other
critics of the government. In a statement released from New York, a day after
the Enforcement Directorate’s searches on the premises linked to social
activist Harsh Mander, the HRW said that this month, government financial
officials had conducted raids in Srinagar, Delhi and Mumbai on journalists’ homes,
media offices, an actor’s premises, and the home and office of a human rights
activist. “The raids are part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led national
government’s escalating crackdown on freedom of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly since coming to power in 2014. The authorities have brought
politically motivated criminal cases, including under broadly worded terrorism
and sedition laws, against activists, journalists, academics, students, and
others. They have also used foreign funding regulations and allegations of
financial misconduct to target outspoken groups,” it said. “The Indian
government’s raids appear intended to harass and intimidate critics, and
reflect a broader pattern of trying to silence all criticism,” said Meenakshi Ganguly,
South Asia Director at the HRW, adding, “these abuses weaken India’s core
democratic institutions and break down fundamental freedoms.” “Journalism
organisations, such as the Editors Guild and Press Club of India, have
repeatedly called for an end to harassment of independent media, saying that it
is a blatant attack on press freedom,” said the HRW. “The authorities have
repeatedly targeted Mander, who has been a vocal critic of the BJP government’s
discriminatory policies against religious minorities and works with victims of
communal violence. Delhi police, instead of taking action against BJP leaders
who incited communal violence in Delhi in February 2020, filed a fabricated
case of hate speech and inciting communal violence against Mander,” said the
HRW. The HRW said that on September 8 the police in Jammu and Kashmir raided
the houses of four Kashmiri journalists — Hilal Mir, Shah Abbas, Showkat Motta,
and Azhar Qadri — and confiscated their phones and laptops. “Mir reported that
they also took his and his wife’s passports. The authorities summoned all four
to a Srinagar police station for questioning and told them to return the next
day. Journalists in Kashmir face increased harassment by the authorities,
including arrest under terrorism charges, since the BJP government revoked the
State’s autonomous constitutional status in August 2019,” said the
organisation.
8 It said that in June, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of expression and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had written to the Indian government expressing concerns over “alleged arbitrary detention and intimidation of journalists covering the situation in Jammu and Kashmir”, citing the cases of Fahad Shah, Auqib Javeed, Sajar Gul, and Qazi Shibli. The letter also raised concerns over the closure of the “outspoken” newspaper Kashmir Times in October 2020.
Kashmir Update 145: Week , Sep 6, 2021 to Sep,11,2021
1
UK protest; Sep 5 2021 ; Middlesborough UK. It was LKD Global SolidariTea
day. Organised here by Tarif, BPWA and
PTI; SolidariTea With Kashmir
Demo : Hosting by Claire Bidwell and Fesl Riza-Khan from #LoveKashmir,
supporting cast of great activist speakers, Professor Muhammad Safwan Akram of
Teesside University, Yunus Bakhsh from North East Against Racism, Abbas Baig ,
Mohammed Yunis Chairman of Bilal Mosque Newcastle, Mohammed Arshad Chaudry also
Bilal Mosque Newcastle, Malik Jamil Khan of PTI NE Kashmir Panel, Shabana
Karim, Huma Ahmed and Yasmin Causer of British Pakistani Society Middlesbrough
and Oz Sidique from British Army Reserves.
2
Afghanistan Government; Sep 8
2021;
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday announced 33 members of the
"acting" government, saying that it will be led by Mohammad Hasan
Akhund while the group's co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be the deputy
Afghan leader. Key figures in the interim govt: Prime Minister - Mohammad Hasan
Akhund; Deputy Prime Minister - Abdul Ghani Baradar; Interior Minister -
Sirjauddin Haqqani; Foreign Minister -
Amir Khan Muttaqi; Deputy Foreign Minister - Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai Defence
Minister - Mullah Yaqoob; Army Chief - Fasihuddin Badakhshani; Finance Minister
- Mullah Hidayatullah; Deputy Culture and Information Minister - Zabihullah
Mujahid; Taliban's deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani will be the acting interior
minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi will be the acting foreign minister, political
chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai will be the acting deputy foreign minister
and Mullah Yaqoob will be the acting defence minister, he announced during a
press conference in Kabul. Mujahid himself will be the deputy culture and
information minister, Fasihuddin Badakhshani will be the army chief, and Mullah
Hidayatullah will be the finance minister. The heads of various other
ministries will be appointed soon, Mujahid added. In response to a question,
the spokesperson said the country will now be called the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan. Mujahid said there was no fighting in Panjshir, the last holdout
of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not
seized during their blitz across Afghanistan last month. Separately, in a written statement, Acting
Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund congratulated Afghans for the
"withdrawal of all foreign forces, end of the occupation and complete
liberation of the country". A caretaker and "committed" cabinet
had been announced which will start working at the earliest, he said, adding
that the leaders will "work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and
Sharia (Islamic law) in the country, protecting the country's highest
interests, securing Afghanistan's borders, and ensuring lasting peace,
prosperity and development". All governance and life in the country will
henceforth be in accordance with Islamic law, Akhund said. "We want to
have a peaceful, prosperous and self-reliant Afghanistan, for which we will
strive to eliminate all causes of war and strife in the country, and [for] our
countrymen to live in complete security and comfort." He also emphasised
that the interim government will take "serious and effective steps"
to protect human rights as well as the rights of minorities and underprivileged
groups within the framework of the demands of Islam. "All Afghans, without
distinction or exception, will have the right to live with dignity and peace in
their own country. Their lives, property and honor will be protected."
Terming education "one of the most important requirements", the
Taliban leader said it will be the government's duty to provide a healthy and
safe environment to all citizens to study religion and modern sciences.
"We will pave the way for the country's development in the field of
education and build our country with knowledge and understanding," he
added. He pointed out that the country had been suffering from war and economic
crises for the last four decades. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will
use all its resources for economic strength, prosperity and development on top
of strengthening security," he assured. Talking further about his
government's plans, Akhund said: "It will manage domestic revenue properly
and transparently, provide special opportunities for international investment
and various sectors of trade [and] will work to fight unemployment effectively.
Our ultimate goal will be to get our country back on its feet as quickly as possible,
and efficiently perform reconstruction and rehabilitation work in our war-torn
country."He added that the interim government would reach out to Afghan
businessmen, investors and sensible citizens to ask for their support and help
in ending poverty and strengthening the country's economy. Talking about the
media, he said the government would work towards its freedom, functioning and
improvement in quality. "We consider it our duty to take into account the
sacred precepts of Islam, the national interest of the country and impartiality
in our broadcasts," he added. International relations
https://www.dawn.com/news/1645047/taliban-announce-interim-government-mohammad-hasan-akhund-to-be-pm-baradar-deputy-pm
3
Burial; Aug 10
2021; Indian security forces are maintaining an armed guard around the
grave of an iconic Kashmir separatist leader, amid mounting public anger over
police footage of his funeral, which his family say they were barred from
attending. India probes late Kashmir
separatist’s family under terror lawIndia locks down Kashmir after quiet
burial of separatist GeelaniObituary: Syed Ali Shah Geelani was
symbol of Kashmir resistanceSyed Ali Shah Geelani: A life
dedicated to Kashmir and its people
The next day, his son Naseem Geelani told Al Jazeera the armed
police “snatched his (Geelani’s) body and forcibly buried him” in the middle of
the night and “did not allow any of us to take part in final prayers” fresh outrage after posting videos on Twitter
on Monday, showing Geelani’s body being washed, wrapped in a shroud and buried.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/8/india-kashmir-police-videos-geelani-funeral-anger
4
Geelani funeral; Sep
10 2021; Kashmir Civitas, an international civil society and strategic
advocacy organization working for right to self-determination of the people of
Jammu and Kashmir, has depicted through an animated video the inhuman treatment
meted out to the veteran Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Gilani, and desecration of
his dead body by Indian forces.The video described Indian action as a serious
war crime and direct violation of the Article 17 of the Geneva Conventions. In
the video, Syed Ali Gilani has been described as the hero of every Kashmiri,
who never bowed before the Indian oppression. In the video, people of IIOJK
have been asked to massively march towards the grave of Syed Ali Gilani at
Hyderpora in Srinagar, tomorrow, after Juma prayers to pay tributes to him. The
march is also aimed at registering protest against the desecration of the dad
body of the veteran leader by the Indian forces.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/09/09/animated-depiction-of-indias-inhuman-treatment-to-syed-ali-gilani.html
5
Kashmir Update 144: Week , Aug 30, 2021 to Sep,4,2021
1
DG ISPSR Press conference; Aug 27 2021; cost
of the terrorism activities emanating from Afghanistan in Pakistan role of
India and RAW https://youtu.be/945i8WIokSg
2
Geelani Sahib passes away Sep 2021; The veteran politician was jailed for nearly 10 years
after 1962 and often restricted to his home after that. Since his youth,
Geelani had been a member of Jamaat-i-Islami, which was banned by the Hindu
nationalist government in 2019. Last year, Geelani had resigned from his post
as APHC chief, of which he had been a member since its formation in 1993 as a
political arm of the anti-India movement. He was elected its chairman for life
in 2003. Hurriyat Conference (Geelani) has more than 24 constituent parties,
some of which have only a handful of members. Last month, the APHC had said
that the 11-years-long house arrest had taken a heavy toll on Geelani's health
and his condition continued to deteriorate. In a press release, a copy of which
was shared by the Kashmir Media Service, the APHC said that along with general
physical weakness that the veteran leader had been experiencing for some time,
his chest infection was also "not satisfactorily" responding to
treatment. . https://www.dawn.com/news/1643921/veteran-hurriyat-leader-syed-ali-geelani-passes-away-at-92
3
Geelani Shahib; Sep 2
2021; The passing of Syed Ali Geelani: A Colossal loss to the nation of
Kashmir ny Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai ;Inna Lillahi Wa
Inna Illaihi Rajeeoon! With the passing of Syed Ali Geelani, Chairman,
Tehreek-e-Hurriyet, on September 1, 2021, a leader par excellence, who was a
symbol of humanity and champion of human rights all over the world, be it
Palestine, Myanmar, Chechnya, Kashmir or else, it is an end of era. Syed Ali
Geelani was an intellectual, deep thinker, visionary, brilliant and an
articulate scholar and above all an institution by himself. He was a giant in
Kashmir's turbulent historyIn the annals of
history, nations and peoples are often blessed with leaders, guides and activists
who play singular roles providing leadership that transcends inspiration and
casts a lasting impact on these societies. Syed Ali Geelani was one of those
leaders who gave his last full measure of devotion in unflagging pursuit of a
just and noble cause of Kashmir. A moral high ground was everything to him Words
inevitably cheapen the impeccability of his character and accomplishments. His
legacy lives as much in the heart as in the head. His formula for Kashmir was simple but powerful. The aspirations of the
people of Kashmir must be ascertained. He had the clarity of vision
about the future of Kashmir. There were no ifs and no buts in his approach. He
was bold enough to say it loud and clear that accession of Kashmir to Pakistan
was not my political manifesto but my article of faith. When in 1990 the winds of change blew across the world, destroying
dictatorships and occupations, the people of Kashmir also renewed their
struggle. During their period of quiet the world had forgotten them. Now, they were
filled with hope and longing of a new dawn. It was at this crucial juncture
that Geelani Sahib emerged to present a much larger aspect of his leadership.
He not only rekindled the issue afresh but also gave it a new vigour and
meaning. The people of Kashmir will never
forget the selfless contribution and the tireless efforts of Geelani Sahib. His
efforts will remain forever a milestone in the history of the freedom struggle
of Kashmir. The vision of Geelani Sahib
and the unity and sacrifices of the people of Kashmir will undoubtedly lead the
Kashmiri freedom struggle to its logical conclusion, that is freedom from the
occupation and alien subjugation.The people of Kashmir lost an iconic
leader. May Allah accept the sacrifice of
Geelani Sahib and elevate his status as the guided person, comfort him in his
grave, make his grave part of Jannatul Firdous and give Sabr to the family!
Ameen.
4
Taliban on Kashmir; Sep 4 2021; The Taliban intends to "raise its
voice for Muslims" in Indian-administered Kashmir, a spokesman told the
BBC. Suhail Shaheen told the BBC's
Hindi service: "As Muslims, we also have a right to raise our voice for
Muslims in Kashmir, India or any other country."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58419719
Kashmir Update 143: Week , Aug 23, 2021 to Aug,28,2021
1
Three martyred; Aug
24 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in
Sopore, today. The youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search
operation in PethSeer area of the town
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/24/indian-troops-martyr-two-youth-in-sopore.html
2
UN
of Kashmir; Aug 28 2021; UN’s independent
human rights experts has asked the Indian government to explain the legal basis
for detention and charges against four Kashmiri journalists and closure of the
allotment of office of Kashmir
Times. It has also sought details on whether these actions complied
with India’s obligations under international human rights law. The letter was
written by the UN Human Rights Council-appointed Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,
Irene Khan and Vice-Chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Elina
Steinerte. While the message was dated June 3, it was made public earlier this
month following the expiry of the deadline of 60 days. In the letter, Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion
and expression, Irene Khan and Vice-Chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention Elina Steinerte, raised specific concerns about four journalists,
Fahad Shah, Auqib Javeed, Sajar Gul and Qazi Shibli. They were also “deeply
concerned by the alleged closure of the Kashmir
Times offices which also seems to be connected to its independent
and reportedly outspoken reporting in the region”. “We respectfully recall that
journalism constitutes a necessary service for any society, as it provides
individuals, and society as a whole, with the necessary information to allow
them to develop their own thoughts and to freely draw their own conclusions and
opinions (A/HRC/20/17 para 3). We note that the deprivation of liberty of any
individual for exercising his/her right to freedom of expression would
constitute an arbitrary deprivation of liberty, contrary to Article 9 of the
Covenant,” it said. The letter
documented allegations of six cases of intimidation of Fahad Shah, editor of
weekly The Kashmirwalla, between June 2017 and January 2021. Shah had
been interrogated for four hours at Qazigund police station on October 3 last
year after returning from a reporting trip to Punjab. The interrogating officer
of the rank of deputy superintendent of police allegedly warned him to “show
“self- restraint” and report “cautiously” about matters related to “national
security”. Before being released, he was made to sign a statement that his car,
phones, and other belongings were returned without any tampering. In July 2018, Auqib Javeed was arrested and
questioned for three days over an interview with a Kashmiri separatist leader
for an English newspaper. In September last year, there was an alleged
escalation in the intimidatory tactics against Javeed after he published a
story about police silencing several social media users by cautioning them
against writing anti-government posts. As detailed in the letter, Javeed was
summoned by a state government official to the city of Shergandi. On entering
the premises, his phones were intercepted. Then Javeed was taken away from his
friends to another room by a police officer. “During the interrogation, Mr
Javeed was slapped multiple times, while officers inquired about the article he
had written and accused him of publishing a fabricated story”. The police
officer told him that Kashmir was “burning” because “people like [him] were
spreading fake narratives”. Javeed has written for several publications, including
The Wire. Sajar Gul, a freelance journalist based in North
Kashmir, had received a threatening call from a local police officer after he
wrote an article about demolition carried out by police without permission in
February 2020. A day after the call, the same officer demolished Gul’s property
and his maternal uncle’s fence. In response, Shahgund villagers pelted stones
and organised a protest. Police charged Gul for rioting, criminal trespassing
and assaulting a public servant. “According to the defense, the journalist was
in Srinagar at the moment of the alleged protests, about 40 kilometres away
from the location it took allegedly took place”. The UN experts also raised the
case of Qazi Shibli, editor of The Kashmiriyat magazine, who was kept in
detention and solitary confinement for nine months under the Public Safety Act.
Two months after release, he was again detained for 18 days “for reporting on a
fake encounter in Shopian Kashmir”. In all the instances, none of the Kashmiri
journalists had access to legal representation during interrogation. The letter
also referred to the closure of The Kashmir Times in October 2020 after
the Jammu and Kashmir state department asked the staff to leave the premises.
“According to the information we received, an eviction process establishes that
a notice needs to be served to the occupant before the eviction takes place,
stating valid grounds on which allotment is being cancelled with a time period
of not less than seven days for the occupant to respond, according to the
J&K Public Premises (Eviction) Act, Article 4. Up to this date, the offices
of the Kashmir Times remain closed and no opportunity to appeal the decision
has been granted”. The UN experts also informed that the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention might also transmit these cases through the usual procedure
“to render an opinion on whether the deprivation of liberty was arbitrary or
not”.
https://thewire.in/media/un-rights-experts-ask-india-to-explain-intimidation-of-4-jk-scribes-closure-of-kashmir-times
Kashmir
Update 142: Week , Aug 16, 2021 to Aug,21,2021
1
Steps to take for a peaceful Kashmir by Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai ;August 13, 2021 ; The United Nations is in a unique position to
play a more activist and mediatory role in regard to Kashmir by initiating a
peace process. This can take the shape of: Six-party talks– United Nations,
China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Kashmir; or
an appropriate use of the newly developed procedures and mechanics at
the United Nations. In neither case would the handling of the dispute be a
rehash of the old arid and acrimonious debates at the United Nations. The
United States by itself or through the United Nations, would supply the
catalyst that is needed for a settlement. There are alternative courses of
action which can be spelled out and involved a sequence of interactive steps
over a period of time. None of them would put the peace process in the straitjacket
of rigid adherence to old texts. But if a solution of the problem will be a
graduated process, consisting of incremental measures, the violence in Kashmir
needs to be brought to a quick end in order to set the stage for a solution. It
is interesting to note that when the Kashmir dispute erupted in 1947-48, the
world powers championed the stand that the future status of Kashmir must be
determined by the will of the people of the territory and that their wishes
must be ascertained under the supervision and control of the United Nations.
The United States was a principal sponsor of the resolution # 47 which was
adopted by the Security Council on April 21, 1948, and which was based on that
unchallenged principle. The basic formula for settlement was incorporated in
the later resolutions. Today, the urgent necessities are: To demilitarize the
area of conflict – the state of Jammu & Kashmir – through a phased
withdrawal of the troops (including paramilitary forces) of both India and
Pakistan from the area under their respective control; To take the sting out of
the dispute by detaching moves towards demilitarization of the state from the
rights, claims or recognized positions of the three parties involved. In order
to do this, it might be necessary to make the demilitarization of the State the
first step towards the reduction of Indian and Pakistani forces on their
borders outside of Kashmir. It is after the peace-process is set afoot that the
rights and claims of the parties can be considered in a non-violent
atmosphere Let me mention some of the
so-called ‘solutions’ here; Convert the existing cease-fire line into a
permanent international boundary. This is the ideal non-solution. One cannot
imagine a better formula for sowing a minefield in South Asia that will lead
them to a nuclear disaster. To a Kashmiri, the line of control is a line of
conflict. To talk about converting it into an international border is an insult
to the intelligence of the people of Kashmir; An India-Pakistan condominium
over Kashmir. This is not a cynical idea. But it needs two things, first a
maximum sense of cooperation and goodwill on the part of both India and
Pakistan and an absence of friction within the State of Kashmir. If either or
both of these conditions do arise, the arrangement will not only collapse, it
will create crises no less grave than those already existing. I believe that
any future negotiations between India and Pakistan can be meaningful and
successful if all parties concerned – Governments of India & Pakistan and
the Kashmiri leadership – take the following steps: First, Government of India
must rescind the Domicile law which was enacted in 2020 simply to change the
demography of Jammu & Kashmir. Until it is done, the people of Kashmir are
on the brink of genocide; second, there has to be a cease-fire from all sides
that must be followed by negotiations. Negotiations cannot be carried out at a
time when parties are trying to kill each other; Third, there cannot be and
should not any precondition from any party, other than commitment to
non-violence and to negotiations; Fourth, as James Wolsey, former Chief of CIA
has said correctly that both India and Pakistan have lost faith in each other.
And we all know that it is true that they don’t trust each other. Therefore,
the time has come that there must be a third- party mediation or facilitation
or engagement to make sure that the talks between India and Pakistan remain
focused. Third-party facilitator does not need to be the United Nations or
Unites States, it could be a person of an international standing; fifth, we do
not need to invoke principles because, principles will not help launch a peace
process. Principles can easily be twisted, and they lend themselves to various
interpretations. But the principles that are involved in the Kashmir dispute
shall remain guiding force in any final settlement. The principle # one: It is
the inherent right of the people of the five zones of the State of Jammu &
Kashmir to decide their future according to their own will. Principle # two: It
is almost impossible to ascertain the will of the people except in a condition
free from coercion, intimidation, or pressure from any quarter; sixth, the
history of last 73 years testifies to the fact that the bilateral talks between
India and Pakistan have been always fruitless. In fact, any attempt to strike a
deal between any two parties without the association of the third party will
fail to yield a credible settlement. The arrangement between Jawahar Lal Nehru
(then the prime minister of India) and Sheikh Abdullah (then the prime minister
of Jammu & Kashmir) in 1952; and the pact between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh
Abdullah in 1975 sought to bypass Pakistan, leaving the basic issue of Kashmir
unsettled. Likewise, The Tashkent Agreement of 1966 between India and Pakistan,
the Simla Agreement of 1972, the Lahore Declaration of 1998 sought to bypass
the people of Kashmir and it resulted in a failure. So, the time has come that
talks must be tripartite. The reason that talks must be tripartite is that the
dispute primarily involves three parties – India, Pakistan and the people of
Kashmir. But the primary and principal party are the people of Kashmir because
it is ultimately their future, the future of 23 million people of Jammu &
Kashmir that is to be decided; Seventh, we want to emphasize that the Kashmiri
people are for democracy. They believe that their leadership and the future
disposition of the state must be ascertained through the democratic process.
Kashmiri people will participate in the election if they are part of a process,
which would eventually lead to the Kashmiris’ goal of self-determination. The
election process must be organized and monitored by the United Nations. The
elected representatives should have the mandate to enter into negotiations with
India and Pakistan. Impartial and neutral monitors should supervise the whole
process of election including the preparation of voter registration. The
constitutional requirement for candidates to take an oath of allegiance to
Indian Constitution has to be waived. These ideas need refinement, but they
build on the ineluctable truth that nothing fruitful is possible in Kashmir
without the primary participation and willing consent of the Kashmiri people.
Schemes and negotiations that neglect that truth are doomed to failure, as
proven by 73 years of grim conflict in Kashmir with no end in sight. Finally,
history will testify that the final settlement of the Kashmir conflict
undoubtedly brought peace and security not only to the State of Jammu & Kashmir
but also to the whole region of South Asia – home to one-fifth of total human
race. https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/steps-to-take-for-a-peaceful-kashmir
2
Youth martyred; Aug,
21 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in
Pulwama district, today. The troops martyred the youth, identified as Musaib
Mushtaq and Muzamil Ahmed Rathar, during a cordon and search operation at Khrew
in Pampore area of the district. .
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/20/indian-troops-martyr-youth-in-pulwama.html
3
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan; Aug 21 2021; The Taliban has completed its lightning advance across
Afghanistan by taking control of the country’s capital—all but guaranteeing a national takeover. With President Ashraf Ghani
having fled the country and the United States rushing to evacuate its personnel
from Kabul as Afghan leaders work to form a transitional government, reality is
setting in: After two decades and some $2 trillion spent, Washington’s
nation-building effort appears to have failed. That will likely have
far-reaching consequences not only for Afghanistan, but also for American
foreign policy, the region and the world at large.
4
Three martyred; Aug
22 2021; Three In Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism
martyred three more Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district, today, taking the
number of the slain youth in the territory to six since Thursday .The troops
martyred the three youth during a cordon and search operation at Nagbarean in
Tral area of the district The troops
martyred two youth and destroyed a residential house during a similar operation
in Khrew area of the same district, yesterday. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/21/3-more-youth-martyred-in-iiojk-toll-reaches-6.html
Kashmir
Update 141: Week , Aug 9, 2021 to Aug,15,2021
1 Rebuttal of the interview of Ambassador Sanjay Panda, India’s Envoy to Turkey; Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai;August 10, 2021; The sensitive and delicate comments by distinguished Indian Ambassador to Turkey, Ambassador Sanjay Panda, “Period after revocation of autonomy game-changer for Kashmir” (AA, August 6, 2021) need to be supplemented by some observations from the viewpoint of the people of Kashmir itself. These deserve to be borne in mind by all those who wish the conflict to be justly resolved once for all. When asked about the delay in conducting plebiscite in Kashmir, Ambassador Panda said: "We never had any problem with the UN resolutions. The first part of the UN resolution which talks about the plebiscite, says that the plebiscite will take place only after the withdrawal from areas of forcible occupation by the aggressor…So, first of all, the people who have the raiders, backed by the Pakistani army, had to first vacate the entire Jammu and Kashmir areas. The entire Jammu and Kashmir has to be returned to its pre-1947 status or before pre-accession status, and then the plebiscite will be held.” Professor Joseph Korbel who was the first Chairman of “United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan” has responded to this question in his article, “Nehru, The UN and Kashmir” published in ‘The New Leader’ on March 4, 1957. He writes, “According to the Indian delegate, Pakistan prevented implementation of the section of the UN Commission resolution dealing with a plebiscite by refusing to carry out other part recommending demilitarization of Kashmir. This is not true: Pakistan was not expected to withdraw her forces from Kashmir as long as there was no agreed-upon plan for simultaneous Indian withdrawal.” Ambassador Panda added: “The UN resolutions have now been overtaken by the events, reminding that the 1972 Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan has affirmed to resolve the issues bilaterally without any third-party intervention or mediation.” Let us respond to it dispassionately. Much is being made By Ambassador Panda of the fact that seventy-three years have passed since the resolutions on Kashmir were adopted at the United Nations. So he is trying to persuade the Republic of Turkey, now is the time to forget about these resolutions. Distinguished Ambassador Panda knows it well that mere passage of time cannot change the fact that these resolutions of the Security Council on Kashmir remain unimplemented until today. Secondly, the United Nations resolutions can never become obsolete, or overtaken by changed circumstances or events as Ambassador suggests. The passage of time cannot invalidate a principle – the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir. If passage of time were allowed to extinguish solemn international agreements, then the United Nations Charter should suffers the same fate as the resolutions on Kashmir. If non-implementation were to render an agreement defunct, then the Geneva Convention in twenty-first century in many countries is in no better condition than these resolutions. Ambassador Panda has a point when he says that Simla Agreement has affirmed to resolve the Kashmir dispute bilaterally. Let us assume Ambassador Panda is right. Then how can we explain the assertion of Ambassador T. S. Tirumurtu, Indian Ambassador to the United Nations who said on August 2, 2021 that Kashmir was ‘integral and inalienable part of India? If Kashmir is an integral part of India, then what does India want to discuss with Pakistan under Simla Agreement. Secondly, the Simla Agreement itself makes mention of "a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir" as one of the objectives of the two parties. Nothing would be more contrary to the Charter -- and, therefore, to the Simla Agreement itself -- than to bar recourse to the United Nations. Distinguished Ambassador know that Simla Agreement provides that, ‘pending the final settlement of any of the problems between the two countries, neither side shall unilaterally alter the situation.’ Therefore, abrogation of Article 370, 35A, Domicile Law are all in violation not only of Simla Agreement but also of the United Nations Security Council resolution # 122 “reaffirms the affirmation of its resolution 91 (1951) and declares that the convening of a constituent assembly as recommended by the General Council of the ‘All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference’ and any action that assembly may have taken or might attempt to take to determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire State or any part thereof, or any action by the parties concerned in support of any such action by the assembly, would not constitute a disposition of the State in accordance with the above principle.” Ambassador Panda also said: “One of the major achievements has been the strengthening of the grassroots democracy that included elections to district development council and block and village levels. “What is more important for the first time, they were extended to women and the 98.3% turn out in the elections was recorded, which is kind of unprecedented,” Ambassador added. If India boldly crosses the Rubicon by conducting free, fair and transparent elections reflective of the genuine sentiments of the Kashmiri people, as Ambassador Panda suggests, then a final peaceful settlement of the 73-year-old Kashmir conflict will be in sight. But, unfortunately India always persisted in its colonial and antidemocratic ways in Kashmir. British historian, Bertrand Russell said in 1964, “The high idealism of the Indian government in international matters breaks down completely when confronted with the question of Kashmir.” Jay Prakash Narayan who was known as ‘The Second Gandhi of India” confided to Indira Gandhi, in 1960: “We profess democracy but rule by force in Kashmir…The Kashmir problem exists not because Pakistan wants to grab Kashmir, but because there is deep and widespread political discontent among the people.” P. K. Dave, former Chief Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Government, confessed in 1991 that, “Elections in Kashmir have been rigged from the beginning.” Arundhati Roy, Booker Prizewinner said on September 27, 2009, “Elections in Kashmir have had a long and fascinating past. The blatantly rigged state election of 1987 was the immediate provocation for the armed uprising that began in 1990. Since then elections have become a finely honed instrument of the military occupation, a sinister playground for India’s deep state. After every election, the Indian establishment declares that India has won a popular mandate from the people of Kashmir.” Dr. Shri Prakash in his book, ‘Twenty Tumultuous Years Insights into Indian Polity’ on page 568 writes, “The Kashmiri anger actually began with the mass rigging of elections in 1987. There is no use putting life in a corpse. Kashmiri leaders from Farooq Abdullah downwards have lost their credibility, they are totally irrelevant.” Amy Waldman wrote in the New York Times on August 24, 2002 that “Rigged elections in Kashmir in 1989 helped trigger the armed uprising that India estimates has taken more than 35,000 lives.” So, I believe that the cure for counterfeit elections in Kashmir, however, is not more of the same, but providing the genuine democratic article. Thus, the people of Kashmir are eager to participate in the any elections if they are conducted with the trapping of free and fair choice, monitored, conducted and supervised by a neutral agency like the United Nations. Lastly, I would like to refresh the memory of Ambassador Panda that there was much in the deliberations of the Security Council that was controversial between India and Pakistan, but the proposal of a plebiscite was not one of them. This was clear from the statement made by India’s Ambassador to the UN, Sir Gopalaswamy Ayyangar at the Security Council on January 15, 1948: "The question … whether she [Kashmir] should withdraw from her accession to India, and either accede to Pakistan or remain independent with a right to claim admission as a member of the United Nations - all this we have recognized to be a matter for unfettered decision by the people of Kashmir."
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Back-channel diplomacy ; Aug 12
2010;
A book by two foreign journalists that is set to be released this week describe
how they acted as back channels of
communication for Pakistan and India, particularly after the Pulwama attack in 2019. The book has
key revelations on the attack and India's response, as well as on Kulbhushan
Jadhav, the Indian spy currently being held in Pakistan. Journalists
Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, the authors of Spy Stories: Inside the Secret
World of The R.A.W and I.S.I, seem to have got unprecedented access to the
intelligence establishments on both the Indian and Pakistan sides while working
on the book. Both establishments used them as a go-between to keep "near
real time" lines of communication open. It was through this channel that
Pakistan's ISI conveyed the message claiming it had no role in the attack on
the military convoy in Pulwama that killed over 40 people. More importantly,
the book says that the Indian intelligence establishment concluded that the
attack was planned by Jaish-e-Mohammed from its base in Helmand, Afghanistan to
provoke a regional war. However, India publicly blamed Pakistan for the attack
and went on to launch the Balakot air
strikes, with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval claiming that reports
will soon reveal the ISI's involvement. The book also reveals that Kulbhushan
Jadhav was a civilian asset of great interest to Indian intelligence as he had
the cover to travel between Iran and Pakistan. India's official claim is that
he is a formal naval officer kidnapped
by Pakistan from Iran. The book also reveals that Mr. Doval used Saudi Arabian
mediation with Pakistan, while India officially rejects third-party mediation.
While back-channel diplomacy is a known entity in India-Pakistan ties, the
messages that have been carried in this particular channel have the potential
to change the public's understanding of some of the key events that have
affected relations in the past few years.
3
India stifles
protest; Aug 13 2021; ON THE MORNINGof October 28, 2020, rights activist Parveena Ahanger was
startled by the sound of revving engines outside her home in Srinagar, the
biggest city in Indian-administered Kashmir. She closed the Quran she was
reading from and peeked through a window; there were nearly a dozen armored
vehicles and dozens of police personnel surrounding her house. Some
plainclothes officers came inside and ordered Ahanger to shut all the windows
and lock all the doors. It was a raid by India’s counterterrorism task force:
the National Investigation Agency, or NIA. Ahanger is the chair of the
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, a collective known as APDP that
she founded in 1994 — four years after her teenage son was arrested by Indian
armed forces then disappeared. During the raid, NIA officials confiscated the
cellphones of her entire family. The agents later drove Ahanger to her office
in Hyderpora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, where they seized documents and
hard drives. That same day, the NIA also
raided the offices and homes of several journalists and other nonprofit groups.
Among the targets was the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS —
a group that documents human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir —
and the home of its program coordinator. At both of those locations, too, NIA
officials confiscated electronic gadgets and seized several documents. The
raids were an escalation in the Indian government’s crackdowns on rights
activists, journalists, politicians, and civilians who express dissent and
views critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata
Party. Just a few days before revoking Kashmir’s special status, the Indian
government amended a controversial anti-terror law called the Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act to make it more stringent, allowing the government to
jail for six months, without trial or bail, anyone arrested under this law.
Over the last couple years, the police have invoked UAPA frequently to restrain
civil liberties. After the raids last October, the NIA said it was acting on
information that groups had been using funding from abroad “for secessionist
and terrorist activities” in Kashmir, invoking the UAPA. The NIA brought
charges against the JKCCS under UAPA, claiming to have “credible information” the
organization was involved in secessionist activities and said the investigation
was ongoing. The raids had the effect of stifling the only two groups
documenting human rights abuses in the region, whose work has been cited by the
United Nations. “These raids are meant to intimidate Human
Rights Defenders, cast a chilling effect on others and ensure that no information
or narrative that contests the discourse of the Indian state is available,
either for discussions in India or outside,” Vrinda Grover, a human rights
activist and lawyer based in New Delhi, told The Intercept. “Criminal law is
being increasingly used to demonise and criminalise human rights work.” FOR YEARS, the APDP and the JKCCS have played a leading role in
documenting abuses committed by Indian security forces in Kashmir, including
surveillance, disappearances, and violence, as well as organizing locally to
bring attention to these abuses. In
2004, Ahanger began convening monthly silent protests in Srinagar, where dozens
of women and men would hold signs asking, “Where are Our Loved Ones?” Their
family members, the protesters said, had been subjected to enforced
disappearance by Indian armed forces. But the last time they gathered was on
July 10, 2019: a few weeks before the Indian government scrapped Jammu and
Kashmir’s quasi-autonomous status. Members of the APDP collective decided they
could no longer meet publicly. “We were scared because of the terror they
spread,” Ahanger said. “People were being arrested. In October 2019, APDP
published a report on
the use of pellet guns on protesters during a 2016 civilian uprising; the
report included testimonies from people who had lost their eyesight as a
result. Three months later, the collective released a report detailing human
rights violations in the region during four months of lockdown since the
revocation of Kashmir’s special status. Since then, the APDP has gone silent
out of fear of retaliation by Indian authorities — a fear that was exacerbated
by last year’s raid. The JKCCS, for its part, was deeply involved
in documenting abuses that appeared in a 2018 U.N. Human Rights report that for the first time
called for an inquiry into the large-scale violations of rights in Kashmir. The
report had stated that in Kashmir “accountability for violations committed by
members of the Indian security forces remains virtually non-existent.” The last report JKCCS released was in August
2020, a year after the Indian government imposed a “digital siege” in Kashmir.
The report detailed the costs and consequences of the communication blockade in
the disputed region. JKCCS
president and human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz said the revocation of Kashmir’s
special status and the arrests that followed created a climate of fear. “We had
no information about anyone, but months later we got to know we were on the
surveillance and no-flying lists,” Imroz added. “We have been banned from
traveling since 2019. That was one way of pressurizing us to not do our work.” THE RAMPANT use of the controversial UAPA has led to an environment where
people resort to self-censorship or refrain from going against the interests of
the government. During UAPA prosecutions, the court relies on police documents
to establish the guilt of the accused, giving police outsized power. The law
has the effect of branding people charged under the law as terrorists —
regardless of whether the government secures a conviction against them. “Under UAPA, the theory of separation of
powers has been completely turned on its head. Police and the executive have
become powerful and the judiciary is not doing the checks and balances,” said
Habeel Iqbal, a lawyer based in Kashmir. He pointed to a 2019 ruling by the Indian Supreme Court reversing a lower court
decision to grant bail to someone charged under UAPA to note that “the Supreme
Court in a recent Judgment gave more teeth to this dreadful law and tied the
hands of the High Courts and lower Courts in matters of bail. Increased use of
UAPA also shows how paranoid the state has become.” In the case of the JKCCS, the NIA brought charges
under the UAPA but took no further action to prosecute the case — yet the
government may have already achieved its objective. “When the NIA raided our office, they seized our
gadgets and documents. They disconnected us from our friends and contacts. For
a long time, we were not in touch with anybody,” said Imroz. “And that finally
led to a situation where we felt that [the NIA] wanted to silence everyone.”
The NIA, which did not respond to multiple
requests for comment from The Intercept, has not released any evidence in
support of its claim that the groups it raided were linked to terror financing
networks. The JKCCS says it is funded locally, while the APDP has received funding from the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. “We receive funds through the U.N. grant only,”
said an APDP staff member, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal by
Indian officials. “They conducted the raid to create pressure on us. They also
wanted to know the kind of victims we help through our funds.” Ahanger said she thought the real reason the NIA
targeted her collective was their documentation of human rights abuses by
Indian armed forces. “We have been able to work with international
organizations like the U.N., Rafto Foundation” — a Norwegian human rights
organization that recognized Ahanger
and Imroz for their work in Kashmir in 2017 — “and other international
organizations who have built pressure on the Indian government,” she told The
Intercept. The Indian government
continues to weaponize the UAPA against dissenters. Last year, 16-year-old
Athar Mushtaq was killed in an alleged gun battle in Srinagar, and the police
buried him in Sonamarg, a three-hour drive from his home. His father, Mushtaq
Ahmad, battled for several weeks to get his son’s body and bury him near his
home. In February, the police filed charges against him and other
family members under UAPA. In May 2021, Kashmiri politician and separatist leader Mohammad Ashraf
Sehrai died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Jammu during his imprisonment. At his
funeral, less than two dozen attendees, including his two sons, raised
pro-freedom slogans. A few days later, Sehrai’s sons were arrested under UAPA. FOLLOWING THE NIA raids, the JKCCS and APDP were not able to work as freely
as before. The fear of reprisal pushed the two groups into dormancy.“There were
threats. There were raids at the houses of our colleagues. Then we decided that
until this case is resolved, we would not be able to work properly,” said
Imroz. After
the NIA raided JKCCS’s office, many of its volunteers stopped going to the office. “People are scared of coming to us. Many
journalists are also scared to come to us for comments and reports,” Imroz
said. “Fear has been used as a weapon, and the government has been successful
in that.” Ahanger
believes the government is “trying to suffocate every space that exists in
Kashmir. It is not just rights groups, they are trying to choke every space.”
https://theintercept.com/2021/07/26/india-kashmir-human-rights-nia/
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Youth martyred; Aug
13 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth and injured two
civilians in Kulgam district, today. the youth was killed after the troops
blasted a four-storey building by using chemical substance during a cordon and
search operation in Mirbazar area of the district. Two injured civilians were
identified as Sahil Yaqoob Butt (25) and Shahid Farooq Sheikh (22). Earlier,
two Indian troops were injured in an attack in the same area.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/12/indian-troops-martyr-one-youth-injure-two-civilians-in-iiojk.html
Kashmir
Update 140: Week , Aug 2, 2021 to Aug,8,2021
1 July cost; Aug 2 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred thirty seven (37) Kashmiris including two women during the month of July 2021. According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, of those eight were killed by the troops in fake encounters or in custody. The killing rendered two women widowed and seven (7) children orphaned in July. During the month, twenty eight (28) people including media men were critically injured after Indian troops and police personnel used brute force on peaceful protesters in the territory. The report maintained that at least fifty seven (57) civilians, mostly youth, political activists, a religious scholar and a woman, were arrested; several of them were booked under black law Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Preventive) Act (UAPA). The troops also damaged ten (10) houses during at least 219 cordon and search operations in the month, the report added. The report pointed out that Indian troops martyred 105 Kashmiris including top APHC leader, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai during the first seven months of this year in the territory. The report maintained that the killing by the troops during the period rendered six (6) women widowed and eighteen (18) children orphaned. The troops damaged over thirty nine (39) houses and structures and molested or disgraced twelve (12) women and arrested 574 persons including students and youth during cordon and search operations across the occupied territory.During the period, 361 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force, bullets and pellets on peaceful demonstrators by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel in the territory, the report said. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/01/indian-troops-martyred-37-kashmiris-in-july.html
2
India and
Kashmir; Aug 2021 ; Dr.
Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, Washington-based ‘World Kashmir Awareness
Forum’ said that the assertion of Indian Ambassador to the U.N., T.S.
Tirumurti, “I think it's important to recognize that the issues relating to the
Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are internal affairs of India” was
factually and legally wrong statement. The fallacy advocated by Ambassador
Tirumurti today deserves some clarification. To begin with, under all
international agreements, accepted by both India & Pakistan, negotiated by
the United Nations and endorsed by the Security Council, Kashmir does not
belong to any member state of the United Nations. If Kashmir does not belong to
any member state of the United Nations, then the claim of distinguished
Ambassador that Kashmir was an internal affair of India does not stand.
Secondly, Ambassador Tirumurti may remember that it was here at the United
Nations that Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General said on August 8, 2019
that “The position of the United Nations on this region (Kashmir) is
governed by the Charter of the United Nations and applicable Security Council
resolutions.” Dr. Fai added that the people of Jammu & Kashmir who have a
defined historical identity, are at present engaged in a mass struggle to win
freedom and release from the foreign occupation of their land. This struggle is
motivated by no bigotry or ethnic prejudice; its aim is nothing but the
exercise of the right of self-determination explicitly agreed by both India and
Pakistan. “The idea that the dispute over the status of Jammu and Kashmir can
be settled only in accordance with the will of the people, which can be
ascertained through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite,
was the common ground taken by both Pakistan, and India. It was supported
without any dissent by the United Nations Security Council. There was much in
these submissions that was controversial, but the proposal of a plebiscite was
not. This is clear from the statement made on January 15, 1948 by Indian
delegate, Sir Gopalasawami Ayyangar, at Security Council,"... Whether she
[Kashmir] should withdraw from her accession to India, and either accede to
India or remain independent, with a right to claim admission as a member of the
UN - all this we have recognised to be matter for unfettered decision by the
people of Kashmir after normal life is restored there,” Fai maintained. Fai
warned that it is not the inherent difficulties of a solution, but the lack of
the will of the world powers to implement a solution, that has caused the
prolonged deadlock over the Kashmir dispute. The deadlock has meant
indescribable agony for the people of Kashmir and incalculable loss for both
India and Pakistan. The peace that has eluded the South Asian subcontinent
should be made secure, Fai concluded.
3
One martyred: Aug.,
4, 2021: In Indian
illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the Indian troops in their fresh
act of state terrorism, martyred a Kashmiri youth in Bandipora district. According
to Kashmir Media Service, the troops killed the youth during a cordon and
search operation at Chandaji area of the district.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/03/indian-troops-martyr-kashmiri-youth-in-bandpora.html
4
August 5; Aug 5
2021; In Indian
illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, political experts and analysts have said
that Narendra Modi- Indian government’s
5 August 2019 and subsequent actions in the territory are brazen violations of
the UN resolutions on Kashmir. According to Kashmir Media Service, the
political experts and analysts in their interviews in Srinagar said Jammu and
Kashmir is an international dispute on the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) agenda. They said holding of UNSC meetings on Kashmir is nullification
of Indian claim that Kashmir is its internal matter while UN military observers
stationed in Jammu and Kashmir is another proof that Kashmir is an
international dispute. The political analysts and experts pointed out that
Indian attempt to remove the Kashmir dispute from the UNSC agenda shows its
disregard for the UN itself. “India can’t remove Kashmir from UNSC agenda
unless the dispute is resolved as per Kashmiris’ aspirations. Indian plans to
change IIOJK’s demography is flagrant violation of UN resolutions,” they added.
The political experts and analysts maintained that India’s denial of right to
self-determination to the Kashmiris is the cause of Kashmir dispute. They said
final settlement of the Kashmir dispute lies in implementation of the UN
resolutions, which call for plebiscite under the UN auspices to enable the
Kashmiris decide their fate by themselves https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/04/modi-govts-aug-05-2019-actions-brazen-violation-of-un-resolutions.html
5
Black day’ Aug 6
2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, complete shutdown
is being observed on the Black Day, today, to convey the message to India that
the Kashmiris reject its illegal and unconstitutional move of repealing the
special status of the territory on this day in 2019. Narendra Modi-led fascist
Indian government in gross violation of the UN resolutions and international
law revoked the special status of IIOJK and put the territory under military
siege on this day, two year ago. All shops and business establishments are
closed while traffic is off the road in Srinagar and other major cities and
towns of the occupied territory. Today’s shutdown is unprecedented due to the
fact that the occupation authorities had asked the shopkeepers to keep their
shops open today. However, defying the diktats, the shopkeepers have kept their
shops closed. Indian troops and police in Srinagar summoned traders and
shopkeepers, yesterday, and directed them to keep their business establishments
open and not observe a shutdown. Representatives of several markets and traders
in Srinagar told media that they were called to police offices and directed to
keep shops and markets open. Meanwhile, reports said Indian police personnel
are breaking the locks of shops in Srinagar, Islamabad and other areas to force
the shopkeepers to open their shops. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/05/complete-shutdown-marks-black-day-in-iiojk.html
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EU Demonstrations; Aug 7 2021; Two
demonstrations were held outside the Indian Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, on
Thursday to mark the anniversary of the 'black day' when India striped the
Indian-Occupied Kashmir of its special status in 2019. The first demonstration
was organised by the Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) in connection with August
5, 2019 — the day the Indian government annulled the special status of Jammu
and Kashmir and imposed a lockdown in the occupied Kashmir. A number of
Kashmiri leaders and political workers were arrested in the occupied territory
and atrocities against the people of Kashmir were increased. Chairman of the
International Forum for Justice Human Rights JK (IFJHRJK), Muhammad Ahsan
Untoo, also addressed the protest in Brussels via a telephonic link from
occupied Kashmir. He updated the gathering about the latest situation in
occupied Kashmir. "The
people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir have a lot of expectations from the
international community, especially ones residing in European Union
countries," Untoo said. He said that the EU should use its good offices for the
prevention of human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and play its role in
a just resolution of the Kashmir issue.The protesters in Brussels, led by
Chairman Kashmir Council EU Ali Raza Syed, also called for an end to the
atrocities in the occupied Kashmir, especially violence against Kashmiri women
and children. They
called for the withdrawal of occupation forces, an end to its state terrorism,
an end of genocidal repression, rape, gang rape, torture, and the degrading
treatment of Kashmiri men, women, and children. They also called for the
unconditional release of all those imprisoned in Indian jails, including
political figures in connection with resistance to the Indian occupation.
Chairman KC-EU Ali Raza Syed, the organiser of the protest, said the atrocities
committed by the Indian forces against the oppressed Kashmiris is going
unabated. Citing a recent report of the United Nation, he said that a large
number of children were targeted by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir in
recent years. The second protest was held by the Jammu Kashmir
Liberation Front (JKLF) Europe in front of the Indian Embassy in Brussels where
protesters could be seen chanting slogans against the Indian occupation of
Kashmirs. Protesters also demand the release of JKLF leader Yaseen Malick, who
has been imprisoned in an Indian jail. A number of women and children also
participated in the JKLF demonstrations. https://www.geo.tv/latest/363696-protesters-stage-demonstrations-outside-indian-embassy-in-brussels-to-mark-august-5
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India,
China withdraw from Gogra area in Eastern Ladakh; Aug 77, 2021: India
and China have undertaken disengagement
from Gogra area of Eastern Ladakh following an agreement
at the 12th round of Corps Commander talks, the Army said on Friday.
This is the second friction area from which disengagement has been done after
Pangong Tso (lake) in February as part of efforts of withdrawal and
de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. “As per
the agreement, both sides have ceased forward deployments in this area in a
phased, coordinated and verified manner. The disengagement process was carried
out over two days, August 4 and 5. The troops of both sides are now in their
respective permanent bases,” the Army said in a statement. All temporary
structures and other allied infrastructure created in the area by both sides
have been dismantled and mutually verified, it stated. “The landform in the
area has been restored by both sides to pre-stand-off period.” With this development, the focus of further talks would be on
disengagement at PP15 in Hot Springs, according to a defense official. Some
progress had been made but some issues remain, he observed.
8
One martyred; Aug 7
2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred a Kashmiri youth in Budgam
district. The youth was killed by troops during a cordon and search operation
in Manchowa area of the district today. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/07/indian-troops-martyr-a-kashmiri-youth-in-budgam.html
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UK and EU Protests; Aug 8 2021; On the
call of Tehreek-e-Kashmir Europe and UK, Pakistanis and Kashmiris held
demonstrations, car rallies, conferences and digital campaign in various cities
of the UK and Europe on Youm-e-Istehsal observed on 5th August. Kashmir digital
campaign was launched in London to show to the international community the
atrocities committed by the Indian Army against the innocent Kashmiris. The
digital-van started its journey from outside the Indian High Commission in
London and visited landmarks in the city. The slogans displayed on the digital
van were “Kashmir under Indian siege, knocking at world conscience”, “End
illegal Indian occupation of Kashmir”, “Indian Army out out”, “Kashmir is the
most militarised area in the world”, “India! Stop genocide in Kashmir”, “Hold
India accountable for its war crimes”, “5th August is a Black Day for
Kashmiris” and “India! Stop killing in Kashmir”. Tehreek-e-Kashmir Norway held
a car rally in Oslo and arranged a demonstration outside the Norwegian
Parliament. Tehreek-e-Kashmir Denmark arranged a huge protest outside the
Indian Embassy in Copenhagen. Tehreek-e-Kashmir Scotland organized Kashmir
Conference in Dundee which was chaired by Fakhar Iqbal, President
Tehreek-e-Kashmir Dundee. Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK held a car rally and conference
chaired by Fahim Kayani President Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK in Birmingham and a
demonstration outside the Indian High Commission in London. Muhammad Ghalib
President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Europe while addressing the car rally said, “The
Indian regime led by fascist Modi imposed brutal curfew in Kashmir on 5th
August 2019 to suppress legitimate struggle of Kashmiris against illegal Indian
occupation of Kashmir. We will not call it 2 years of the abrogation of
Articles 370 & 35A but rather call and name it the abrogation of Humanity
Day.” Fahim Kayani President Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK said, “The people of IIOJK
were degraded and treated like cattle which had no say but to be locked up in
an open prison called Kashmir. Nowhere in history we hear such a long lockdown
with draconian laws which made it possible. Tehreek-e-Kashmir would request the
world to unite to highlight these laws which have made atrocities easy in IIOJK
where the armed forces have been increased to 1 solider for 10 Kashmiris.” Adeel
Ahmed, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Denmark, while addressing the demonstrators
outside the Indian Embassy in Copenhagen said India is committed war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide in IIOJK. “Under the Geneva Convention
and international law, India must be held accountable for these heinous crimes.
The cover of impunity given to India should be withdrawn. Against this
backdrop, India has no right to sit in the Security Council or preside over
it,” he added. Shah Hussain, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Norway, addressing the
participants of Kashmir rally outside Norwegian Parliament said, “Two years
ago, India invaded, reoccupied, and besieged IIOJK. The occupation continues;
the siege continues. In these past two years, thousands of men, boys, and
children have been illegally detained and tortured in prisons and concentration
camps.” Mehmood Sharif, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Italy; Shafiq Tabassum,
President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Spain; Dr Sohail Ahmed, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir
Portugal; Farooq Baig, Secretary General Tehreek-e-Kashmir Germany; Ejaz Ahmed
Tahir Chaudhary, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Switzerland; and Riaz Ghuman,
President Tehreek-e-Kashmir Hamburg said that they had raised the voice of
Kashmiris on the world stage and would continue to do so until Kashmiris were
allowed to decide their future according to the UN Security Council
resolutions. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/07/anti-india-demos-rallies-conferences-held-in-uk-europe.html
10
NGO Protest; Aug 8
2021; A reputed Bangkok-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) has
urged India to end human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu
and Kashmir . In a statement, issued on the second anniversary of India’s
illegal and unilateral actions, FORUM-ASIA exposed India’s false mantra of
development, stressing that “despite promises of prosperity from the Indian
government, there has been no positive development in the conflict-ridden state
of Jammu and Kashmir in the past two years.”The statement highlights that
“severe and prolonged restrictions on communication, arbitrary mass detentions
of political leaders, denial of freedom of expression and access to
information, targeting and reprisals against human rights defenders, as well as
enactment of new laws including new Domicile Rules have further deteriorated
human rights in Jammu and Kashmir”.The NGO has also reiterated its call on the
UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent international investigative
mechanism, and urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to
monitor and regularly report on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The Forum
for Human Rights in IIOJK, an India-based civil society initiative, has also
published a 78-pages report titled “Two years of lockdown: Human Rights in
Jammu & Kashmir” earlier this month, detailing various facets of India’s
grave violations of Kashmiri people’s fundamental rights and freedoms. The
report has called for accountability of these violations. The initiative is
being led by former judges of Indian Supreme Court and a former Foreign
Secretary, among other prominent personalities.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/08/07/noted-ngo-urges-india-to-end-rights-violations-in-iiojk.html
Kashmir Update 139: Week , July 26, 2021 to Aug,1,2021
1
China on Kashmir;
July 27 2021; The joint statement said that both sides agreed on the need to
settle disputes and issues in the region through dialogue on the basis of
equality and mutual respect. “The Pakistan side briefed the Chinese side on the
deteriorating situation in Jammu & Kashmir, including its concerns,
position and current urgent issues,” it said.“The Chinese side reiterated that
the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from history between India and
Pakistan, which is an objective fact, and that the dispute should be resolved
peacefully and properly through the UN Charter, relevant Security Council
resolutions and bilateral agreements. China opposes any unilateral actions that
complicate the situation,” the joint statement released by Pakistan’s Foreign
Office said. https://kashmirobserver.net/2021/07/25/china-backs-pakistan-on-kashmir-issue/
2
US to India; July 30 2021; US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken issued a veiled warning on Wednesday about Indian
democracy backsliding in his first official visit to New Delhi. Rights groups
say civil liberties and the space for dissent are under increasing attack in
the world’s biggest democracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Antony Blinken told a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar that the US and India “take seriously our responsibility to deliver
freedom, equality and opportunity to all of our people”. But he added “we know
that we must constantly do more on these fronts, and neither of us has achieved
the ideals that we set for ourselves”. Democracies should “always seek to
strengthen our democratic institutions, expand access to justice and
opportunity, stand up forcefully for fundamental freedoms”, Blinken said. Under
Modi, India has made growing use of anti-terrorism legislation and “sedition”
laws to arrest campaigners, journalists, students and others. The Modi
administration has also brought in legislation that detractors say
discriminates against India’s 170-million-strong Muslim minority. But according
to Brahma Chellaney, strategic affairs expert at India’s Centre for Policy
Research, US backing has “slipped a notch” since Joe Biden took over from
Donald Trump as president in January.“India is locked in a military standoff
with China, but unlike top Trump administration officials who publicly
condemned China’s aggression and backed India, no one in Team Biden has so far
lent open support to India,” Chellaney said.
India, a firm backer of the Afghan government with billions of dollars
in development aid, recently evacuated 50 staff from its Kandahar consulate due
to the worsening security situation https://www.dawn.com/news/1637552
3
EU on Kashmir; July 30 2021; Sixteen European
parliamentarians on Friday wrote a letter to the European Commission on the
"humanitarian situation" in Indian-occupied Kashmir, urging the
European Union to raise its voice on the issue and take action. Addressed to
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Vice President Josep
Borrell, the letter said: "As a champion of universal human rights, fundamental
freedoms and the rule-based international order, the EU must raise its voice
against the violations of human rights affecting the people of Jammu and
Kashmir. The letter noted that it was "extremely important" for
Kashmiris to be heard and granted the opportunity to decide their own future.
The lawmakers called on von der Leyen and Borrell to carry out the following
actions on the EU's behalf: Convey the "grave concern" over the
violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in IoK to the Indian
government;Take urgent action to address the "alarming" human rights
situation in the region;Contribute to peace and stability in the region by
enhancing dialogue between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives through
making use of "our special relationships with both India and
Pakistan". It pointed out that the "miseries of the people of Jammu
and Kashmir" had been amply documented in the International Human Rights
Watch World Report 2021 and reports by the office of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights in 2018 and 2019 . https://www.dawn.com/news/1637793/european-lawmakers-urge-eu-action-on-alarming-humanitarian-situation-in-indian-occupied-kashmir
4
cricket and Kashmir;
Aug, 1, 2021: Former international cricketers are being
threatened and warned by the Indian cricket board against taking part in the
inaugural Kashmir Premier League (KPL) cricket tournament, organisers and
players have said On Saturday, former South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs
tweeted that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) warned him against
taking part in the league which has been sanctioned by the Pakistan Cricket
Board (PCB). “Completely unnecessary of the @BCCI to bring their political
agenda with Pakistan into the equation and trying to prevent me playing in the
@kpl_20. Also threatening me saying they won’t allow me entry into India for
any cricket related work. Ludicrous,” Gibbs said on Twitter. An email from an
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) licensed agent sent to Khan, and seen by
Al Jazeera, alleged that a BCCI official called up the ECB and warned that, in
addition to travel restrictions, the participating cricketers will not be
“allowed to work in anything Indian cricket related”.“The good news is that
Gibbs and Tillakaratne Dilshan [former Sri Lankan cricketer] will be taking
part in the league,” https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2021/7/31/indian-board-warning-players-against-kashmir-cricket-tournament
5 Three martyred; Aug,1, 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh acts of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiris in Pulwama and Bandipora districts, today. The troops martyred two youth during a cordon and search operation in Nagberan-Tarsar area of Pulwama district. The operation continued till last reports came in. The troops martyred a 50-year-old civilian identified as Muhammad Abdullah at an army camp in Tarbal area of Bandipore district during custody. The death of the man sparked protest in Bagroor area prompting the occupation authorities to snap the mobile service. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/31/indian-troops-martyr-three-kashmiris-in-iiojk.html
Kashmir
Update 138: Week , July 19, 2021 to July,25,2021
1
Martyrs Day: July 19 2021; Kashmiris pay tribute to their heroes ; Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai; The people of Kashmir are making an earnest appeal
to humanity at large, and the world powers in particular, to pay heed to the
long-standing wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people as they observe
90th anniversary of the Martyrs Day of July 13, 1931. It
was on the tragic day on July 13, 1931 that the foreign occupying Dogra troops
shot dead 22 Kashmiris, in cold blood, in front of Srinagar Central Jail. July
13th is forever scarred in the collective minds of the Kashmiri
people as the day when the freedom movement was greeted with bullets. Since
that ominous day, Kashmiris have organized peaceful protests, seminars and
conferences throughout the world. They believe that their suffering has not
ended despite the end of the despotic Dogra dynasty rule. The fate of Kashmiris changed for the worse,
as it has been replaced by tyrannies of successive Indian regimes with various
garbs of democracy. But, the tyranny in Kashmir under the Hindutva nationalists
has reached a new and unprecedented level of inhumanity. No one will be allowed to venture out on July 13th,
2021 to commemorate the event and pay tribute to the heroes of Kashmir history.
But global Kashmiri diaspora will
observe the solemn Day to reaffirm their resolve to continue their struggle for
self-determination, and to pay homage to over 100,000 innocent men, women and children
who have and continue to sacrifice their lives for freedom of their beloved
land over the 90 years since that fateful day. The people of Kashmir clearly have little
faith in or respect for the so-called Indian democracy, and India hasn’t the
slightest idea how to earn it. Kashmir is back to the same square one. Kashmir
is back to the same square one. Killings, chaos, confusion, turmoil,
uncertainty and dark nights. There is suffering everywhere. There is darkness
everywhere. At the same time, the studied unconcern
by the world powers has given a sense of total impunity to Indian army in
Kashmir. It has also created the impression that the international community is
invidiously selective about the application of the principles of human rights
and democratic values. The pro-freedom
leadership, including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were detained
and are not able to go out of their houses for 11 years and 2 years
respectively. Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Musarat Alam and other
political leaders are languishing in
various jails where they are being subjected to torture, isolation and
healthcare deprivation and unhygienic crowded conditions. They are facing added fear of Covid-19
pandemic which is raging among jail staff and security forces. Modi regime’s
goal is to totally decapitate the political leadership of Kashmir and it can
trample any norms of decency and human rights. Nevertheless, the people of Kashmir have sent
a loud and clear message to the world community that the Kashmir issue is not
about governance or economic packages or financial incentives as proclaimed by
Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India when he abrogated Article 370 &
35 A on August 5, 2019. They want the world to know that the youth of Kashmir are
dying on the streets, not asking for jobs and roads. What is their actual demand? It is the demand
of the people’s right -- the right to self-determination.”As the slogan that
has now become talk of the town declares, “We want Aazadi and nothing else but
Aazadi.”Meanwhile the U.S., the sole superpower in the world which must bear
the responsibility for setting the moral tone through disciplined and rightful
leadership, sits back and does nothing. Such a behavior poorly disguises the
financial incentives that have opened India up to USD $500 billion in American
investment during the coming five years. Lack of concern about the matter is reflected in the
U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report which has not and does not keep official
records on killings by Indian forces in Kashmir occurring under the Armed
Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA). They don’t track them. Yet its own
website, while alluding to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, declares so glibly,“We see it as fundamental
to our own interests to support a just peace around the world — one in which
individuals, and not just nations, are granted the fundamental rights that they
deserve.”President Biden so eloquently said on
February 4, 2021, “We must start with diplomacy rooted in America’s most
cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity,
upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every
person with dignity.” Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken spoke on February
24, 2021 that “President Biden is committed to a foreign policy that unites our
democratic values with our diplomatic leadership, and one that is centered on
the defense of democracy and the protection of human rights.” Then by remaining silent, the U.S. is in fact
declaring, though inadvertently that
Kashmiris have no fundamental rights and do not deserve them. Otherwise, how
can you explain it to a Kashmiri when President Biden says, “The United States
must lead not just with the example of power, but the power of our example.”
President Biden may take a leaf from President Obama who said on July 10, 2009
at L’Aquila, Italy, “We don't want
stronger nations bullying weaker nations. On the other hand, where you have
nations that are oppressing their people, isn't there an international
responsibility to intervene? The world powers need to know that the situation in Kashmir in 2021 is
totally different from the past. It is a youth driven mass movement with social
media savvy. They are educated and enthusiastic to achieve their birthright--
the right to self-determination.The right to decide that was pledged to them by
India, Pakistan and the world community. The desire for self-determination is
the one very big “element” India should be concerned about, yet continues to
pretend to the world that it does not exist. However long India refuses to
acknowledge it, the decades-old movement in Kashmir will not simply die out. The world powers, including the United States
should persuade India to take the following steps: 1 To include the genuine leadership of the
people of Jammu & Kashmir in all future negotiations with India and
Pakistan;2 To have an immediate and complete cessation of military and
paramilitary action by Indian forces against the people of Jammu &
Kashmir;3 To dismantle immediately all bunkers, watch towers and barricades set
up by the Indian military and paramilitary forces in towns and villages;4 To
release unconditionally all those imprisoned in connection with resistance to
the Indian occupation; 5 To
repeal the draconian laws, including Jammu Kashmir Armed Forces Special Powers
Act;6 To restore the right of peaceful association, assembly and demonstration
to the people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. In conclusion, India and the United States
should listen to one of India’s prominent journalists, Vir Sanghvi who wrote in
Hindustan Times, “If you (India) believe in democracy, then giving Kashmiris
the right to self-determination is the correct thing to do.”
2
Accession to
Pakistan ; July 20- 2021;In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,
Hurriyat leaders and organizations, describing July 19 as an important day of
the Kashmir history, said that in 1947 the people of Kashmir had decided their
accession to Pakistan even before the partition of Indian sub-continent. On
19th July in 1947, genuine representatives of the Kashmiris unanimously passed
the resolution of Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan during a meeting of the All
Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference at the residence of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim
Khan in Aabi Guzar area of Srinagar. The human rights activist belonging to All
Parties Hurriat Conference while paying rich tributes to the martyrs of Shopian
said that our youth have been pushed to the wall by inflicting atrocities,
physical violence, moral degradation and denial of their fundamental rights
including right to dignity, right to free travel, right to speak, right to
worship, right to get education etc. She urged the United Nations Secretary
General to take serious cognizance of the war crimes committed by Indian
occupation forces in the internationally accepted disputed territory of Jammu
and Kashmir and help resolve Kashmir issue as per wishes and aspirations of the
people
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/19/kashmiris-had-decided-accession-to-pakistan-on-july-19-1947.html
3
Human rights ; July
23 2021;In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian
troops have upped the ante against people of Kashmir and in their continued
state terrorism martyred 42 persons including two women and a young boy during
past two months. According to Kashmir Media Service’s research section, in past
20 days of July 135 cordon and search operations were staged in which 24 youth
and two women were martyred while in last month (June ) 152 cordon and search
operations were conducted in which sixteen (16) Kashmiris were martyred. The
report said that over 100 Kashmiri youth were arrested by Indian police in last
50 days. During the period, twenty eight (28) Indian troops and police
personnel were killed and forty one (41) were injured in different incidents.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/22/indian-troops-martyr-42-persons-in-iiojk-since-june.html
4
Two martyred; July 24,
2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in Sopore town. The
youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Warpora
area of the town. Bodies of the youth were recovered from the debris of the two
residential houses destroyed by the troops with chemical explosive material.The
occupation authorities suspended internet services in Sopore to prevent people
from sharing information about the prevailing situation in the town.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/23/indian-troops-martyr-two-kashmiri-youth-in-sopore.html
5
HRs ; July 25, 2021; During his visit
next week to New Delhi, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will raise
concerns around human rights in India, according to a U.S. official. Mr.
Blinken is expected to arrive in New Delhi late on July 27 and will meet with
his counterpart S. Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (according to
the U.S. version of his schedule).“And with respect to the human rights and
democracy question, yes, you’re right; I will tell you that we will raise it,
and we will continue that conversation, because we firmly believe that we have
more values in common on those fronts than we don’t,” Acting Assistant
Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Dean Thompson told reporters on
Friday, when asked how important human rights were to the meeting agenda
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/us-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-will-raise-human-rights-issues-with-new-delhi-us-official/article35503512.ece
6
NSA
; July 25 2021; Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Mooed
Yusuf has at least two or three times said that the window of hope and
expectation in India-Pakistan relations, that opened in February with the
reconfirmation of the 2003 ceasefire, “is perhaps still there”, provided India
is willing to create a conducive environment. Mooed Yusuf said this in an
interview where he also claimed that Pakistan has “concrete evidence and
intelligence” connecting the recent Lahore bomb blast outside Hafiz Saeed’s
residence to “handlers and masterminds in India”, which Pakistan will make
public in a dossier “at the right time.” In The
Wire interview, Yusuf confirmed that Indian and Pakistani
“intelligence meetings” happened in the run-up to the February re-confirmation
of the 2003 ceasefire, but he would not say whether “they” happened in Dubai as
some reports claim. He called the meeting contacts and not a back-channel. He
also suggested there could have been more than one meeting and in more than one
form, i.e. physical or virtual. He refused to say who was there from the Indian
side “because if I was to be brutally honest it would reveal who calls the
shots in India”. Nor would he confirm if the ISI chief represented Pakistan.
However, Yusuf denied he had met his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval although he
seemed to twice evade an answer when asked if Doval had met General Qamar
Bajwa, the Pakistan Chief of Army Staff. Yusuf told The Wire “there was a contact made” by the
Indian side. He said Pakistan reciprocated and asked what is India willing to
do and if India is sincere Pakistan is also willing to move forward. Asked by The Wire about reports
suggesting third parties like the UAE and Saudi Arabia had played a role in
bringing about the reconfirmation of the ceasefire, Dr Yusuf seemed to confirm
them when he said, “I have a sense pressure was put on India.” However, he
refused to name any country or even comment on the public admission by the
UAE’s ambassador to the US that his country had played a role. Yusuf said
whilst Pakistan had no problem with third party involvement, it was for India
to reveal further details. Yusuf accepted as true newspaper reports (such as in
Dawn) that
said Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa had told Pakistani
journalists at an iftaar gathering in late April “the two sides had agreed that
rather than ‘Kashmir first’ or ‘terrorism first’ all issues should be addressed
at the same time.” Gen Bajwa also said Pakistan considered reinstatement of
Article 370 a non-issue because Pakistan has never recognised this article of
the Indian constitution. General Bajwa said Pakistan’s concerns were with
statehood and the demographic identity of Jammu and Kashmir. Yusuf confirmed
that when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and General Bajwa spoke about India
creating a conducive environment, this is what they had in mind.
7
In The
Wire interview, Dr Yusuf said Pakistan had two core concerns.
First, Kashmir. The second is terrorism. He made a point of saying it is a
wrong narrative to claim terrorism is India’s concern. He called it Pakistan’s
“core concern”. In the interview, Yusuf claims Pakistan has the identity and
phone numbers of the mastermind and handlers of the recent Lahore bomb blast
and claims they are in India. But he refused to give further details. He said
they will be made public “at the right time.” However, despite this, Yusuf
repeatedly suggested the window of hope and expectation that opened in February
was not completely closed. First, whilst discussing the trade setback in April,
when Pakistan thought of but did not buy cotton and sugar from India, he said
he didn’t know “whether things unravelled” because of this. Then, whilst giving
details of India’s alleged role in the Lahore blast, he said “perhaps it (the
window) is still there if India is prepared to do the fair thing by Kashmiris”.
Right at the end of the interview, when asked specifically if the window for
dialogue is open or closed, Yusuf said” “my honest wish and hope is that it is
open” adding “India has to create an enabling environment” and “when it does it
will find Pakistan willing”
https://thewire.in/video/watch-pakistan-nsa-mooed-yusuf-karan-thapar-interview-ceasefire-secret-meetings-dialogue
8
Three
martyred; July 25 2021; In Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism
martyred three more Kashmiri youth in Bandipora distinct, today, taking the
number of slain youth to five since yesterday. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/24/indian-troops-martyr-two-kashmiri-youth-in-bandipora.html
9 One martyred; July 25 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one Kashmiri youth in Kulgam distinct. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/25/indian-troops-martyr-one-kashmiri-youth-in-kulgam.html
Kashmir
Update 137: Week , July 12, 2021 to July,18,2021
1
Three youth martyred;
July 15 2021;In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three more Kashmiri youth in
Pulwama town. The youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search
operation in New Colony area of the town. The troops destroyed two houses
during the operation. Bodies of the youth were recovered from the debris of the
destroyed houses. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/14/three-youth-martyred-in-pulwama.html
2
India and
Afghanistan; July 16 2021; The Modi-led Indian govt’s 5 Aug 2019
illegal actions amply prove that New Delhi is least concerned about regional
peace, the report said and added that New Delhi has long been using Afghan soil
against Pakistan to keep the flames of war burning in South Asia .Now seeing
its influence and huge investment sinking in Afghanistan where Taliban plays a
leading role, India has started playing double game in the region; it is, on
one hand, hold talks with Taliban and sending arms and ammunition to
anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, on the other.India’s mischievous activities
are responsible for its deteriorating ties with its neighbours and if peace
continues to elude South Asia, it is because of India’s subversive activities
and its belligerence against its neighbours, the report maintained.It said,
Pakistan has time and again informed the world about India’s destabilizing role
in South Asia, and has submitted dossiers containing irrefutable evidence of
New Delhi’s involvement in fomenting violence in Pakistan.It is time for world
to check Indian hegemonic designs to guarantee peace in the region and take a
notice of Indian role as a spoiler in Afghanistan and rest of the region, the
report stressed. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/15/india-under-modi-spoiling-peace-in-afghanistan-on-purpose.html
3
Two martyred; July 16
2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in
Srinagar, today. The youth, identified as Irfan and Bilal Ahmad, were killed inside
a house, which was destroyed by Indian troops and paramilitary forces, using
chemical explosives during a cordon and search operation in Danmar Eidgah area
of the city, today
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/16/indian-troops-martyr-two-youth-in-iiojk.html
4
Religious
freedom; July 7 2021; Officials in Indian-administrated Kashmir
have barred the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming holiday of Eid al-Adha, An order issued Thursday said
the "illegal killing/sacrifices of cows/calves, camels & other
animals” must be stopped, citing animal welfare laws. It is unclear why the
government issued a near total ban on sacrificing animals. Generally, cows are
considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and slaughtering them or eating beef
is illegal or restricted across much of the country. Despite the ban on cow
slaughter in Kashmir, beef is widely available across much of the
Muslim-majority areas. Muslims traditionally mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of
Sacrifice by offering special prayers and slaughtering livestock, usually a
goat, sheep, a cow or a camel, to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith.
The meat of the sacrificed animals is shared among family and friends and poor
people who cannot afford to sacrifice animals.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/india-bans-muslim-animal-sacrifices-in-kashmir-on-eid-al-adha
Kashmir
Update 136: Week , July 5, 2021 to July,11,2021
1
Remove Modi; July 4 2021; At the World Economic Forum at Davos 2020,
global investor George Soros expressed, “Nationalism, far from being reversed,
made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback came in India,
where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist
state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir – a semi-autonomous Muslim region,
and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship.” George
Soros also pledged USD 1 billion to fund a new university network to tackle the
spread of nationalism in his speech at the World Economic Forum 2020 at Davos.
The target of George Soros is India under Prime Minister Modi. Twitter has taken a defiant stance against
the Indian government. It has failed to comply with the new IT rules in India.
Twitter took the persistent leniency of the government for granted leading to
the social media platform losing its status as an intermediary platform in
India. This means instead of being considered just a platform hosting content
from various users, Twitter will be directly editorially responsible for posts
published on its platform. Yet, Twitter remains adamant and defiant against
India. It is interesting to note that Twitter’s top four owners are:
Morgan Stanley Investment Management, The Vanguard Group Inc, Blackrock Fund
Advisors, and SSgA Funds Management. The New
York Times carried an advertisement that was paid for by the
Justice for Migrant Women and signed by 76 organizations claiming to be
concerned farmers, activists and citizens of the world. The advertisement also
carries a website – www.solidaritywithindianfarmers.com. ‘We – Farmers, Activists, and Citizens of the World
– Stand in Solidarity with Farmers in India protesting to protect their
livelihood’. The advertisement in the New York Times features 76 organizations.
However, in the list of farmers, activists, and citizens of the world is the
questionable organization – Council of American – Islamic Relations (CAIR). Now
CAIR along with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) have been strong
backers of the Stand With Kashmir global advocacy, which included billboards in
the US. The aim of CAIR and ICNA is to attack the Indian government’s decision
on the Abrogation of Article 370 and to create global awareness on the
atrocities to Muslims in Kashmir done by the Indian government through the
Indian Armed Forces. Not known to many, but it worth noting that CAIR receives
most of its funding from Qatar and Turkey.
Turkey had opposed the Indian government’s decision of the Abrogation of
Article 370 and has also thrown its weight to support Pakistan on the issue.
The recent Farmers’ Protest in India which led to the dastardly attack on the
Indian democracy on January 26th, 2021 at the Red Fort has the candid support
of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Amardeep Singh is the Co-Founder of
the US-based NGO – Sikh Coalition. In fact he was appointed by President Barack
Obama to his Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
(AAPI). Since 2014, Amardeep Singh has been working with Open Society
Foundations as its Senior Program Officer. This is after he moved on from Sikh
Coalition in September 2014, though he continues to remain Co-Founder. Amardeep
Singh and Sikh Coalition are important because they are playing a prominent
role in the US raising support against the farm laws and for the farmer’s
protests in India. Sikh Coalition website message: “The
#FarmersProtest affects the global Sikh population, and the Sikh Coalition
stands with Sikhs across the United States and around the world in solidarity
with those advocating for their rights, dignity, and justice. Contact your
elected officials, propose a draft resolution, and take other action today.
Since the end of November 2020, protesters from the Indian states
of Punjab, Haryana, and elsewhere have traveled to the outskirts of Delhi,
India to protest three farm laws that will worsen the already harsh ecological
and economic conditions in which they live. These farmers, seeking only to
demonstrate peacefully and defend their livelihoods, were met first with
dismissal–and then with violence and repression–from the Indian government.
This movement directly affects a majority of the global Sikh
population, and the Sikh Coalition stands with Sikhs across the United States
and around the world in solidarity with these farmers as they continue to
advocate for their rights, dignity, and justice. Accordingly, the Sikh
Coalition has undertaken several advocacy approaches to raising awareness and
spurring action on this issue. Tell your lawmakers in the U.S.
Congress to show solidarity with farmers and condemn the Indian government’s
response to the protest. Reach out to your local, county, state, and
federal government officials with our draft resolution language and ask them to
stand with farmers.” New York Times in its International
Opportunities section for the job post of a ‘Senior Asia Business
Correspondent carried a questionable job description exposing
its bias to India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The
New York Times is seeking an experienced, enterprising journalist to lead
economic and business coverage of India, an aspiring global superpower with a
rich history on the cusp of a major inflection point. India
will soon surpass China in population, if it hasn’t already, and has ambitions
of winning a greater voice on the world stage. Under Narendra Modi, its
charismatic prime minister, India has moved to rival China’s economic and
political heft in Asia, a drama playing out along their tense border and within
national capitals across the region. Domestically,
India is a melting pot of people and languages grappling with difficult
questions of class and wealth disparity. It has a well-educated and aspiring
middle class coveted by Amazon, Walmart, and other major global companies. A
new class of Indian business tycoon has won a rapt audience on Wall Street and
London. Yet hundreds of millions of people are struggling for a better life for
their children, and India’s once fast-growing economy is showing signs of
stalling. India’s future now stands at a crossroads. Mr. Modi is
advocating a self-sufficient, muscular nationalism centered on the country’s
Hindu majority. That vision puts him at odds with the interfaith, multicultural
goals of modern India’s founders. The government’s growing efforts to police
online speech and media discourse have raised difficult questions about
balancing issues of security and privacy with free speech. Technology is both a
help and a hindrance. The position includes coverage of neighboring
countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the
Maldives, each with its own rich history and complicated relations with its
enormous neighbor. We are looking for a self-starting
correspondent who can explain these forces to a global audience. The position
requires a strong writer with the ability to juggle breaking news, smart
analysis and ambitious enterprise. We want someone eager to react quickly to
news as necessary, but who is also able to write thoughtfully and deeply about
important issues and events, with an empathetic ear for the people of India and
the region. The ideal candidates will have experience developing a network
of journalists, a critical foundation for covering such a broad
region. This position will be based in New Delhi.” It
is interesting to note that the New York Times’ top four owners are: The Vanguard
Group Inc, Blackrock Fund Advisors, Jackson Square Partners LLC, and Capital
Research and Management Consultancy. In both Twitter and New
York Times – The Vanguard Group Inc and Blackrock Fund Advisors are common in
the top four owners list. Besides, The Vanguard Group Inc and Blackrock
Advisors partly own Twitter and New York Times, they both are also partly owned
by Soros Management Fund owned by George Soros. In fact, Blackrock Fund
Advisors owns a considerable stake in The Vanguard Group around 13.46 percent.
And the Vanguard Group owns a 7.51 percent stake in Blackrock Fund Advisors.
George Soros is an economic terrorist. Soros issue is India under the
leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Soros is a man who paints the
picture of an investor whose manipulation of the press is matched only his
ability to manipulate his financial empire. By far, Soros’ greatest gains,
however, have been destabilizing currencies on the global market. The defiant
and biased behavior of Twitter and the New York Times is George Soros’s
manipulation of the press. This is the start of ‘Operation Remove Modi’. He
is the Conductor of the media Orchestra against India under Prime Minister
Modi.
https://goachronicle.com/twitter-new-york-times-george-soros-begins-operation-remove-modi/
2
Delimitation ; July 7
2021; analysts and politicians in the region believe the Modi
government's insistence on the delimitation of assembly constituencies, rather
than confidence building, has raised fears that the Muslim population in the
disputed territory may be further disempowered by granting more seats to Hindu
areas to benefit the Hindu nationalist the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The erstwhile state of IIOJK that comprised Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh was the
only Muslim-majority state in post-independence India. The leaders of nine
parties had arrived in New Delhi on June 24 at the invitation of PM Modi to
convince him to reverse or at least modify the decisions taken on Aug. 5, 2019.
The Modi's government had not only revoked IIOJK's constitutional autonomy but
also divided the region into two centrally administered territories, thus
accepting a half-a-century-old demand of hardline Hindu nationalists led by the
Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS), who wanted a complete merger of this
Muslim-majority region into the Indian Union. Therefore, the priority for these
pro-India political leaders, who were put under detention soon after these
measures, was to seek the return of statehood, restoration of a semblance of
autonomy, putting a stop to alleged demographic changes in the event of
abrogation of local citizenship law, restoration and elections to the regional
assembly so that a political structure is allowed to govern the region rather
than leaving it to the mercy of non-local bureaucrats. But at the meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah
clearly spelled out to them a road map, which in the order included:
undertaking an exercise of delimitation for assembly constituencies; conducting
elections based on new demarcations; and allowing the new assembly to adopt a
resolution requesting the Indian parliament to return statehood to the region.
Once this exercise is completed, the Indian home ministry will draft and then
present legislation to the parliament. Observers say that even if statehood is
restored, it will be with truncated powers, where law and order and the
transfer of bureaucrats may remain in the domain of the central government.
Therefore, they believe that chief minister, which used to hold the seventh
rank under the official protocol list of the Indian government, will be pushed
to rank 15. For the return of the revoked provisions of Article 370 that
ensured a degree of autonomy and Article 35A that ensured a separate
citizenship law for the region under the Indian constitution, Shah conveyed
that since the Supreme Court of India has already admitted petitions against
the government's decision, the matter was sub judice and therefore prohibited
from the discussion. While in the rest of India, the exercise of fresh
demarcation of electoral boundaries will take place in 2026, the government set
up a commission under former Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Desai in March 2020 to
redraw the boundaries of provincial assembly seats in IIOJK, along with
northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland. When
the commission's term was extended for another year in March 2021, northeastern
states were removed from its terms and references, meaning it will now only
demarcate the boundaries of IIOJK.
The move has created suspicion that the central government,
under the influence of Hindu nationalists, has singled out the region to reduce
assembly seats of the occupied Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley or equalise it
with the Hindu majority Jammu region -- a demand propounded by Hindu groups
since 1950. Legal luminary and opposition Congress party leader Kapil Sibal
said an exercise of delimitation of constituencies tends to favour the ruling
establishment even though it is being headed by a distinguished judge. "If
the delimitation process takes place in a non-transparent manner to ensure that
the BJP's political presence has greater chances of success, the confidence
sought to be built will be eroded," he said. the BJP had proposed the
commission use geography as criteria rather than population, while demarcating
boundaries of new assembly segments. Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who is also
an ex-officio member of the commission, stressed in his presentation that the
Jammu region comprises 26,293 square kilometres (10,152 square miles) against
the 15,520 square kilometres of the occupied Kashmir valley and thus deserves
more seats. But, analysts say that even if the seats of the Jammu region
increase based on geographical criteria, they will increase in the region's two
Muslim majority sub-regions of the Chenab Valley and Pir Panchal. Both of these
regions have sparsely populated large mountainous belts. The population of the
Jammu region is also not homogeneous, with 31% Muslims, 18% Dalits, 25%
Brahmins, 12% Rajputs, 5% Vaishyas, or business community members, and 9%
others that include the Sikh community. There is also a proposal to reserve 18
seats for lower-caste Hindus, known as scheduled castes or Dalits, and tribal
groups. Since the government has distributed an equal number of district
development councils to both regions, defying population criteria, it is also
expected that the same formula will be used to distribute 45 assembly seats to
each region. The reserved seats are also expected to be distributed equally.
According to political observers, this new scheme of adding seats to the Jammu
region and reservation of seats, besides other measures, will limit Muslim
representation in the new assembly below 50%. This will forever end political
domination of the disputed territory or Muslims in the regional assembly. Noted
journalist and analyst Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal believes that by giving
preference to the agenda of delimitation over confidence building, the Modi
government has given the message that people do not really count "The only thing that counts is the
delimitation of constituencies in IOJAKand this is being peddled as the very
elixir of democracy," she said. Bhasin added that it is not difficult to
understand that New Delhi's obsession with the delimitation exercise while
evading other commitments stems from a desire to carve out more Hindu-majority
constituencies to the benefit of the BJP. The number of Muslims in the region’s
bureaucracy has already been reduced over the years. According to IIOJK
government figures, out of 24 secretaries in the region, just five are Muslims,
with only 12 Muslims out of 58 top-serving officials. In the second tier of
bureaucracy, Muslims make up just 42%. Among police, only seven of 66 top
officers are local Muslims, despite making up 68.5% of the region's total
population. This formula to reserve Muslim-dominated seats for Dalits has been
practised in many Indian states over the past years in an alleged bid to keep
Muslim representation in legislatures in check. In 2005, the official Justice
Rajinder Sachar Committee had pointed out this issue and had recommended
reserving only those seats for Dalits, where they comprise nearly 30%. In Uttar
Pradesh's (UP) Nagina Lok Sabha seat, which is reserved for Dalits, Muslims
comprise 43% and Dalits 22% of the electorate. A Muslim cannot contest
elections from this seat. In contrast, the nearby Dhuririya seat, where Dalits
make up 30% and Muslims are fewer in number and should have been reserved is in
a general category. Ghazala Wahab, a prominent security analyst and executive
editor of Force magazine,
said the delimitation exercise was aimed at making Jammu more amenable to the
BJP. "While the seat share between occupied Jammu and Kashmir may be
rationalised, the larger purpose is to ensure that in no constituencies of the
Jammu division should Muslims become a decisive vote. Once this is achieved, it
is likely that Jammu will be declared a state; Kashmir will continue to be a UT
because of the security situation," she added. By selling elections and restoration
of assembly as the return of democracy to the world, rather than taking
credible measures, the Modi government is repeating the events of 1994, when
then-prime minister Narasimha Rao had assured Iran credible steps on IIOJK if
the country saves New Delhi from the ignominy it was about to face at the UN
Human Rights Commission. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2309104/redrawing-maps-of-assembly-seats-raises-fears-in-iiojk
3
Youth martyred ; July
7 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred a Kashmiri youth in
Handwara district, today.The youth was killed by troops during a cordon and
search operation in Kralgund Handwara area of the district. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/07/indian-troops-martyr-one-youth-in-handwara.html
4
Four Youth martyred: July 8 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism , martyred four more
Kashmiri youth in two districts of the territory, today. The troops killed two
youth each during cordon and search operations in Pulwama and Kulgam districts
of South Kashmir on Thursday. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/08/indian-troops-martyr-four-youth-in-iiojk.html
5
OIC
on Kashmir: July 9 2021; The executive head of the Islamic bloc, the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), raised the status of Indian Muslims
and proposed to send a delegation to Jammu and Kashmir during his meeting with
the Indian ambassador earlier this week. The OIC press release notes
that the Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ausaf Syed, paid a “courtesy visit”
on secretary-general Yousef Al-Othaimeen on July 5 in Jeddah. “The Secretary
General welcomed Ambassador Sayeed and reviewed with him a number of issues
concerning the situation of Muslims in India, along with the Jammu and Kashmir
dispute, and relevant UN and OIC resolutions opposing any unilateral actions on
the issue,” said the press note. It is highly unusual for the Indian ambassador
to have a meeting with the OIC secretary-general. According to the press note
issued by OIC, the secretary-general “conveyed the desire of the OIC General
Secretariat to dispatch a delegation to the disputed territory in line with
relevant resolutions of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers”. He also
suggested that the OIC could be a go-between for India and Pakistan. “The
Secretary General also asked about the possibility of a meeting between
Pakistan and India, stating that the General Secretariat stands ready to assist
if the two parties would so request,” said the press release. The Pakistan
foreign ministry issued a statement on Wednesday stating that the “Secretary
General underscored the OIC’s principled position on the Jammu and Kashmir
dispute during the meeting” with the Indian envoy. Pakistan also claimed that
this was the “first time that the principled position of the 57 OIC members
states has been duly conveyed to India”. https://thewire.in/world/oic-secretary-general-meets-with-indian-ambassador-raises-kashmir-and-status-of-indian-muslims
6
Five martyred; July 9
2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops
during a cordon and search operation martyred one more youth in Rajouri,
raising the toll to five in one day in the territory. The troops killed the
fifth youth in Sunderbani area of Rajouri district during an ongoing operation
which entered its 10 day, today. Indian army claimed that the youth was killed
during an encounter, which also left an Indian soldier dead and two others
including a JCO injured. It said, the slain soldier has been identified as
Sepoy Yashwant Reddy while the injured as Naib Subedar Srijith of 17 Madras and
Nk Santosh of 9 Para. Earlier, Indian troops martyred four Kashmiri youth in
Pulwama and Kulgam districts of South Kashmir, today. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/08/five-youth-martyred-indian-soldier-killed-jco-injured-in-iiojk.html
7
Modi moves on Kashmir ; July, 10.2021
The Modi government is busy hiring
and reappointing old and new political figures in Kashmir, selling development plans, integrating alienated
Kashmiri youths, changing Kashmir’s demography, the settlement of Kashmiri
pundits, perhaps dividing the territory into two with Ladakh and Jammu
functioning as a separate state. So far, some selected Kashmiri leaders are once again in
the good books of Delhi for a possible dialogue over Kashmir but opposing
voices have been side-lined as usual. Sanju Verma's analysis
reveals Modi’s systematically designed motives behind the current
political move to talk with the “good guys” of Kashmir. Verma branded Modi’s
government revocation of Article 370 and Article 35A as a “masterstroke” aimed
for two strategic reasons: First, “With Kashmir’s special status gone, people
from anywhere in India can now buy the property and permanently settle in the
state” and second, “The ball was set rolling for the return of Kashmiri
Pandits.” Verma’s
article discloses that Modi will offer (select political groups) a
mega-development package including a hydro energy generation by 2024. Referring to political circles, Kashmiri
journalist Naseer Ganai believes India is under growing international pressure,
particularly from the U.S., to hold dialogue with political parties in an
attempt to make grounds for “restoration of electoral democracy.” Modi’s talks
with an alliance of eight secular political parties – Peoples Alliance for
Gupkar Declaration – in Delhi while ignoring the mainstream Kashmiri politicians
have raised concerns and suspicions about Delhi’s intentions for Kashmir. Pakistani political analyst Shahid Masood raised alarms
over Modi’s intentions as he chose to speak to a few political groups while
intentionally ignoring the mainstream political entities including Syed Ali
Shah Gilani, Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Besides, the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference (Tehreek-e-Hurriyat), an alliance comprising 26
political, social and religious bodies formed as a political front to further
the cause of Kashmiri separatism, was also ignored. The question is who represents Kashmiris?
Those planted and supported by Delhi that has enjoyed fruits of power for
decades? Or those leaders that
have been tortured, imprisoned and murdered for speaking up for Kashmiris? The Modi junta wants to present Hurriyat leaders as
"separatists" and "extremists," and thus outliers to the
world as they do not represent the Kashmiris who are peaceful citizens. A YouTuber, Sanjay Dixit foretells “Something cooking
between Gupkar Mafia and Central Government.” As long as the strings of the
government are in the hands of the ruling Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), anything can happen. Some commentators warn of the mishaps, for
instance, David Devadas presumes “some leading figures among the new crop of
political activists” could be “terrorists” targets Another Indian plan relates
to a strategically and naturally rich region in minerals, the Gilgit-Baltistan
and Ladakh that are long on the imperialist's list. A book by John Keay (1994)
“The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1865-95,” best
explains present-day political moves by international powers engaging in a new
cold war in the heart of the Ladakh region that could easily sabotage the
China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEK) project. Sudheendra Kulkarni warns “Any
attempt by the Modi government to forcibly wrest Gilgit-Baltistan (which has
been under Pakistan’s control since 1947-48) would trigger a catastrophic and
unwinnable two-front war with both Pakistan and China.” https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/is-kashmir-becoming-a-new-combat-zone-of-global-powers
8
Delimitation ; July
10 2021; The Jammu and Kashmir
Delimitation Commission on Friday said it would base its final report on
the 2011 Census and also take into account the topography, difficult terrain,
means of communication and convenience available while delimiting seven
additional seats for the 83-member Assembly of the Union Territory (UT),
besides granting reservation to the Schedule Tribe (ST) and Schedule Caste (SC)
communities.“Delimitation is not a mathematical exercise. It must reflect the
political aspirations of society bound in a particular geography. Though the
population forms the base [for delimitation], the commission shall take into
account constituencies’ practicality, geographical compatibility, topography,
physical features, means of communication and convenience available,” Chief
Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said, after the three-member panel
completed its four-day consultation tour of J&K.The earlier delimitation
panels did not acknowledge the difficult terrains and people’s difficulties, he
pointed out. Chandra clarified that 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied
Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) would not be delimited in this process. “The
commission will also specify the number of seats to be reserved for the SC and
the ST in the Legislative Assembly of the UT. It will be for the first time
that seats will be reserved for the ST in J&K,” he noted. J&K has
already seven seats reserved for SC people, mainly in the Kathua-Samba belt in
the Jammu region. It will be for the first time that STs, including Bakerwals
and Gujjars, will get reservation in this delimitation exercise. The maximum
population of Gujjars and Bakwerwals are from the PirPanjal Valley, comprising
Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region. On the process of arriving at
a final draft, Chandra said the commission had taken into account the
representations made by 290 groups, comprising 800 people. “A draft report will
be prepared, wherein the suggestions of the associate members will also be
taken into account. Thereafter, it will be in the public domain for a
consensus. Only after the fresh comments, the final draft will be prepared.
Opportunity will be given to people at large to take into account all the
views,” he stated.Most of J&K’s political parties, during the meetings with
the panel, have stressed on immediate restoration of statehood after the new
constituencies are delineated by the panel. Source The Hindu
9
Youth martyred; July
10 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their continued acts of state terrorism martyred one more Kashmiri youth in
Rajouri district, today, taking the toll to six in the territory since
yesterday.The troops martyred the youth during an ongoing cordon and search
operation in Sunderbani area of the district. The troops martyred one youth in
the same area and four others in Pulwama and Kulgam districts, yesterday. Three
Indian soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer have been killed in
attacks in Sunderbani during the operation, which is going on since on June 29.
The troops also launched similar operations in Kulgam and Samba districts. The
occupation authorities suspended internet services in Kulgam and Pulwama
districts.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/09/troops-martyr-another-youth-in-iiojk-toll-reaches-6.html
10
Three youth martyred:
July 12 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Islamabad
district, today, raising the number of slain youth in the territory to eight
since Thursday.The troops martyred these youth during a cordon and search
operation at Kawarigam in Achabal area of the district. Indian forces’
personnel beat up and injured a journalist, Shah Junaid, when he was performing
his professional duties during the CASO https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/10/3-more-kashmiri-youth-martyred-toll-reaches-9-since-thursday.html
11 Woman killed; July 11 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a 28-year-old woman was killed on Saturday evening after she was deliberately hit by an Indian Army vehicle in Yaripora area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. An official told media that a woman, identified as Rohi Jan, 29, wife of Aabid Ahmad of Kharibarari village of Shopian, was hit by an Army vehicle at Kaddar Kulgam on Saturday evening. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/10/woman-dies-after-hit-by-indian-army-vehicle-in-kulgam.html
Kashmir
Update 135: Week , May 28, 2021 to July,4,2021
1
Airport attack; June 27 2021: In what is believed to be the first use of drones in a terror
attack on an Indian military facility, two blasts took place at the Air Force
base in Jammu Airport in the early hours of Sunday. Two Indian Air Force (IAF)
personnel suffered minor injuries in the explosions that took place a little
before 2 am at the high security airport located around 14 km from the border
with Pakistan. Reports say the explosions, at 1.37 am and 1.43 am, were heard a
km away. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/explosion-reported-inside-air-force-operated-area-at-jammu-airport-forensic-bomb-disposal-teams-rushed-2473323
2
Young man martyred;
June 29 2021; In Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state
terrorism, martyred one Kashmiri youth in Srinagar, today. The youth was killed
by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Parimpora of the city.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/28/indian-troops-martyr-one-kashmiri-youth-in-srinagar.html
3
UN and Human rights violations against children; June 30 2021; UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed his
concern over the “grave violations” against children in Indian Illegally
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and called upon the government to take
preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets
against them, The call was made by the UN chief in the annual report on
Children and Armed Conflict, which was launched last week by his Special
Representative on the subject, Virginia Gamba.
“I remain concerned by grave violations against children in Jammu and
Kashmir and call upon the Government to take preventive measures to protect
children, including by ending the use of pellets against children, ensuring
that children are not associated in any way to security forces, and endorsing
the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles,” the
secretary-general said in the report. “I am alarmed at the detention and
torture of children and concerned by the military use of schools,” he said,
noting that seven schools were used for four months by Indian security forces. “I
urge the (Indian) Government to ensure that children are detained as a measure
of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and to prevent
all forms of ill-treatment in detention,” the secretary-general added. “I also
urge the (Indian) Government to ensure the implementation of the Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, to address the use of
children for illegal activities and the situation of detained children*.” According
to the UN report, a total of 39 children (33 boys, 6 girl) were killed and
maimed (9 killed and 30 maimed by pellet guns) and several casualties in other
actions, including 13 in crossfire and shelling across the line of control. “There
is no place for children in conflict, and we must not allow conflict to trample
on the rights of children”, he said. More than 300 innocent Kashmiris,
including women and children, were killed in “fake encounters” and staged
“cordon-and-search” operations. 750 Kashmiris were critically injured, while
2,770 innocent Kashmiris were arbitrarily detained, and 922 houses destroyed as
part of collective punishment inflicted on the Kashmiri communities.In a
particularly horrifying incident, the Pakistani envoy said, a gut-wrenching
picture of a three-year-old Kashmiri boy sitting on the body of his grandfather
(Muhammad Bashir) killed by Indian forces went viral on the internet, drawing
ire from social media and civil society. The three-year-old boy was shown
sitting on top of his motionless grandfather as he cried.
https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/608425-UN-chief-urges-India-to-end-atrocities-against-Kashmiri-children
4 Three youth martyred; July 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Kulgam district, today.The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Chimmer area of the district https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/30/indian-troops-martyr-two-kashmiri-youth-in-kulgam.html
1
Congress on article
370; June 2 2021; Ahead of a meeting called by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress on Sunday said
the Centre should accept the demand for restoration of statehood to J-K in the
interest of the Constitution and democracySurjewala drew attention to
the August 6, 2019 resolution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) where the
party clearly demanded the restoration of full statehood for the state of Jammu
and Kashmir. "We believe that undoing it is a direct attack on democracy
and the constitutional principles," he told reporters when asked about the
issue. Surjewala said the Congress believes that grant of full statehood to
Jammu and Kashmir as also holding elections, so that people can elect their
representatives and have an assembly of their own to carry on the affairs of
the state instead of a rule by Delhi, is the only way forward to guarantee full
restoration of democratic rights in Jammu and Kashmir."It is now for the
prime minister and the BJP to decide whether to hold a meeting or to accept the
demand of the Indian National Congress in the interest of constitution,
democracy and the people to restore full statehood to the state of Jammu and
Kashmir," Surjewala said. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/restore-jammu-and-kashmir-s-statehood-says-congress-ahead-of-pm-modi-s-meeting-11624193642742.html
2
Three Youth martyred;
June 21 2021; In
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act
of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Sopore town. The troops
during a cordon and search operation killed three youth including one Mudasir
Pandit at Gund Brath area of the town. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/21/indian-troops-martyr-three-kashmiri-youth-in-sopore.html
3
Widows day;
June 24 2021; As the world is observing the International Widows Day, today,
miseries and victimization of the Kashmiri women at the hands of Indian troops,
police and agencies continue unabated in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and
Kashmir. According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir
Media Service on the occasion of the International Widows Day, today, the unabated
Indian state terrorism rendered 22,927 women widowed since January 1989 till
date as their husbands were martyred by Indian military, paramilitary and
police personnel. It said over two hundred women whose husbands were subjected
to custodial disappearance after their arrest by Indian troops and police
during the last 32 years are referred to as half widows. According the
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, more than 10,000 men have
disappeared in the custody of Indian troops since 1989, it said. For years,
half-widows in IIOJK have been running from one Indian army camp to another
trying to find whereabouts of their husbands, it added.The report maintained
that 677 women have been martyred by the troops since January 2001 till date.
It pointed out that womenfolk constitutes the majority of the Kashmiris
suffering from multiple psychic problems. “Due to unending agony, Kashmiri
widows, half-widows are suffering from psychological problems. As per a study,
women comprise more than 60% of psychiatric patients in IIOJK,” it added. The
report said the Kashmiri women are targeted for raising their voice against
Indian brutalities. Dozens of women including Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi,
Naheeda Nasreen and Hina Bashir Baig are languishing in different jails of
India and IIOJK for their affiliation with the ongoing Kashmir freedom
movement, it said.The report said the presence of large number of widows and
half-widows is testimony to Indian troops’ tyranny in IIOJK. It added that the
world must raise its voice over the plight of Kashmiri half-widows whose
husbands have disappeared in the custody of Indian troops. Meanwhile, APHC
leaders, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Farida Bahenji and rights activist
Muhammad Ahsan Untoo in their separate statements said the Kashmiri women are
the worst victims of Indian state terrorism in the occupied territory. They
said thousands of women have lost their husbands, brothers and sons as they
were martyred or subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian troops. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/23/22927-women-widowed-in-iiojk-since-1989.html
4
J&K
and Modi ; June 25 2021; Refusing to back
down, the political parties of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on Tuesday asked Modi to
revoke the “unconstitutional and immoral” move of reading down the special
status of J&K. “This decision is not acceptable to the people of J&K. I
told the prime minister that if the government removed it [the special status]
illegally, my party will fight democratically and constitutionally for
restoring it,” Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of the erstwhile state and
vice-president of the Gupkar alliance, said.“Article 370 was not given to us by
Pakistan. It was incorporated into the Constitution by Jawaharlal Nehru and
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Whether it takes months or years, we will strive to
get it back,” Mufti, who heads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said. Mufti
was among 14 political leaders from J&K, including four former chief ministers
and other senior leaders, invited to the all-party meeting chaired by the prime
minister. Briefing the media, senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said
his party raised five issues concerning J&K during the all-party meeting.
He said the Centre must restore J&K’s statehood and hold assembly elections
at the earliest for “strengthening democracy”. Seeking safeguards for J&K
locals, Azad said the domicile rules of J&K which date back to 1925 must be
restored along with the exclusive rights of state subjects in government
employment.Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of the erstwhile state, told
reporters that his party, National Conference, believes that the August 5, 2019
decision was “against the interests of J&K”. “But we won’t take laws into
our hands. We will fight the battle for (Article 370 restoration) legally,” he
said. According to sources, the prime minister is believed to have urged the
political parties of J&K to participate in the delimitation exercise “at
the earliest” which will set the stage for holding assembly elections in the
union territory. The Delimitation Commission has been set up to redraw the
assembly constituencies and increase their numbers from the present 107 to 114.
Political parties in J&K suspect that the exercise would be used to alter
the unique demographic balance of the union territory.
5
Putting the ball back into the Central
government’s court, Omar said that “singling out” J&K for the delimitation
exercise has created a “lot of suspicion” among the people.“Making J&K a
union territory is not acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir region. We
want complete statehood with the restoration of independent cadre for J&K,”
Omar said. Mehbooba said she complimented the prime minister for opening
dialogue with Pakistan during which they reaffirmed their commitment for respecting
the 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control and International Border
with Pakistan. “The government must open all the trade routes of Kashmir which
provided employment to hundreds of people. What is stopping the government from
talking [to Pakistan] again if it brings peace and prosperity to J&K?” she
asked, while demanding the government to release the political prisoners. Azad,
who was flanked by Mir and senior Congress leader and former J&K deputy
chief minister Tara Chand, said the Central government must also release the
political prisoners . Modi said
delimitation has to happen at a quick pace so that polls can take place. “Our
priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy in J&K. Delimitation has to
happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected
government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory,” Modi said
in a tweet. Shah said delimitation exercise and peaceful elections are
important milestones in restoring statehood. “We are committed to ensure all
round development of J&K… the delimitation exercise and peaceful elections
are important milestones in restoring statehood as promised in
parliament,” . https://thewire.in/politics/jammu-and-kashmir-all-party-meeting-mehbooba-mufti-narendra-modi-statehood-peace
6 Youth martyred; June 26 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, today the troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Hanjipora area of the district. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/25/indian-troops-martyr-youth-in-shopian.html
Kashmir
Update 133: Week , May 14, 2021 to June,20,2021
1 US concerns; June 13 2021; India remains the world’s largest democracy with a strong rule of law but some of the Indian government’s actions, including restrictions on freedom of expression, have raised concerns that are inconsistent with the country’s democratic values, a top US official has told lawmakers. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Dean Thompson’s remarks came during a Congressional hearing on Democracy in the Indo-Pacific on Wednesday at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation. Thompson said.“However, some of the Indian government’s actions have raised concerns that are inconsistent with India’s democratic values,” he said.“This includes increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and the detention of human rights activists and journalists,” he said. Thompson said the US regularly engages in and on these issues, including the important work of civil society. India has previously rejected criticism by foreign governments and human rights groups on allegations that civil liberties have eroded in the country. “Similarly, at times, that has happened in India; though, I think, India, we can say, has a very vibrant press overall that reports very freely on its government,” he said. Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, who represents a Congressional district from Pennsylvania, raised the issue of Kashmir during the Congressional hearing.“Although of course, they’re two great democracies, democracies including ours and India’s are not without their flaws and problems. I do have a pretty big (number of) Kashmiris in my community and there is, of course, concern about the treatment of the Kashmir people,” she said.Thompson said that the Biden administration routinely raises issues related to a vast array of rights and democratic issues with India.“Kashmir is one area where we have urged them to return to normalcy as quickly as possible, including we’ve seen some steps taken: The release of prisoners, the restoration of 4G access, things of that nature. There are other electoral steps we’d like to see them take and that we have encouraged them to do and will continue to do so,” Thompson said . https://indianexpress.com/article/india/us-official-on-india-democratic-values-7355836/
2 Congress and 370; June 13 2021; In a leaked chat with Pakistani journalist on Clubhouse, Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that if Congress comes back to power, it might reconsider the abrogation of Article 370. "When they revoked Article 370, democracy was not there in Kashmir as they had put everyone behind bars. And ‘Kashmiriyat’ is something that is one of the fundamentals of secularism. Kashmir being a Muslim-majority state had a Hindu king and both worked together. In fact, Kashmiri pandits were given reservation. The decision to revoke Article 370 and reducing the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir is unfortunate. And the Congress party will certainly relook at this issue,” Singh said in the Clubhouse chat. 'Digvijay was architect of fake saffron terror conspiracy’ However, there were few who agreed with what Singh said. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/twitter-faceoff-huge-uproar-after-digvijay-singh-says-will-reconsider-article-370-revocation/articleshow/83459316.cms
3
Broken promises; June 17,2021; if promises are made to be
broken, then Kashmir may be summoned to prove the treacherous proposition.
Broken promises haunt Kashmir's history, and explain its tragedy. I will
confine myself to the last century as a concession to the shortness of life. Under
the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar, Great Britain sold Kashmir and its then 2 million
people to a Sikh ruler, Gulab Singh, like sheep and cattle. The strutting
British Empire valued Kashmiris every bit as much as it did the Irish then
undergoing the Potato famine, which many in New York condemn as a British
genocide. But that was of little solace to their South Asian counterparts. Kashmir
was a princely state under Gulab Singh and his successors, Ranbir Singh, Partap
Singh, and Hari Singh. A princely state was not directly ruled by the British
raj like India, but was subject only to British dictation over matters of defense
and foreign policy. Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu, began his princely rule over
Kashmir in 1925. The people of the land were predominantly Muslim, but lived a
warm coexistence with Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs. Their understanding of
Islam had taught them mutual respect, harmony, and ecumenism. The Maharaja
inherited a regime earmarked by brutal repression of Muslims. Heavy taxation,
discriminatory laws, forced labor, and the absence of representation in
services and lack of educational facilities were chief grievances. The
slaughtering of a cow was a capital crime and mosques were controlled by the
state. All dissent or political protest was brutally suppressed. For instance,
the Maharaja summarily drowned state silk factory workers in 1924 for the audacity
of demanding higher wages than the likes of Oliver Twist. Muslims who
petitioned British Viceroy Lord Reading to correct or ameliorate their
grievances during his 1924 visit were sent into exile and their properties
confiscated. The British then appointed a commission headed by B.J. Clancy to
investigate the grievances. It confirmed their authenticity, recommended
remedial measures, which were largely neglected by the Maharaja. A Kashmiri
national movement was galvanized in 1931 when a state factotum forbade the Imam
to deliver a sermon before the customary Friday prayer. Mr. Abdul Qadeer
answered with a fiery speech denouncing the Maharaja's anti-Islamic
injunctions. Muslims rallied to protest his arrest, and 22 were
slaughtered when the police opened fire. The British, predictably, did nothing.
After all, it was difficult to distinguish the Maharaja's savagery from the
mass killings of Indians by the British in 1919, known as Amritsar massacre. I
would argue that this British callousness or aloofness was a pre-partition
broken promise number one. As Rudyard Kipling had versified to the world in
1899, the British Empire and suzerainties had been undertaken to discharge the
"White Man's burden" of civilizing backward races or religions.
But in Kashmir, it had apostatized from its promise and abandoned Muslims to
the law of the jungle. With the lapse of British paramountcy on August 15,
1947, broken promises over Kashmir came not like single spies but in
battalions, to borrow from Hamlet. Princely states enjoyed three options:
accession to India, accession to Pakistan, or independence. But the choice,
according to India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and tacitly endorsed by
the British was to be made by popular referendum in cases where the creed of the
ruler varied from the religion of the majority. That fundamental democratic
principle had been sternly applied by Nehru with military means in Hyderabad
and Junagadh where the rulers were Muslim but their inhabitants largely Hindu.
Kashmir presented a converse case: the Maharaja was Hindu but the majority
subscribed to Islam. When paramountcy lapsed in Kashmir, the Maharaja's
despotic regime was tottering. An indigenous rebellion was in full swing.
Instead of submitting to a referendum, Maharaja’s vaulting and mean-spirited
ambition prompted a plea to the Indian army for intervention. Nehru responded
with alacrity on October 27, 1947, and intrigued to generate a bogus instrument
of Kashmiri accession to India to justify its aggression. British scholar
Alistair Lamb has persuasively exposed the forgery, a first cousin to the
Tzar's Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Indigenous Kashmiris fought Indian
troops to a standstill. Contemporaneously, India's head of state, Lord
Mountbatten, officially promised a Kashmiri plebiscite in plain language over
which only Mr. Pickwick might puzzle: "[I] n consistence with their policy
that in the case of any state where the issue of accession has been the subject
of dispute, the question of accession should be decided in accordance with the
wishes of the people of the state. It is my government's wish that as soon as
law and order have been restored in Kashmir and its soil cleared of the
invaders, the question of the state's accession should be settled by a
reference to the people." India then raced to the United Nations Security
Council on January 1, 1948, and championed a pair of resolutions on August 13,
1948 and January 5, 1949 that prescribed a self-determination vote for
Kashmiris on the heels of United Nations supervised demilitarization. Pakistan
eagerly endorsed that solution to Kashmir's disputed territory. India, however,
was soon undeceived of its delusions over Kashmir's political yearning.
Recognizing that its people would never freely vote accession to India, it contrived
excuse after excuse to frustrate a plebiscite. When the United Nations proposed
arbitration, a reference to the World Court, or any other method of resolving
minor demilitarization quarrels, India nixed them all. After a few years, it
dropped all pretense of acceding to a referendum by unilaterally proclaiming
its annexation of Kashmir. India's proclamation has never been accepted
by the United Nations, which continues to list Kashmir as disputed territory
and subject to the Security Council's self-determination resolutions. When
Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations was asked to
clarify the position of the UN on Kashmir soon after the abrogation of Article
370 and 35A by the Government of India, he said on August 8, 2019, “The
position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter of the
United Nations and applicable Security Council resolutions.” Dr.
Syed Nazir Gilani, President, JKCHR is correct when he said, “Indian action of
5 August 2019 in Kashmir has consequences at home, in the neighbourhood and at
the international level. This action is a breach of the terms of the Instrument
of Accession and under the UN template on Kashmir India has loaded upon itself
a very grave offence against the United Nations and the right of the
people of Jammu and Kashmir to self-determination”. Broken promises two, three,
and four thus represent India's reneging on its Kashmir plebiscite pledges made
by Lord Mountbatten, Prime Minister Nehru and Indian delegate to the United
Nations. Broken promise number five can be laid at the feet of the Security
Council which has never exerted any moral or other clout to even nudge India
towards compliance with its resolutions. It seems that the Security Council has
honored India's indefensible defense of its Kashmir broken promises because of
its muscular military, nuclear and economic profile and hegemony in South Asia.
Broken promises number six, seven, and eight came in 1966, 1972, and 1999. At
Tashkent following the 1965 India-Pakistan war, promises were made by India to
negotiate seriously over Kashmiri sovereignty. But nothing was done. At Simla,
following a 1971 war over Bangladesh, India again agreed to talk seriously
about Kashmir. But again the promise was honored in the breach, not the
observance. During a brief honeymoon between India and Pakistan at Lahore in
1999, India once more promised genuine negotiations over Kashmir, and once more
betrayed its pledge by instantly insisting that India's claim of sovereignty
over Kashmir would never be placed on the negotiating table. When President
Donald Trump offered his office of mediation on July 23, 2019 to resolve the
Kashmir dispute, S. Jaishankar, Indian foreign minister said on August 2, 2019
that any discussion on Kashmir will only be conducted with Pakistan and
only bilaterally. Then Jaishanker broke the promise number nine when he told
Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi just two weeks later on August 13, 2019 that
Kashmir was an internal matter of India. The train of broken promises over
Kashmir might be forgiven if the consequences were innocuous or
inconsequential. But I submit the opposite is the case. India exerts an
iron-fisted rule over Kashmir that would stir the heart of Genghis Khan. With
approximately 900,000 military and paramilitary troops in the territory,
gruesome human rights violations are perpetrated with impunity on a scale that
makes East Timor under Suharto seem tea party. Every human rights group that
has surveyed the grim Kashmir landscape, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, has been shocked
and horrified by the daily atrocities against the people of Kashmir. Ditto for
the annual human rights country reports of the U.S. State Department To hide its
human rights inferno in Kashmir, India prohibits world parliamentarians,
international broadcasts or unchaperoned international electronic media. With
no heart-clutching pictures in the living rooms of the United States and the
European Union, no moral clamor has arisen to do something to relieve the horrors
of millions of Kashmiris. But griping at the unfairness of the world is as
otiose as shouting at the weather. The people of Kashmir are not vengeful.
Charity and magnanimity would be their loadstars if self-determination were
honored despite so many betrayals. Let us hope that the last promise over
Kashmir has been broken. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is the Secretary general,
Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He can be reached at:
1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/kashmir-a-chain-of-broken-promises
4
Youth martyred l June
17 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in
their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in a fake
encounter in Srinagar. The youth was martyred during a cordon and search
operation launched by the troops in Wagoora area of Srinagar, last night.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/16/troops-cordon-nowgam-in-outskirts-of-srinagar.html
5
Modi on
J&K; June 20 202l;a s many as 14 leaders from Jammu and Kashmir,
including four former chief ministers of the erstwhile State, have been invited
for a meeting that will be chaired by Prime Minister Modi in
New Delhi on June 24, officials said on Saturday. Among those invited are four former chief
ministers — Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah of the National
Conference, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, and PDP chief Mehbooba
Mufti. Four former deputy chief ministers of the erstwhile State — Congress
leader Tara Chand, People's Conference leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, and BJP
leaders Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta — too have been invited to the meet. In
addition, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party
(JKAP) chief Altaf Bukhari, Sajjad Lone of the People's Conference, J-K Congress
head G A Mir, BJP's Ravidner Raina, and Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh have
been invited to the meeting.The meeting — the first such exercise since the
Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status and its
bifurcation into Union Territories in August 2019 — is likely to be attended by
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders. When contacted, Omar
Abdullah said that he had received an invitation and would go along the
direction of the party chief. Sources in the National Conference said that over
the next few days, the senior Abdullah will be holding consultations with party
leaders. The Political Affairs Committee of the PDP would also be meeting on
Sunday to take a decision about the talks. Source The Hindu
6
Rape as an instrument
of war; June 20 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, women are the
worst victims of Indian forces’ barbarities as India is using rape as a weapon
of war to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing freedom struggle. An analytical
report released by Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of International Day
for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, today, revealed that Indian
forces’ personnel have sexually assaulted over 11,240 women during the past
three decades in the occupied territory. It said India is deliberately
targeting women in IIOJK to humiliate and terrorize the Kashmiris. The report
pointed out that Kunanposhpora mass rape, Shopian double rape and murder, and
rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua depict the brutal face of Indian
forces. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/19/india-using-rape-as-a-tool-to-suppress-kashmiris-struggle-2.html
Kashmir Update 132: Week , May 7, 2021 to June,13,2021
1
Yatra : June, 8,
2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the
Tehreek-e-Wahdat-e-Islami has said that Narendra Modi’s communal government has
organized the Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir to deliberately expose the Kashmiris to
the most dangerous Indian variant of COVID 19. The spokesman said that on the
one hand the Indian government and its army have confined Kashmiris to their
homes in the name of corona sanctions, while on the other hand, they are
showing their hostility towards Kashmiris by sending influxes of Hindu pilgrims
to the occupied territory. He said that holding yatra would not only make the
coronoa epidemic more serious in Jammu and Kashmir but also the influx of the
pilgrims would cause environmental pollution in Kashmir.The spokesman said that
the pleasant atmosphere of Kashmir Valley was already severely polluted due to
the presence of millions of Indian occupational troops occupying here. He urged
the World Health Organization (WHO) to put pressure on the Modi government to
cancel the Amarnath Yatra in view of the dire situation of corona pandemic in
India due to the arrangement of such event in the name of Kumbh Mela in India.
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/07/modi-regime-wants-to-expose-kashmiris-to-indian-variant-of-covid-twi.html
2
US and Kashmir; June, 9, 2021: The U.S-based Kashmiri
American Community has called upon the Biden Administration to practically move
ahead to ensure implementation of its policy of raising the much-needed matter
of the settlement of Jammu and Kashmir issue with the government of India. In an open letter addressed to Mr.
Anthony Blinken,Secretary of State of the United States of America,
illustrious Kashmir-origin Kashmiri American Community elder Muhammad Azeem
Advocate, released to the media here on Tuesday said "The
Kashmiri American Community of United Sates was encouraged by your policy
speech about the issue of State of Jammu Kashmir delivered at Hudson Institute
in July 2020 and are expecting that the Biden
Administration will be moving forward in this matter to implement its policy of
raising the issue with the government of India." "We the Kashmiri American
Community, living in United Sates of America, are writing you in reference to
the case of State of Jammu Kashmir for not only violation of
basic human rights committed by the Indian government but also the
Right of Self Determination of Kashmiri People under the UN Resolution # S1100 passed August 13, 1948 which granted them The Right
of Self Determination through a Plebiscite conducted under the auspicious of United Nations Both India and Pakistan have already agreed at the United Nations through various
Resolutions on Kashmir to conduct Plebiscite to determine the Right of Self
Determination of Kashmiri People in their India and Pakistan controlled State since 1947."Your
Honor, we are requesting your intervention in this serious matter to bring India and Pakistan to the table and work to arrange the
Plebiscite in all parts of the Kashmir to enable
Kashmiris to exercise their Right of Self Determination," the letter
concluded.
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/kashmir/kashmiri-american-community-seeks-biden-admin-1271885.html
3
Further division of Kashmir: June
9 2021:
Pakistan on Monday said Indian actions in occupied Kashmir for perpetuating its
control of the disputed region would be unlawful and vowed to continue
challenging such moves.“No new instrument of occupation shall have any legal
effect,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement following reports of
possible further bifurcation and demographic changes in the occupied territory.
India had in 2019, after stripping occupied Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous
status, bifurcated it. Speculation had begun in the occupied region after a
meeting of senior officials from held Kashmir with the union home minister that
the territory could be further divided. The speculation first started on social
media.“We have noted with serious concern reports indicating that India might
be plotting further division, bifurcation and demographic changes in the Indian
Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to perpetuate its illegal
occupation,” the FO spokesman said. India cannot change the disputed status of
IIOJK, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions, nor can
it force Kashmiris and Pakistan to accept illegal outcomes, he asserted.
“India’s unilateral and illegal actions in IIOJK remain violative of international
law and the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions,” the FO said
in a statement.“We call upon the international community, including the United
Nations, world parliaments, international human rights and humanitarian
organisations and global media to take immediate cognizance of the situation.
India must be stopped from any further illegal action in the occupied
territory,” the FO added.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1628149/pakistan-challenges-indias-plan-to-bifurcate-occupied-kashmir
4
Chotta Bazaar
massacre: June , 2021: On June 11, 1991, the Indian paramilitary
CRPF troops after an alleged clash with unknown attackers at Zainakadal in the
city went berserk, and opened indiscriminate firing with their automatic
weapons all the way from their camp at Syed Mansoor to the densely populated
downtown area of Srinagar, Chotta Bazaar.The report further said that with
blood in their eyes, the troops barged into the shops, gathered people outside
on the streets and killed them randomly. Four people were shot in a motor
mechanics’ workshop and four others were shot outside a medical college. Some
rickshaw drivers and bystanders were also shot by the troops. The
indiscriminate firing by the forces’ personnel took a massive toll of 32 lives
of innocent civilians. Around 22 persons were also critically injured in the
incident. The bullets hit shopkeepers, passerby, a 75-year old woman and a
child of ten years age. According to the reports published in The Kashmir Times
next day, the entire area from where the dead bodies were picked and brought to
the police control room by 8 pm bore blood stains, the KMS report added.It
pointed out that this blood curdling incident still causes a deep stir inside
the hearts of the scores of bereaved families whose kiths and kins were
massacred. Even Amnesty International then expressed its serious concern on the
horrific incident and demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter, the report
said. It maintained that, 30 years on but memories of Chotta Bazaar massacre
are still fresh in the Kashmiris’ minds and the victims are still awaiting
justice.The report said that history of IIOJK is littered with many Chotta
Bazaar like carnages as Indian troops have carried out dozens of massacres in
IIOJK since 1990. The aim of committing Chotta Bazaar like carnages is to
instill fear among the Kashmiris, it added. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/10/chotta-bazaar-incident-one-of-bloodiest-massacres-in-iiojk.html
5
Three martyred; June
3 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, three persons
were martyred by the random firing of Indian forces’ personnel at Aarampora in
Sopore town, today. The incident triggered a forceful anti-India protest in the
area, mostly participated by women. The Indian police resorted to firing in a
vindictive action after two of their personnel were killed and three others
including an assistant-sub-inspector injured in an attack by unknown persons.
The protesters raised high-pitched pro-freedom slogans and denounced the
killings by Indian police. https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/06/12/unknown-gunmen-attack-indian-police-in-sopore-civilian-injured.html
6
7
Kashmir
Update 131: Week , May 31, 2021 to June,6,2021
1
Youth suicide: Jun., 2, 2021: Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a last video
message from a student, Shoib Bashir, who died by suicide on Saturday, has
drawn attention to the miserable plight of a group of government school
teachers in the territory. Shoib Bashir, the son of a government school
teacher, was forced to end his life by his failure to pay the fees for his MA
course in psychology.“The only reason behind my suicide is non-payment of
salary to my father for last over two years. It has made our life pathetic
beyond words,” Shoaib Bashir is heard saying in the video. His father, Bashir
Ahmad Mir, was not paid since March 2019. The authorities had blocked his
salary citing a police verification report. The 51-year-old teacher was
arrested in 1990s on the charges of supporting the freedom movement. A local
court later acquitted him of all charges. The CID verification report contains
no adverse remarks against Bashir Mir. The report concludes that “he is
presently silent and busy with his job”. “A court has also issued orders asking
that wages be released,” Shoib Bashir’s father said. Around 140 teachers in
IIOJK have not received salary since March 2019. All of them have blamed the
former Director of School Education Younis Malik, who was transferred a few
months ago.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/06/01/in-video-before-suicide-kashmiri-student-highlights-salary-denial-to-teachers/
2
UN to India: June 6
2021; United Nations (UN) in a letter from its special rapporteurs
has requested a response from the Government of India over a series of
allegations in the cases concerning arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing,
enforced disappearance, torture, and ill-treatment committed against three men
from Kashmir.“These allegations are part of what appears to be an ongoing
pattern of serious violations of human rights by police, army, security
agencies and the judiciary in the Jammu and Kashmir region, warrants in our
view the most serious attention on the part of the highest authorities”,
mentioned the letter addressed to the Indian government.The letter highlighted
the cases of Waheed Para, Irfan Ahmad Dar, and Naseer Ahmad Wani. Waheed Para, a political and social activist,
who is also a member of ‘The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’
was arrested on November 25 2020, and has remained under detention since then.
According to the letter, Para had participated in a closed virtual meeting with
the UN on 30 July 2020. In the meeting, he raised concerns over the Government
of India’s actions in Jammu and Kashmir, its treatment of Muslim minorities,
and the recent border tensions with China. Following his interaction, he
started receiving threats from officials with the NIA. They indicated that he
was inviting trouble by engaging in such events. He was given an ultimatum that
if he did not stop speaking out about the Government of India, action would be
taken against him. “He was subject to abusive interrogations after his arrest,
which lasted from 10 to 12 hours at a time and questioned about his
participation at the above-mentioned event where he interacted with UN Security
Council members. He was held in a dark underground cell at subzero temperature,
was deprived of sleep, kicked, slapped, beaten with rods, stripped naked and
hung upside down. His ill-treatment was recorded. Mr. Para was examined by a
government doctor three times since his arrest last November and three times by
a psychiatrist. He requested medication for insomnia and anxiety.”, mentioned
the letter. The special rapporteurs also mentioned, “Our concern in the case of
Mr. Waheed Para is heightened by the fact that his arrest and detention appear to
be linked to his interaction with UN Security Council members, which would
amount to acts of reprisals for such cooperation.” Irfan Ahmed Dar, a
23-year-old shopkeeper, was arrested near his residence in Sopore area of
northern Kashmir by Jammu and Kashmir Police Special Operations Group (SOG) on
15 September 2020. He was detained without a warrant. SOG raided his house, his
family members were beaten and their house was vandalized. On 16 September
2020, Dar’s family received news that he died. “The police claimed that Mr.
Ahmad Dar was killed while he was trying to escape from their custody. However,
while performing their last rites on his body, it was found that his facial
bones had been fractured, his front teeth were broken and his head appeared to
have bruises of blunt force trauma.”, the letter said. On 29 November 2019,
19-year-old Naseer Ahmed Wani’s house was raised by a team of 44 Rashtriya
Rifles (44 RR). They allegedly claimed that his phone was used by militants. While vandalizing Wani’s house, “The army
personnel assembled all the women in a single room and asked their names, took
their photographs and requested everyone to handover their mobile phones. They
were threatened that if they did not comply, they would be stripped naked”,
mentioned the letter. He was taken away by the soldiers. The next evening, the
same army officers visited Wani’s house and told his family that there was no
need to visit the police station or to ‘initiate any legal proceedings’ as they
released Wani. He never returned home and his whereabouts are unknown ever
since. According to the letter, his family was threatened “not to make any
further enquiries or take legal action.” Seeking out clarifications into the
allegations made about the ill-treatment of three Kashmiri men, the letter
said, “It is of particular concern that no investigation into the allegations
of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have yet to be conducted
in an independent, impartial, prompt, effective, thorough and transparent manner
in accordance with the human rights obligations of India.” Under the mandates
provided to special rapporteurs by the Human Rights Council, they seek
observations from the Government on India in the matters of: ‘fate and current
whereabouts of Mr. Naseer Ahmad Wani’, ‘inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment of Mr. Waheed Para, Mr. Irfan Ahmad Dar, Mr. Naseer Ahmad Wani’,
‘detailed information about the factual and legal grounds for the arrests and
continued detention of Mr. Waheed Para and Mr. Dar’ and ‘factual basis
justifying the recourse to terrorism related charges levied against Mr. Waheed
Para’. “If no such measures have been taken, please explain how this is
compatible with the international human rights obligations of India,” said the
letter. Concluding the matter, the special rapporteurs of the UN said: “These
allegations are part of what appears to be an ongoing pattern of serious
violations of human rights by police, army, security agencies and the judiciary
in the Jammu and Kashmir region, warrants in our view the most serious
attention on the part of the highest authorities. In this regard, we may
publicly express our concerns in the near future, as we believe that the wider
public should be informed about the implications of these allegations on the
exercise and enjoyment of their human rights.”“The Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA) did not respond to a request for a comment, or for confirmation that it
has received the letter”, as reported by The Hindu. https://www.siasat.com/un-seeks-indian-govts-response-on-human-rights-violations-in-kashmir-2145382/
Kashmir
Update 130: Week , May 24, 2021 to May.,30,2021
1
Kashmir struggle:
May, 23, 2021: The sacrifices of the people of Kashmir will not go in vain byDr.
Ghulam Nabi Fai; In the annals of history, nations and peoples are often
blessed with leaders, guides and activists who play singular roles providing
leadership that transcends inspiration and casts a lasting impact on these
societies. May 21, 1990 was the day when the Indian occupation forces
assassinated an illustrious Kashmiri freedom‑fighter, Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq
along with 70 mourners when the army resorted to firing on his funeral
procession while it was on its way to Martyrs Cemetery. Twenty-two years later,
on May 21, 2002, Indian forces also killed Khawaja Abdul Gani Lone, leader of
All Parties Hurriyet Conference who had come to Martyr’s cemetery to pay homage
to the Kashmiri martyrs, including Mirwaiz Sahib who gave their last full
measure of devotion in unflagging pursuit of a just and noble cause. May 21
will remain embedded in the history of Kashmir and in the hearts and minds of
millions of Kashmiris as the day of supreme sacrifice. While our martyrs earned
a choice place in the Hereafter, the Indian occupation forces earned the
dubious honor of creating more martyrs ‑ over 100,000 to‑date and the count
goes on. These martyrs include infants, women, and the old; they are common
Kashmiris as well as outstanding scholars and leaders.In many ways, Mirwaiz
Sahib and Lone Sahib were yet other martyrs to the cause, another addition to
the list of martyrs of Kashmir being compiled since 1931 when our people first
raised their voice against tyranny and alien occupation. When in 1990 the winds
of change blew across the world, destroying dictatorships and occupations, the
people of Kashmir also renewed their struggle. During our period of quiet the
world had forgotten us. Now, they were filled with hope and longing of a new
dawn. It was at this crucial juncture that the Mirwaiz Sahib and Lone Sahib
emerged to present a much larger aspect of their leadership. They not only
rekindled the issue afresh but also gave it a new vigor and meaning. Mirwaiz
Sahib and Lone Sahib were brilliant and articulate statesmen who were gunned
down for their leadership role in educating their people in their struggle for
self‑determination. They were gunned down because they reminded the world about
the pledge that was agreed upon by India and Pakistan, and championed by the
democratic powers, including the United States and endorsed by the UN Security
Council. I had the good fortune of having a detailed meeting with the late
Mirwaiz in 1980 just two weeks before I was forced to leave Kashmir. This
meeting took place during the visit of the Imam Kaaba to Kashmir when Mirwaiz
had been kind enough to invite me along with the Imam to the Mirwaiz Manzil. We
discussed the issues of mutual concern and more importantly the ways for the
resolution of the Kashmir issue. I could discern within him a selfless desire
to serve and emancipate his people from under the Indian occupation. Lone Sahib
was a great personality blessed with great talents, not only as a politician
but also as a deep thinker. By far the most vivid recollection I have of Lone
Sahib was his speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York during an
OIC – Foreign Minister Annual Meeting on September 27, 1999. The participants
were fascinated by his presentation. Lone Sahib said, “I am grateful for the
opportunity to address the Organization of the Islamic Conference as the voice
of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference, the genuine embodiment of the
aspirations of the Kashmiri people.” He added, “Indeed, to speak of
humanitarian tragedies and injustice without mentioning Kashmir is like
reciting the Holocaust without mentioning Auschwitz or the Palestinian‑Israeli
cruelties without mentioning Shaba and Shatila refugee camp slaughters.” Lone
Sahib shock the conscience of the OIC leadership by asking: “Is the lesson of
Kashmir to be that a nuclear power with an attractive economic market can defy
international law, human rights, and morality with impunity? What would
that do to the cause of non‑proliferation? What would that do for the
cause of humanity? What would that do for securing adherence to the
international norms, universal values and above all to the United Nations
Security Council resolutions?” The people of Kashmir will never forget the
selfless contribution and the tireless efforts of the Mirwaiz Sahib and Lone
Sahib. Their efforts will remain forever a milestone in the history of the
freedom struggle of Kashmir. The vision of Mirwaiz Sahib, Lone Sahib and the
unity and sacrifices of the people of Kashmir will undoubtedly lead the
Kashmiri freedom struggle to its logical conclusion, that is freedom from the
occupation and alien subjugation. Let us all rededicate ourselves to the vision
of our martyrs and continue our struggle in unity with full faith in Allah
(Subhanahu wa Taala) to whom belongs victory and defeat, success and failure. May
Allah accept the sacrifice of the fellow Kashmiri martyrs? Ameen; Dr. Fai is
the Secretary General of Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum and can
be reached at: 1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com
2
UK Protests; May 24 2021;Kashmiris
and Pakistanis in the United Kingdom staged protests, held digital campaigns
and other events in various cities across the UK from London to Glasgow in
connection with Kashmir Martyrs' Day on the call of the Tehreek-e-Kashmir
(TeK). During Friday sermons in mosques, religious scholars strongly condemned
the killing of 70 unarmed Kashmiris by the Indian army on May 21, 1990. Tehreek-e-Kashmir led protests and conferences were
held in Reading, Bolton, Glasgow, Bradford, Birmingham, Oldham, Nelson and
London among other cities in the United Kingdom. The four-member Stop
the War (STW) delegation, led by General Secretary Stuart Richardson,
participated in the protest outside the Indian consulate and expressed his
solidarity with the people of IIOJK.Stuart condemned the atrocities committed
by the Indian army against innocent Kashmiris.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2301198/protests-held-across-uk-to-observe-kashmir-martyrs-day
3
China India clash;
May, 24 2021; There was a minor face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in
the no-patrolling zone at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in the first week of
May However, no clash occurred and the
two sides disengaged quickly. A no-patrolling zone extending to around 3
kilometre, around 1.5 km each, on either side of the clash site near the
Y-junction of the Galwan Valley, was created after the June 15, 2020 incident
when 20 Indian army personnel were killed in violent clashes with the Chinese.
A 30-day moratorium was also applied on foot-patrolling then. It was not known
if it has been extended. On the particular day, the Indian and Chinese patrols
reached the area at the same time, a minor face-off happened but they returned
quickly,” said the official. India and China have held 11 round of talks so far
after the clashes last year. While the troops partially disengaged on the north
and south banks of Pangong Tso, phased disengagement is yet to take place at
the other friction areas in Eastern Ladakh — Gogra, Hot Springs, Depsang and
Demchok.
4
Youth martyred; may
29,2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and 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 cordon and search operation
in Ganowpora area of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/28/indian-troops-one-kashmiri-youth-in-shopian/
5
UNGA chief on Kashmir; May 30
2021;
During his three-day visit, the UNGA chief in a press conference had said that it was Pakistan's duty to bring
the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to the UN platform with more vigour. Bozkir had
lamented what he said was a lack of large political will for the resolution of
the Kashmir issue compared to the Palestinian issue which had more will behind it."I
think it is the duty, especially Pakistan's, to bring this [issue] to the UN
platform more strongly," Bozkir had said, adding that he agreed that the
Palestinian issue and the Kashmir issue were of the same age. https://www.dawn.com/news/1626372/india-lashes-out-at-unga-chief-over-misleading-remarks-on-kashmir-issue
6
Rape in IOK; May 30 2021; All Parties Hurriyat Conference and other Hurriyat
leaders and organizations expressed
solidarity with the family of Aasiya and Neelofar of Shopian on their 12th
martyrdom anniversary. Aasiya and Neelofar were abducted by Indian men in
uniform on May 29 in 2009, gang-raped and subsequently killed in custody.The
APHC spokesman in a statement in Srinagar said, the ruthless rape and murder of
Aasiya and Neelofar, like other hundreds of such cases, remains a black stigma
on the face of Indian judiciary and military system which have never been fair to
the subjugated people of Kashmir. A woman, who was injured in a blast in
Handwara area of Kupwara district on Wednesday, succumbed to her injuries at a
hospital in Srinagar, today. KMS
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/29/india-using-rape-of-kashmiri-women-as-a-weapon-of-war/
Kashmir
Update 128: Week , May 17, 2021 to May.,23,2021
1.
Two
youth martyred; may 17 2021; In Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their continuing acts of state
terrorism martyred two more youth in Khonmoh area of Srinagar today. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/17/indian-
-martyr-two-youth-in-srinagar-4/
2.
Islamic army; 18 2021;
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tossed the proposal of an
International Force during a virtual meeting with all 57 members of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday. The move comes in the wake
of the latest round of violent confrontations between Israel and Hamas. The
emergency meeting is the first major step toward resolving the crisis by
countries in the Middle East. The countries recognized that OIC is seen playing
an active role in resisting Israel’s activities against Palestine. Cavusoglu
further said that physical protection for Palestinian citizens should be
provided by forming an ‘International Protection Force’ with military and
financial support from willing countries. The call for such an army may become
a source of interest for Kashmir if the
Islamic countries do form an Islamic Army and take a firm stance on the Kashmir
issue
3.
Fake Encounters; may
18 021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu
and Kashmir, the residents of Khonmoh in Srinagar have categorically refuted
the Indian military authorities’ claim that the two youth martyred in the area,
today, were militants killed in an encounter.The residents told the media that
it was a clear case of fake encounter as has been a practice of the Indian
troops of killing the Kashmiri youth so far. The gunshot wounds on the dead
bodies including on legs and feet also indicated that it was not a firefight.
It appears that the youth have tried to flee and were shot in the legs and
after getting hold of them they were killed. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/17/two-martyred-youth-in-khonmoh-were-killed-in-fake-encounter/
Kashmir
Update 127: Week , May 10, 2021 to May.,16,2021
1.
Unlawful
law; May 11, 2021; On January 24, 2012, 25-year-old Sajad
Ahmad Dar of Sopore, who had a firearm injury in the head, was detained under
the Public Safety Act (PSA) and subsequently lodged at the district jail
Kupwara. Two months later, he died at Kashmir’s lone tertiary-care health
institution – Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS), Soura – a few
hours after being brought there for treatment. Dar’s family blamed the jail
authorities for his death, saying they failed to provide him with medical
assistance on time. The family of veteran separatist leader Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai,
who breathed his last at a hospital in Jammu on May 5 after being shifted there
from district jail Udhampur, has accused the authorities of denying him medical
treatment in prison. Seventy-seven-year-old Sehrai was chairman of
Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, an influential separatist group. His family told The Wire that he was
suffering from multiple ailments for the past 15 years and medical tests were
conducted every three months in the earlier period of his detention. “But he
was not provided any such medical facility after he was lodged in Udhampur jail
last year. He was never brought out of the jail for treatment or medical
examination in the past 10 months,” his son, Mujahid Sehrai, said. According to
him, his father told them several times over the phone from the jail that he
was not feeling well. “We approached a court for providing him medical
treatment but it did not pass any direction yet,” he said, adding that the jail
authorities shifted him to the hospital on May 4 only after his condition
worsened. His death is one more addition to the list of Kashmiris who died
while while detained under the PSA – a law under which a district magistrate
can detain a person on his/her subjective satisfaction that the person is
likely to act prejudicially to the security of the state or public order. Four
Kashmiris have died under similar circumstances in the past nine years. The
deaths have also raised questions about the detention of ailing and aged
persons under the PSA, which has been described as a “lawless law” by Amnesty
International, a London-based rights group. In July 2018, 70-year-old PSA
detainee Ghulam Hassan Malik alias Noor Khan of Gulistan, Narvaw, Baramulla
died at a hospital in Jammu after being shifted there from Kotbhalwal jail. “My
father was not provided proper medical care by the jail authorities after he
fell ill. They (jail authorities) dumped him in the hospital only when they
realised that he would not survive. The jail inmates told us that he was
pleading with the authorities to provide him treatment but they did not even go
near to him,” says his son Irshad Ahmad, a driver In December 2019, 66-year-old Ghulam Muhammad
Bhat, a member of proscribed Jamaat-e-Islamia, died inside a jail in Uttar
Pradesh where he was lodged after his detention under the PSA
https://thewire.in/health/public-safety-act-kashmir-detention-healthcare
2.
Youth martyred; may
12 2021; Indian illegally occupied Jammu and
Kashmir, Indian troops in their continued acts of state terrorism martyred
three Kashmiri youth in Islamabad district, today.The troops martyred the youth
during a cordon and search operation in Vailoo area of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/11/indian-troops-martyr-three-youth-in-iiojk/
3. Arrests for peaceful protects; May 16 2021; In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, police arrested around three dozen people including prominent Hurriyat leader Maulana Sarjan Barkati in Srinagar, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian districts. Police during house raids arrested 28 youth in Badshahi Bagh and other areas of Srinagar for holding anti-Israel and anti-India protests. Maulana Sarjan Barkati, the face of pro-freedom and anti-India protests, was arrested from his residence at Zainapora in Shopian. He was arrested after he delivered a speech in his locality on the occasion of Eidul Fitr. Sarjan Barkati became famous after he introduced new styles of raising pro-Azadi slogans in the wake of martyrdom of youth leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani in July 2016. Several youth including a teacher was arrested in Pulwama while a Srinagar’s artist Mudasir Gul who painted Palestinian women face was booked under black law Public Safety Act. Police also booked three workers of Jamaat-e-Islami in Kulgam district. Despite curfew, the youth staged anti-India and anti-Israel protests in different areas of the Kashmir valley. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/15/indian-police-arrest-three-dozen-youth-sarjani/
Kashmir
Update 126: Week , May 26, 2021 to May.,9,2021
1.
Stop pilgrimages: May 2, 2021: The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League
(JKPFL), Muhammad Farooq Rehmani has urged the World Health Organization (WHO)
to force Modi-led fascist Indian government to stop all pilgrimages including
the Amarnath Yatra to Jammu and Kashmir. Muhammad Farooq Rehmani in a statement
issued in Islamabad said that the Narendra Modi’s policy of holding election
rallies and permission to Kumbh mela, pilgrimages of Hindus in times of global
pandemic created unfortunate and horrific death scenes across India,
threatening billions of lives all over the Asian continent. He deplored, now,
Mr Modi has allowed thousands of Hindu pilgrims to begin their Amarnath Yatra
from India to Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government has ignored all Covid-19
hazard warnings at a time when naked dance of Covid deaths have engulfed India
and thousands of human lives are seen daily on shamshan gaths and graveyards
after having surrendered before the Novel Coronavirus miserably and helplessly,
he added. He maintained that under the current hazardous pandemic conditions,
when the Covid has wreaked havoc, the UN and the WHO should force the Modi
regime to stop all pilgrimages, cancel election gatherings and release all
Kashmiri political detainees held in different Indian jails or police centres
and stop further arrests of political workers across the occupied territory to
save innocent human lives from global pandemic. Muhammad Farooq Rehmani said,
the UN and the WHO should urge the Indian government to give first and foremost
importance to healthcare and life of the people and stop playing with the life
of human beings in these worst times of Coronavirus by framing and executing
criminal charges to act upon political vendettas against its opponents.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/01/un-who-appealed-to-force-modi-regime-stop-pilgrimages/
2.
Toxic laws: May 4 2021: The Jammu and Kashmir Council
for Human Rights (JKCHR) has taken a serious exception to the termination of a
Muslim school teacher (Idrees Jan )in the name of so-called
security concerns by the authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and
Kashmir The message of concern has been
sent to National Human Rights Commission of India, Prime Minister of India,
Home Minister of India, Ghulam Nabi Azad leader of the opposition in the Indian
Parliament and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, he maintained. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/02/termination-of-muslim-school-teacher-unacceptable-jkchr/
3.
Ceasefire violation: May, 4, 2021: Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the
deliberate crossing of Working Boundary by Indian BSF troops and their
initiation of unprovoked ceasefire violation in Pakistan’s Charwa Sector
opposite IIOJK Jammu Sector on 3 May at 0556 Hours. In a communiqué to the High
Commission of the Republic of India in Islamabad, the Pakistan’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said that the troops from Indian BSF post in Square-9530
located in IIOJK Jammu Sector opposite to Pakistani Charwa Sector fired
approximately 30×rounds of the small arms and 4× bombs of 60 millimeter mortar
at Pakistani post in Square-9630 without any provocation. The communiqué said
that the incident happened when 15×BSF troops with 3×tractors crossed Working
Boundary and started ploughing on Pakistani side. It said when Pakistan Rangers
Punjab troops tried to persuade BSF troops to return through loud hailers and
whistles, Indian BSF troops responded by firing small arms and mortars at
Pakistani post without any provocation. The same BSF post, it added, took a
sniper shot at Pakistani post with the aim to score causality. The MoF lamented
that to their further surprise, there was news circulating on Indian media,
accusing Pakistan of violating the ceasefire Understanding. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/03/pakistan-expresses-concern-over-unprovoked-ceasefire-violation-by-india/
4.
COVID19 vaccination ceased: May, 4, 2021: In
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in another act of repression
against the Kashmiri people Indian
government has not only stopped supply of Covid-19 vaccine to the territory but
is also diverting the allocated stocks to other Indian cities. A top health
official of IIOJK’s anti-coronavirus operations said, vaccine supplies from
outside of Kashmir have been stopped since last Thursday, resulting into halt
of vaccination in the occupied valley, which is currently under lockdown,
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/04/iiojk-runs-out-of-covid-vaccine-as-india-diverts-fresh-supplies/
5.
Youth martyred; May, 5, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in
Sopore town of Baramulla district, today. The troops martyred the youth during
a cordon and search operation in Nathipora area of the town. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/04/indian-troops-martyr-two-kashmiri-youth-in-sopore-2/
6.
Sehrai : May, 6, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied
Jammu and Kashmir, senior APHC leader and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman, Muhammad
Ashraf Sehrai has been laid to rest in tight military siege in his ancestral
village Tekipora in Lolab area of Kupwara. The occupation authorities had put
strict restrictions on the movement of the people and the whole area was
cordoned off. At the time of the arrival of the dead body and its burial the
electricity in the village was completely cut off, plunging the area in total
darkness. Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai was deprived of all medical facilities and
even basic human facilities in Udhampur jail which became the cause of his
failing health. His dead body was brought in police custody from Jammu to his
native village.The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has fervently appealed to
the people of Kashmir to come out of their homes and hold large protest against
the cruelty of Modi regime. The APHC has asked people to hold Gaibana
Namaz-e-Janza (funerals in absentia) in every nook and corner of the occupied
territory.The appeal has also been made to the Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora
and peace loving people all across the globe to hold protests and Gaibana
Namaz-e-Janaza all across the globe.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/06/ashraf-sehrai-laid-to-rest-amid-tight-military-siege-in-iiojk/
7.
Three
youth martyred: May, 6, 2021: In Indian
illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state
terrorism, martyred three Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today. The
occupational forces martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in
Kanigam village of the district.https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/05/indian-troops-martyr-3-kashmiri-youth-in-shopian/
8. Why Muslims Rebel:
The Struggle for Self-determination?;Dr.
Ghulam Nabi Fai ; May 4 2021 :First of all, let me clarify that not all Muslims
rebel, but some do. Not all rebellions are about self-determination, but some
are. Civilization and international peace and security will pay a steep price
if the only answer to Muslim discontent is bloody fists, not democratic
openings. A survey past and present edifies. Today, most refugees are Muslim,
for example Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, etc. Most American military bases are
hosted by predominantly Muslim countries, for example, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey,
Saudi Arabia, etc. But refugees are also Hindus, Christians, Buddhists,
animists, or otherwise. And American military bases exist in important
non-Muslim countries too, for example, Germany, Japan, and South Korea. In
other words, turmoil and belligerency crosses religious or ethnic lines. The
same can be said of self-determination and democracy struggles. East Timorese
were Christians opposing domination by Indonesia’s Muslim majority. Namibia
gained self-determination by defeating South Africa’s apartheid. Muslim Eritrea
gained self-determination against Christian Ethiopia. The Mexican, American,
and Chinese revolutions were engineered without Muslim faces. In sum, peoples
of varying religions, races, and cultures have sought self-determination or
democracy. The struggles are not idiomatic with Muslims. In sum,
oppressed peoples rebel and seek self-determination irrespective of religious
creed. Some so-called experts ask: Are Islam and democracy compatible? The
answer is, yes. Think of Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bosnia, and Kosova. Islam
contains the seeds of democratic practices and habits every bit as much as
non-Islamic religions. Islamic scholars cite the principal of shura or
consultative decision-making. Islam also erects no stark hierarchy of religious
authority like the Roman Catholic Church. In fashioning the compact of Medina,
the Holy Prophet Mohammad employed revelations from God to create a timeless
constitution, yet also sought the consent of all who would be affected by its
implementation. Thomas Jefferson thus borrowed from the Holy Prophet in the
Declaration of Independence in speaking of government by the consent of the
governed. The credibility of proponents
of democracy in the Islamic world is impaired by their historical and
contemporary equivocations or hypocrisy. Britain was no tribune for Islamic
democracy during its colonial heyday in India, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan,
Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, or the Persian Gulf emirates. France struggled
against Muslim self-determination and democracy in Algeria, Tunisia, and
Morocco. The Netherlands neglected to celebrate democracy in Indonesia. The
United States supports flagrantly anti-democratic regime today in Egypt and
elsewhere. In sum, western democracies place self-interest and national security
considerations above Islamic democracy when the two clash. Civil strife and tumult is risked if
democracy does not take the Muslim world by storm. By an overwhelming majority, Muslims covet
democracy and are willing to make enormous sacrifices towards that end.
Indeed, a comprehensive survey published in 2003 by the Pew Global Attitudes
Project found that many Muslims polled clamored more loudly for political
freedoms than Eastern Europeans, most notably Bulgarians and Russians. The Pew
findings were echoed in 2004 surveys conducted by Pipu Norris of Harvard
University and Rob Inglehart of the University of Michigan. Muslims decisively prefer democracy to any
other form of government, and many nations in the Muslim world claim a
democratic mantle, including Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia, and
Indonesia. Muslims are receiving inconsistent messages from the west. First,
they are told that immediate democratization is urgent. Then they are told
Islam is incompatible with democracy, and thus free elections are to be feared
because risking a reprise of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and rule by
benighted mullahs and Grand Ayatollahs. Algeria employed that excuse to cancel
1992 elections, which were destined to be captured by an Islamic party and
Egypt did the same in 2013. Muslims do
not dislike the United States or Great Britain or the West, but they often
oppose their foreign policies that pursue national interests over consistency
or moral justice. The United States rejoiced at jihad to oust the Soviet Union
from Afghanistan, but then denounced it against itself. The United States aided
Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran because fearful that the Khomeini
revolution might gobble up the Persian Gulf, but then warred twice against
Saddam over Kuwait, weapons of mass destruction, and support for
terrorism. Non-democratic regimes in
Muslim countries are explained not by religion, but by history, politics,
culture, and economic traditions. The United States, like every other country,
forges ties with those regimes, which support its interests. Human rights,
accountability, and democracy are subordinated. International relations are not
exercises in altruism. What might be changed is the United States perception of
what are its best interests in the Muslim world. Thus, the United States
stumbled in believing that replacing the democrat Mossadegh with the
monarchical Shah would advance its global agenda in the long run. It did not.
Dr. Nazir Gilani has warned: “Although we hold an undisputable belief that human rights are for all, should
know them, demand them and defend them, yet we see this universal faith being
savaged under pressures of economic interests.” At least 750 million Muslims
thrive in democratic societies of varying genres. That discredits the effort by
some western scholars and ideologues to present Islam as inherently inferior to
western liberalism, authoritarian, and anti-democratic. It I a historical fact
that Benazir Bhutto was the first female head of the state elected in a Muslim
majority country. – Pakistan. And America still waits. Muslims, like others, cherish
self-determination. Self-determination of peoples has been an established human
right since World War I and President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points. The concept
played a leading role in the post-war settlement, and a few plebiscites were
held in disputed border areas. The United Nations, formed after World War II,
celebrates self-determination in Article 1.2 as a major objective.
Self-determination has been enshrined in countless international documents and
treaties that an enumeration must be forgone as a concession to the shortness
of life. However, largely, self-determination was honored more in the breach
than in the observance. The woolly principle of self-determination, like the
principle of nuclear non-proliferation, has been employed according to big
power politics, not according to high moral standards or consistency. Croatia,
Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia have been recognized as separate nations out of
former Yugoslavia by the United Nations, but Kosova has not been. Likewise, big
powers agreed in 1948 that the people of Kashmir have the right to
self-determination but this pledge was never fulfilled until iodate. Dr. Nazir
Gilani refers to a historical debate “when United States and Great Britain decided in November 1947
and August 1951 to take the Kashmir issue to ICJ. Over the years, these two
countries have been dragging feet on the human rights situation in Kashmir and
do not want to disturb Indian market by challenging India under her
responsibilities under the Charter, under the limited Instrument of Accession
and under the UN template on Kashmir.” The international community
and the United States in particular employ double standards, as is customary in
human beings individually in both public and private life. The gist of the
double standard is this. The Muslim world is urged to practice democracy, yet
told to abandon the practice if likely to lead to the election of parties or
candidates feared by the United States. Algeria in 1992, Iran in 1953 and Egypt
in 2012 are exemplary. I am not against the idea of self-determination, if
tempered by prudence and practicality. Indeed, I believe
self-determination is the answer, not the problem in Kashmir and some other
convulsed territories. But the world of politics and international relations do
not lend themselves to Euclidean formulas. In the end, I can say with
confidence that people of any religion will turn to violence when peaceful
avenues of dissent or opposition are closed.
We must listen carefully as well as speak forcefully for all
international conflicts, be it Palestine, Myanmar or Kashmir. Dr. Fai is the
Secretary General of Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He can be
reached at 1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com, www.kashmirawareness.org
9. UN : May, 8 2021: General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir has said that the status of Jammu and Kashmir should not be changed while acknowledging the 1972 Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan making it a bilateral issue."I call on all parties to refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir," he said at a news conference here on Tuesday."I support dialogue and diplomacy, and I encourage both Pakistan and India, neighbours, to resolve this dispute through peaceful means," he said . IANS https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/un-general-assembly-president-says-kashmir-status-should-not-be-changed-acknowledges-simla-pact-248475
Kashmir
Update 125: Week Apr.,26, 2021 to ay.,2,2021
1.
Rape
and Indian Army; Apr 30 2021:#RapistIndianArmedForces. Indian armed forces’ personnel are rapists in uniform
and even women officers of the forces are not safe from their barbarity. A
report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said that earlier this week, a
woman pilot of Indian Air Force (IAF) moved the High Court of Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir after facing sexual harassment by a senior officer.
She also raised objection to the way the Internal Complaints Committee of the
Armed Forces conducted its inquiry. The report said that last year in December,
an Indian Army colonel was booked for raping friend’s Russian wife in Uttar
Pradesh.“The Indian armed forces have no specific provisions pertaining to
sexual harassment. Sexual assault victims rarely receive justice within the
Indian armed forces,” it added. The report pointed out that Indian forces’
personnel frequently indulge in inhuman and brutal acts of rape in Indian
illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It maintained that the Kashmiri women are
facing unending ordeal of trauma due to sexual violence at the hands of Indian
forces. It said that Indian troops are using rape as a weapon of war in IIOJK
to humiliate the Kashmiris and suppress their struggle for securing their right
to self-determination. It said 11,236 cases of rape, gang-rape and molestation
by Indian forces have been reported since January 1989 till date in IIOJK. The
report said that the Kunanposhpora mass rape, Shopian double-rape-and-murder
and gang-rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua are some examples of this barbarity
perpetrated by Indian forces’ personnel in the occupied territory. Around a
hundred women were raped by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation
in Kunanposhpora area of Kupwara district on the night of February 23 in 1991.
Two young women Aasiya Jan and Neelofar were abducted by Indian men in uniform
in Shopian when they had gone to tend their orchard on May 29, 2009. They were
gang-raped raped and subsequently murdered in custody. Their dead bodies were
recovered from a shallow stream. An eight-year-old girl, Aasifa Bano, of Kathua
was abducted, gang-raped and subsequently murdered by Indian police personnel
and fanatics affiliated with Hindu extremist organizations in January 2018. The
report said that the world community must wake up to contain sexual violence
being perpetrated by Indian Army in IIOJK.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/29/indian-soldiers-are-rapists-in-uniform-report/
2. Youth martyred in April; May, 1, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred 18 Kashmiris during the last month of April. during the period, at least 64 persons were injured due to firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by Indian troops and police personnel on peaceful protesters while 92 persons were arrested in the territory. The Indian forces’ personnel destroyed and damaged 9 houses and other structures during so-called cordon and search operations in the month. The troops also molested 4 women during the period. Hurriyat leaders, Javaid Ahmed Mir, Mir Shahid Saleem and Khawaja Firdous, in their statements appealed to the world human rights organizations to take cognizance of the plight of Kashmiri political detainees and play role in their immediate release. In Brussels, the Kashmir Council Europe organized a protest demonstration to express solidarity with the illegally detained Kashmiri prisoners lodged in Indian jails. Talking to the media at the conclusion of the protest, the Council Chairman, Ali Raza Syed, said as the coronavirus is widely spreading in the Indian prisons, threats to the life of the Kashmiri prisoners have increased and their immediate release is essential for safety of their life. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/05/01/indian-troops-martyr-eighteen-kashmiris-in-april/
Kashmir
Update 124: Week Apr.,19, 2021 to Apr.,25,2021
1.
Youth martyred: Apr 20, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops
in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in Shopian
district, today.The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search
operation (CASO) in Zeipora village of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/19/indian-troops-martyr-one-youth-in-iiojk-7/
2.
Pakistani conditions for talks; Apr 4 2021:Islamabad is willing to hold formal bilateral talks with New
Delhi to resolve long-standing issues including the Kashmir dispute if the
latter takes certain steps to “ease lives The sources gave “examples” of
concrete Indian actions that could move the “communication” between the two
countries forward.
3.
First, a permanent halt to demographic
change in IIOJK, where India in April 2020 introduced a new domicile law that
would allow long-term migrants from other parts of the country to gain
permanent residence.
4.
“This would inevitably be necessary to
move forward,” a Pakistani source said. Second, Indian authorities would have
to release political and other prisoners being illegally held since it imposed
a curfew in the Muslim-majority region. Third, the removal by India of
blockades on communication and movement in the occupied region. Fourth, giving
back full statehood rights to IIOJK, which were also revoked as part of the
August 2019 actions, and “recognising that it is subject to an internationally
recognised territorial dispute with Pakistan”. Fifth, a reduction in occupation
forces deployment in IIOJK, where hundreds of thousands of security forces
personnel have been deployed following the August 2019 imposition of lockdown
after India’s Article 370 was revoked.“The markers I have mentioned, these are
what we define as ‘the enabling environment’,” said a source.“This is the next
step. Whatever conditions that India creates, must also be acceptable to the
Kashmiris. Without this, it is unlikely that Pakistan can move forward.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2296388/pakistan-reveals-pre-requisites-for-talks-with-india-report
5. RSS and minorities: Apr., 25 2021: The
relationship between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP is that of the
soul and the body. The BJP disposes of what the RSS proposes. Most chief
ministers, governors, and civil appointees, including the president of India
were recommended by the RSS. The RSS is at the forefront of every election in
India. Founded in 1925, the RSS has been overtly and covertly supporting the
Hindutva parties. RSS’s ideological offshoot BJP took nearly 89 years to form d
a Govt in 2014 at the Center with 282 majority seats of its own. The BJP
fulfilled the RSS’s desire to abolish 370 and the conversion of the Babri
mosque into Ramjanam Bhoomi (god Ram’s birthplace Lashing out at PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti,
RSS’s Muslim Rashtriya Manch chief Indresh Kumar on Monday, termed Mufti a
‘traitor to Islam and India’ for not raising the national flag in
Jammu-Kashmir. Lauding her decision to not contest elections till Article 370
is restored, he said it was for the greater good if Mufti remains away from
electoral politics throughout her life. A massive controversy has broken out
between BJP and PDP over Mufti’s remark to ‘not raise Indian flag till
Kashmir’s state flag is restored’. The
RSS’s idea of Hindu Rashtra is to expel all minorities from India. It wants the
minorities to revert to Hinduism or leave India. While speaking at the RSS’
annual Vijayadashami (foundation anniversary) at Nagpur, the RSS’ then chief
and ideologue Mohan Bhagwat listed various “noteworthy incidents” like Article
370 abrogation, Ram Mandir Bhoomi puja, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that
took place in the last one year. The RSS leaders declared former IHK chief
minister Mahbooba Mufti a traitor. It then rushed its goons to hoist India’s
national flag at his party’s headquarter.
Muslims are even forced to perform Durga pooja. The anti-Muslim amendments
in India’s Citizenship Act were contrived by the RSS. The RSS’s ideologue talks
of India’s Constitution, but the amendments are repugnant to provisions of
India’s Constitution. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) goes against the principle of
constitutional secularism envisaged by the framers of the Indian Constitution.
The CAA emerged out of a new, refined Hindutva ideology, formulated by the RSS. The RSS
and the BJP avoided talking explicitly
talking about Hindutva. The reason was that it was associated with Savarkar and
Hindu Mahasabha. But, after the judgment of the Supreme Court in 1997 on
Ayodhya, the BJP formally accepted Hindutva as its philosophy. Bhagwat is so clever that he does not make any
direct comment on citizenship in formal sense. Instead, focuses on explaining a
few core values of Hindutva. He says, “According to us, Hindutva has three
basics: patriotism, the glory of our ancestors, and respect for culture… The
collective notion of values belonging to the religions (sampradaya) that
are sprung from the entirety, that is India, is known as Hindutva. … This is
the mark of India. And, India belongs to that.” Bhagwat refines the punyabhumi
(pious land) argument of Savarkar. He invokes the distinction between the
Indian origin of a few religions as originally Indian to describe Islam and
Christianity as alien This new
Hindutva-driven ‘national consensus’ actually points towards a new package of
Hindutva politics (the Ayodhya conflict, Article 370, and triple talaq/Uniform
Civil Code, the CAA). Bhagwat’s queer logic is that he “Hindutva does not want a Hindu
state; instead, it wants a constitutional state of Hindutva nation”. RSS’s growing influence over all realms of
life in India indicates that would compel the BJP to amend the Constitution in
accordance with its whims. Under RSS and Hindutva’s influence, the judges in
India increasingly pass judgments in favor of the fanatic Hindus. The Courts
dabble in Muslim religious matters. They may one day pass a uniform religious
civil code upon all minorities. Under the RSS’s influence, the syllabi in India
have already been amended to include Hindu myths and distorted history as Hindu
religion.
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/exploring-the-unholy-nexus-between-rss-and-modis-bjp/
6.
7. Human rights violations
HR Violations
|
(From Jan 1989 till 31
Mar 2021) |
|
|
Total Killings* |
95,758 |
|
Custodial killings* |
7,169 |
|
Civilian arrested |
161,580 |
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed |
110,400 |
|
Women Widowed |
22,925 |
|
Children Orphaned |
107,814 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
11,236 |
*Including killings in fake encounters,
extra-judicial operations and custody
|
(Mar 2021) |
|
|
Total Killings |
11 |
|
Custodial killings* |
3 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
51 |
|
Pellet Injured : |
0 |
|
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged |
0 |
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
0 |
|
Civilian arrested |
110 |
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed |
12 |
|
Women Widowed |
1 |
|
Children Orphaned |
1 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
1 |
*Including killings in fake encounters,
extra-judicial operations and custody
Casualties : Jan 2015 till Mar 2021
|
Casualties from Jan 2015 till Mar 2021 |
|
|
After BJP assumed power
in IIOJK |
|
|
Total Killings |
1620 |
|
Custodial Killings* |
143 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
32494 |
|
Civilian arrested |
33605 |
|
Arson (Houses etc) |
4370 |
|
Kidnapped or Missing |
11 |
|
Women Widowed |
133 |
|
Children Orphaned |
304 |
|
Women disgraced / Molested |
1107 |
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody
Atrocities Post 5 Aug 2019
|
|
|
|
Total Killings |
325 |
|
Custodial Killings* |
41 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
1753 |
|
Total
pellet Injured |
446 |
|
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged |
19 |
|
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured |
144 |
|
Civilian arrested |
14636 |
|
Arson (Houses etc) |
1008 |
|
Women Widowed |
17 |
|
Children Orphaned |
39 |
|
Women disgraced / Molested |
106 |
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody
Casualties Post-Burhan
|
(From 8 July 2016 - 31 Mar 2021) |
|
|
Total Killings * |
1366 |
|
Custodial Killings |
101 |
|
Tortured/Injured |
29492 |
|
Inured
by pellets |
11400 |
|
Eye-sight damaged |
2000 |
|
Arrested |
26525 |
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed |
4322 |
|
Women Widowed |
108 |
|
Children Orphaned |
244 |
|
Women gang-raped / Molested |
1043 |
|
*Including killings in fake encounters, extra-judicial
operations and custody |
Kashmir Media service
Kashmir
Update 123: Week Apr.,12, 2021 to Apr.,18,2021
1.
Youth
martyred: Apr., 11, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh acts of state terrorism martyred five more Kashmiri youth
in Shopian and Islamabad districts, taking the number of the martyred youth in
the territory to 12 since Thursday. Three youth were martyred by the troops
during cordon and search operations in Hadipora area of Shopian while another
two youth were martyred in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/11/indian-troops-martyr-five-more-youth-in-iiojk/
2. Russia on
Kashmir: Apr., 13, 2021:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit to Islamabad augurs well
for the relations between Pakistan and Russia as well as the region. The
hallmark of the visit was that the two countries agreed to boost their
relationship in diverse area such as trade, counterterrorism, energy, and
defense.The past year saw a record 46 percent growth in the bilateral trade
which reached 790 million U.S. dollars. Similarly, construction of the Stream
Gas Pipeline project (formerly North-South gas pipeline), the flagship project
in the energy sector, is in the advanced stages of negotiation. Not only that,
Russian companies have evinced interest to participate in the modernization of
the energy sector and the archaic railroad system of Pakistan. Cooperation in
the COVID-19 was another area where the two countries are cooperating. Russia
has provided 50,000 anti-COVID vaccines while Pakistan intends to buy half a
million more with the provision of producing the vaccine in Pakistan. Apart
from counterterrorism cooperation, peace and stability in Afghanistan were
other areas where the two foreign ministers found common avenues to work
together. Similar messages were conveyed to Lavrov by the Prime Minister Imran
Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa when he called on them. Significantly,
Lavrov visited Islamabad from New Delhi, where he had detailed discussions on
bilateral and regional issues. He specifically hinted at emerging alignments
cobbled together by the United States against China and Russia. He was frank in
expressing his concerns over Indo-Pacific alliance and the QUAD, to which India
is a member. It was a friendly nudge to India that it should be careful before
entering into new alliances. Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar's
evasiveness on Russia's S-400 missile defense system was another indicator of
Indian dilemma of running with the hare and haunting with the hound. It was
obvious that the threat of American sanctions was uppermost in their minds if
they opted for the S-400. Another significant development which India must have
grudgingly noticed was Lavrov's remarks on Kashmir dispute. In an interview
with Pakistan's English daily, The News, Lavrov said: "…we are convinced
that disagreements between states in any region of the world including, of
course, South Asia, should be resolved in a peaceful, civilized manner based on
international law." While it may not be an outright change of Russian
policy on the Kashmir dispute, it nevertheless reminded the Indians that even
strategic partners could redefine their interests and priorities as per the
evolving situation. It was also a message to India that if it can find the U.S.
as an ally, it cannot take Russian support for granted. It was also obvious
that India and Russia did not see eye to eye on Afghanistan situation when
Lavrov, while answering a question from the Indian journalist in New Delhi,
reminded his audience that Taliban were a part of the Afghan society and that
the U.S.' decision to delay withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1 would have
negative consequences. If the Indian side expected that FM Lavrov would be
critical of the Taliban, they were in for disappointment. For Russia, stability
in Afghanistan is more important than supporting a pro-Indian stance of keeping
Ashraf Ghani in power; even the Americans are not supporting such an idea. Russia's
role in the Troika Plus meeting in Moscow held in March and the emerging
consensus among the immediate neighbors of Afghanistan that the U.S. troops'
stay beyond the May 1 deadline would not augur well for future peace in the
country is also gaining traction. However, neighbors of Afghanistan would
support an understanding reached between the U.S. and Taliban allowing
extension of U.S. troops' stay for a short period, say for three-to-six months.
Hopefully, this would allow time to the interlocutors in the intra-Afghan
dialogue to reach to an amicable solution about the future contours . https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-12/Lavrov-s-visit-to-Pakistan-augurs-well-for-the-region--Zp1zkX4FOM/index.html
Kashmir
Update 122: Week Apr.,5, 2021 to Apr.,11,2021
1.
India Pakistan back channel
dialogue: Apr., 5, 2021: “You have been involved in India-Pakistan diplomacy for
40 years, and the back-channel dialogue for more than a decade. According to
you, is there a back channel in place now, and as reports suggest, facilitated
by a third country like the UAE? With regards to the current scenario, my
knowledge of the specifics is limited to what I read in the newspapers. I
can tell you about the dialogue we had (2005-2014 If you were to ask me, even now, it is
probably a bilateral dialogue, although it may be influenced by the Biden
effect. I believe the important state of
J&K on our border deserves full statehood. We had even thought that if we
had a deal, we would have wanted all the former Prime Ministers to be
represented, so that we could show that there was a broad unanimity. But
General Musharraf’s decision to sack his Chief Justice (Iftikhar Chaudhury)
took matters off the rails in Pakistan and the deal we had, could not be
signed. This is accepted as a reason for the failure even by analysts in
Pakistan and the outside world. I have
no advice to give. If true, I believe that a back channel dialogue between Mr.
Doval and General Bajwa would be a good combination. Our two countries have
different power structures, and therefore we need people who have seniority in
their own systems, direct access and confidence of the leadership. They need to
be able to take on the spot decisions. I have worked with Mr. Doval in the
1980s, at the High Commission in Islamabad, including a hijacking situation in
Lahore (1981), and later on the situation in Afghanistan post Bonn conference.
General Bajwa has had an extension. As I said, given all our differences, they
would be a good combination as interlocutors, or to oversee the dialogue. But I still firmly believe that with a
neighbour, particularly when there is an unfriendly relationship, you have to
have a via media to exist. Otherwise, we both hurt ourselves. Engagement is
necessary particularly with an adversary and I am glad it is being done now. I
think we must take the dialogue process slowly, begin with some
people-to-people initiatives and emphasis on economic relations. We need to
have at least a limited beginning in encouraging travel, allowing people to
meet each other. India’s biggest friends and ambassadors are Pakistanis who
visit India and then return to tell others about all that we have achieved. At
a suitable occasion, respective High Commissioners should be reinstated. Track
– II dialogues should be held. There is no need to shy away from any
discussion, because our fundamentals are strong. We expect that no help will be
given to promote terrorist activities in our country. I agree that there are
spoilers in both the systems. However, I have observed that in the present
elections, there has been no real Pakistan-bashing other than a few stray
comments made during the campaign, and that will also ease along the current
process.” https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/doval-bajwa-a-good-combination-to-oversee-back-channel-dialogue-says-former-special-envoy-to-pm/article34238728.ece
2.
25 Years later: Getting Away with Extrajudicial Execution of Jalil Andrabi:Dr.
Ghulam Nabi Fai:April 7, 2021:
One of the darkest chapters of Indian judicial partiality was left hanging half
closed and banging in the wind when Major Avtar Singh, the killer of
internationally known human rights activist and Chairman of Kashmir Commission
of Jurists, Advocate Jalil Andrabi, was found dead after he killed his wife and
two children, and finally himself on June 9, 2012, in Selma, California. Avtar
Singh, a fugitive from justice, who lived in the hot dry central California
community, a suburb of Fresno, was clearly haunted by his past, a past that had
seen the blood spilled of more than one man by his own hands. He had killed
four others to hide the murder of Andrabi, and then he had killed his own
family.
In killing Jalil Andrabi, Avtar Singh certainly did not act on his own
volition. He was only a major. His act was no doubt a response to orders from
above and occurred in a longstanding climate of impunity that the Indian army
enjoys in Kashmir. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives any
Indian soldier the right in Kashmir to take a Kashmiri’s life under any
circumstance, has enabled such a climate for decades. And Jalil Andrabi had
become a hated, despised man by the Army, a man dangerous to the status quo of
continued murder and torture that had been taking place in Kashmir’s jails,
interrogation centers and detention facilities for many years.
Arshad Andrabi, Jalil Andrabi’s brother, has said that the real killers are
still at large, and he is right. The real killers are not just army officers
but all those from the highest office in India on down through Parliament who
had arranged his escape from Kashmir to Canada before he moved illegally to the
United States, or looked the other way and refused to extradite him when
California authorities notified India that they had their man. They are guilty
of maintaining murderous policies, defending hideous acts that take place,
encouraging even more grotesque behavior by the mere act of covering up what
does occur and failing to prosecute those who have used the law vindictively
and without justifiable reason. One wonders whether the government of India is
in control of its own policies or is intimidated by the grip of a military
industry that has its own agenda. Had the government acted in a timely manner,
more lives would have been saved, and perhaps a new horizon in the Indian
judicial system would have finally appeared. Some say that Avtar Singh’s death
was “poetic justice,” and perhaps in some small way it was, but it’s extremely
difficult to see the death of his wife and children as anything but just
another sad tragedy, and another great stain on the history and reputation of
the world’s largest “democracy.” Arshad
Andrabi touched the heights of magnanimity when he said that he was extremely
pained by the death of not only his brother but the deaths of the murderer’s own
family as well. This also symbolizes the compassion of not only Arshad but the
heart and character of the Andrabi family. Jalil Andrabi, his primary victim,
had been a friend of mine. His trip to Geneva in August 1995 shortly before his
murder to attend the ‘47th session of the United Nations
Sub-Commission on Human Rights ‘was at my invitation, as were other
international engagements he had attended in Washington and elsewhere. On one
such occasion, we had traveled by car together, along with my wife, to attend a
convention which was held between September 1 - 4, 1995 in Columbus, Ohio, in
order to talk and exchange views intimately on various issues on which we
shared an interest. It was on this trip that I gained a much deeper
appreciation for Jalil Andrabi’s character. He was a man of deep compassion and
vision, high intellect and deep judicial insight and had been personally
responsible for bringing many human rights violations in Kashmir into the light
of day. During
the United Nations Sub-Commission, Dr. Nazir Gilani, President, JKCHR hosted a
dinner in honor of Jalil Andrabi which was attended by many international
NGO’s. Dr. Gilani played an important role during the Commission to declare
Jalil Andrabi as a ‘UN Protected Person’. Following year Dr. Gilani organized a
memorial for Jalil Andrabi on April 1, 1996 in Geneva to pay respect to his
friend who fell to a death under torture for cause – that we all – so dearly
uphold. During
the Commission, Jalil Andrabi made two interventions, one on August 7, 1995,
under agenda item 18, which was on the issue of ‘Freedom of Movement.’ On that
occasion he had said, “Mr. Chairman, the Kashmiris are waging a legitimate
struggle for achieving the exercise of their right of self-determination, and
the atrocities which constitute war crimes forbidden under the Geneva
Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are being inflicted
upon them only because of this struggle. Therefore, besides, calling upon India
to put an end to the crimes against humanity, it is necessary to compel India
to allow the people of Kashmir an unfettered exercise of their right of
self-determination under the UN auspices.” ”The atrocities,” he said, “which
are perpetrated upon my people are not aberrations but rather integral
components of a systematic policy. These atrocities are being perpetrated as a
weapon of war in order to break the will of the people.” Jalil Andrabi also spoke under the agenda item, ‘The
Administration of Justice’ on August 17, 1995 and said, “ The laws conferring
and unrestricted and arbitrary powers on the armed forces continue to remain in
operation in Jammu & Kashmir, with full impunity to the perpetrators of
crimes against the humanity and violations of fundamental human rights,
threatening the very existence of Kashmiri people.” Advocate Jalil Andrabi knew firsthand
the facts. He had been documenting the human rights violations by taking
information from victim’s families and witnesses. In personal conversations he
had told me how very difficult it was for lawyers to meet with the detainees
and how much they are under pressure, and he had also told me that because of
his political views the Indian Army had often harassed him. He knew that
his life was on the line, in fact, and had spent a month in New Delhi just
prior to his murder, hoping to escape India’s wrath. He had only returned to
Kashmir to celebrate Eid with his family and friends. It was in response to information he
had gathered that in 1994 he filed a petition in Jammu & Kashmir High Court
of Jammu & Kashmir demanding greater access to prisoners. The evidence he
presented was substantial and his arguments convincing, and the High Court
ordered that all district committees consisting of judicial police and medical
authorities make regular visits to jails, detention and interrogation centers,
and police stations all across the state. This was a huge victory. It brought
the state government to its knees. Once he had opened the floodgates, much more
evidence of torture and other crimes became public and it was then, no doubt,
that the Army wanted him dead. The target of guilt had been placed squarely on
their backs, and there was no escape. Many more cases of torture and other
human rights violations became known. Jalil Andrabi was a Muslim but his compassion and love
transcended all religious boundaries. During his intervention in Geneva he
said, “My people are intelligent, industrious and peace loving. The ethical concept of human brotherhood
beyond the bonds of closed religious groupings has always animated Kashmiris.”
During his visit to Geneva Jalil Andrabi met with more than a dozen United
Nations experts, hundreds of members of NGOs, and various delegations
representing different governments. We also had a meeting with UN High
Commissioner on Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso. Jalil Andrabi was so convincing
in his argument because he presented every detail with documentation and logic
that I felt it would be helpful for the cause of Kashmir to invite him to the
United States. In Washington we had meetings with members of Congress, the
State Department, the National Security Council and members of think tanks and
human rights organizations. Jalil Andrabi also spoke during the national annual
convention of the Islamic Society of North America on Labor Day weekend, 1995,
in Columbus, Ohio, which was attended by more than 20,000 people who came from
all across America. I
wanted to invite him again in 1996 to attend the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva, but unfortunately in March of that year, while he was
returning home to Srinagar with his wife, the car was stopped, and he was taken
into custody. Twenty days later, his dead body was seen floating in the Jehlum
River. His hands were tied, he had been shot, and his eyes were gouged out. He
had been tortured mercilessly, an inhuman brutality which can never properly be
explained. Here in Washington, the spokesperson of the State Department, Mr.
Nicholas Burns issued a statement on March 29, 1996, condemning the killing of
Jalil Andrabi and called upon the government of India to conduct a full and
transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Andrabi’s
abduction and murder. Mr. Burns expressed hope that Andrabi’s murderers would
be quickly apprehended and punished. Such a statement was also issued by the UN Human Rights
Commissioner Jose Ayala Lasso condemning the murder and calling for an
impartial investigation. Various members of Congress, including Congressmen
Donald Payne, James Moran, Dan Burton and Dana Rohrabacher wrote a joint letter
to then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao of India on March 27, 1996 conveying
their profound dismay at the death of Jalil Andrabi. They asked that the Indian
government thoroughly investigate this shocking murder and bring the
perpetrators to justice. Members
of Congress also wrote a joint letter to Secretary of State Warren Christopher
on March 27, 1996 and said that Mr. Andrabi’s death was a shocking reminder of
India’s brutal conduct in Kashmir. They requested that the Secretary of State
call upon our ambassador to India and raise this matter with the government of
India. They hoped that the Secretary of State would express their shock at this
extrajudicial killing to his counterpart in India and call for a thorough
investigation to bring the killers to justice. Amnesty International also
issued a statement on March 28, 1996 condemning the killing and asked for an
impartial investigation. Unfortunately
despite this condemnation at a global level, the government of India not only
did not punish the perpetrator but did not even arrest the main culprit. When
the Jammu & Kashmir High Court found Major Avtar Singh to be the person who
killed Jalil Andrabi, the High Court ordered his arrest in 1997. The judge who
did so was punished by immediately being transferred from Kashmir to India. In
addition, because Indian army personnel have full immunity in Kashmir, the
government of India arranged a passport despite the court order for his arrest,
and facilitated his exit from India to save him from any legal proceedings. In
2011, the Selma police in California informed the government of India that they
had Avtar Singh in custody and were aware of his fugitive status, a discovery
that was made through Interpol when his wife filed a domestic abuse complaint
against him. India failed to respond to this notice. He w as never extradited.
The U.S. Immigration Service could have deported him, but again did not,
refused comment when contacted and clearly did not act. Avtar Singh is reported
to have said at the time, “The law here is on my side. The case against me will
not stand in court here.’’ The writer interviewing him, Hartosh Singh Bal,
asked him, “what if the extradition does go through? He does not hesitate:
‘There is no question of my being taken to India alive, they will kill me.’ Who
will, I ask him. ‘The agencies, RAW, military intelligence, it is all the
same.’ ‘If the extradition does go through, I will open my mouth, I will not
keep quiet.’” [Source: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/the-man-who-knows-too-much ] The foundation of America’s greatness was established
long ago in the Bill of Rights and its underlying recognition of human rights.
Whenever America applied these principles, it set the bar for the highest moral
standing in the global community. But unfortunately today America seems to
worry more about a corporate agenda of business deals and trade than it does
human rights. India is being encouraged to take over America’s battle in
Afghanistan and restrain the encroachments of China. Global hegemony takes
precedence. The pot can no longer call the kettle black. It fails to
appreciate or uphold those golden values of universal human rights and democratic
values. Yet,
paradoxically, it is important to note that it was our State Department, which
in 1995 not only condemned the murder of Jalil Andrabi but asked for an
impartial investigation and had hoped the murderers would be quickly
apprehended and punished. It was kind of them to say so. But
apparently, it doesn’t take much moral strength or political will to utter mere
words. Twenty-five years later, the justice has not been served. We hope now
that the inaction and passivity of the world powers will prick the conscience
of Biden Administration and motivate her to end these crimes against humanity.
Their justice is awaited. Dr. Fai is the Secretary General, of Washington-based
World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He can be reached at: 1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com
3. Three young men martyred: Apr., 9, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops
in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in South
Kashmir’s Shopian district, today.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/08/indian-troops-martyr-3-youth-in-shopian-today/
4. Kashmir in Canadian elections:
Apr., 10, 2021: Condemnation of the
Indian government over last year’s farm deregulation laws that have sparked
protests, as well as the 2019 revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s semiautonomous
status are among the resolutions that feature on the agenda of the Canada-based
New Democratic Party’s (NDP) national convention starting on Friday.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/indias-farm-laws-kashmir-s-status-to-come-up-at-canada-based-ndp-s-convention-101617864873552.html
5. Seven youth martyred: Apr., 10,
2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops
in their fresh acts of state terrorism martyred four more Kashmiri youth in
Shopian and Pulwama districts, today, taking the number of the martyred youth
in the territory to 7 since yesterday. The troops martyred two more youth
during the continued cordon and search operation in Jan Mohalla area of
Shopian. The troops killed three youth in the same area, last evening. The
troops also damaged a mosque in the area during the operation. Indian troops
martyred two other youth during a similar operation at Naibugh in Pulwama
district,
today.https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/09/indian-troops-martyr-two-kashmiri-youth-in-pulwama-today/
6. Assessment: Apr., 10, 2021: India and Pakistan may stumble into a
large-scale war neither side wants, warns a US intelligence report while
exploring the possibilities of miscalculations leading to a war in South Asia.
The assessment is included in a Global Trends report produced every four years
by the US government's National Intelligence Council, released in Washington.
The report, released on Wednesday, focuses on both immediate and distant
futures and is designed to help policymakers anticipate the forces likely to
shape the world in the next five to 20 years. “India and Pakistan may stumble into
a large-scale war neither side wants, especially following a terrorist attack
that the Indian government judges to be significant,” the report warns. The
ability of some militant outfits to conduct attacks, New Delhi’s resolve to
retaliate against Islamabad after such an attack, and Islamabad’s determination
to defend itself “are likely to persist and may increase” in the next five
years, the report adds.“Miscalculation by both governments could prompt a
breakdown in the deterrence that has restricted conflict to levels each side
judges it can manage.”The report warns policymakers in Washington that “a
full-scale war could inflict damage that would have economic and political
consequences for years.” The US policy in Afghanistan and its impact on the neighbouring
countries is top on a list of key uncertainties in South Asia that are
underlined in the report. “US actions in Afghanistan during the next year will
have significant consequences across the region, particularly in Pakistan and
India,” the report states. This would be “especially true” if a security vacuum
emerges in Afghanistan that results in a civil war between the Taliban and its
Afghan opponents, expanded freedom of manoeuvre for regional terrorist
networks, or criminals and refugees flowing out of the country, it adds. The
report predicts that such an outcome would exacerbate political tensions and
conflict in western Pakistan and sharpen the India-Pakistan rivalry by
strengthening longstanding judgments about covert warfare in Islamabad and New
Delhi. “An abrupt US exit probably would also amplify concerns that the United
States will lose interest in South Asia generally,” the document says. The US intelligence community estimates that
India and China may also slip into a conflict that neither government intends,
“especially if military forces escalate a conflict quickly to challenge each
other on a critical part of the contested border”.In June 2020, a short
military exchange resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers,
exacerbated the strategic rivalry between Beijing and New Delhi and sharply
affected international perceptions of both countries. The report puts the
prospects for increased regional trade or energy cooperation in South Asia
during the next five years as low, “due in part to the high probability of
ongoing hostility between India and Pakistan". Trade within South Asia is
already the lowest of any region in the world. The US intelligence community
warns that water insecurity in the region is also an increasing risk. The
assessment includes forecasts by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) that Pakistan could face absolute water scarcity by 2025, given a
combination of poor water conservation practices, rising temperatures, and
decreased rainfall. The US intelligence community notes that information
technology is fuelling authoritarian tendencies by making it easier for South
Asian governments to influence their populations. It points out that in 2019,
India “led the world in Internet shutdowns by a wide margin” — with several
months-long crackdowns to suppress protests, including in occupied Kashmir.
Pakistan has deployed Huawei’s Safe Cities technology, raising public fears of
increased surveillance. The report notes that the balancing approach,
particularly in relation to China, also affects regional dynamics. Bangladesh,
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka probably judge their countries “can
more easily deflect New Delhi’s demands or block its regional leadership
aspirations by maintaining ties with Beijing”. For its part, New Delhi probably
will look for ways to mitigate Chinese influence given China’s expanding
foothold in the Indian Ocean, the report adds. For example, India almost
certainly will continue to encourage Japan to offer economic investment and
some military cooperation to other South Asian countries to push them to align
more closely with New Delhi and Tokyo. The report predicts that despite their
growing interest in China, almost every government in the region will seek to
maintain ties with the US as part of their balancing efforts. The United States
is the biggest export market for Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and most
South Asian leaders continue to cultivate and publicly tout their relationships
with Washington. US intelligence analysts predict that during the next five
years, slowing economic growth and growing polarisation will pose an increasing
risk to traditions of democratic and independent governance in several
countries in South Asia. Many countries will strengthen their efforts to hedge
and balance their relationships with multiple external powers, including China,
Russia, Japan, and the US. Through 2025, South Asia will have to manage the
challenges that internal security problems, the risk of inter-state war, and
the effects of climate change and pollution pose to at least some countries’
longer-term democratic and economic development. The report projects that
economic growth in South Asia will remain slow during the next five years and
will be insufficient to employ the region’s expanding workforce — especially as
the world emerges from the pandemic. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, unemployment
in India had reached a 40-year high until GDP growth slowed markedly in the
latter half of 2019, and India’s strict lockdown from March to May 2020
temporarily drove unemployment up to 23 per cent. The report argues that the
region’s economy is hampered by outdated legal systems, severe pollution, water
shortages, and highly bureaucratic regulatory environments — all increasing investor
uncertainty. “No government in the region is prepared to undertake economic
reforms on the scale required to generate robust growth,” the report adds. It
notes that almost all the economies in the region remain focused on
agriculture, with the bulk of their workforces dependent on farming. Most
countries’ agricultural sectors are underproductive in relation to the large
share of government funds and natural resources they consume. According to the
report, this disparity is driven by a variety of factors, including growing
water scarcity, environmental damage and climate change effects, and government
failure to reform agricultural subsidies that benefit rural constituents at the
expense of growing urban populations. “Strongperson leaders, even those elected
in largely free and fair contests, probably will push majoritarian agendas that
widen factional divides — potentially weakening political stability in
societies already split along sectarian and ethnic lines,” they warn. “This
political polarisation is rooted in strongly felt nationalist narratives that
have become prominent in recent years and met little effective resistance from
opposition parties or the courts.” “In
India and Sri Lanka, Muslims are likely to continue to experience growing
political and economic discrimination from Hindu and Sinhalese Buddhist
nationalist ruling parties.” The report notes that Afghanistan too is seeing an
intensification of ethnic tensions between Pashtuns and other ethnic groups, a
trend that is accelerating as Afghans prepare for the withdrawal of Western
troops. It notes that some of these leaders have applied majoritarian political
formulae, whereas others have undermined independent judiciaries, election
commissions, and politically neutral militaries and bureaucracies, weakening
potential future resistance. https://www.dawn.com/news/1617288/india-pakistan-may-stumble-into-large-scale-war-warns-us-intel-report
7. Russia India relations: Apr., 11, 2021: Russia is no longer a strategic ally for India as underlined by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to New Delhi earlier this week. Gupta explained that over the last four years, the global power balance has changed. “It’s been a confused world for the past four years, but it’s now quite clear that it is again becoming a bipolar world.” The United States is one pole and China is the other pole. Meanwhile, Russia has resigned itself to being “the junior partner of China”, observed Gupta. India is an aspiring big power and the world is increasingly looking at it as a “balancing new power”, he added . Gupta explained that during the Cold War, India was very friendly with what was then the Soviet Union as it helped grow its public sector steel plants with advanced technology, among other things. For decades, India had wanted Washington D.C. to de-hyphenate it with Pakistan and put an end to the concept of “two country rule”, explained Gupta. “Post Cold War, Indian foreign policy worked very hard to get these two things out of the way as they would irritate India,” explained Gupta. This has worked out well as Pakistan has started to disappear from India-US joint statements and American dignitaries who come to India no longer also make a trip to Pakistan, he added. “But what was America, has now become Russia,” said Gupta. Though Moscow and New Delhi have shared a “special” relationship with elements of “nostalgia”, the former has started to hyphenate India with Pakistan, he said. “This became obvious with Lavrov’s visit,” he added. Lavrov first visited India and then Pakistan and his statements in both countries were markedly different, explained Gupta. While in Pakistan, Lavrov said Russia sees Pakistan as an “important friend”, seeks to continue exercises called ‘friendship druzhba’ and is willing to supply Pakistan high-tech or specialised military equipment to fight terrorism. Asked about a potential security agreement between Russia and China at a press conference in India, earlier this week, Lavrov denied it but referred to alliances like the “Asia NATO” as disruptive, said Gupta. “That was a platitudinous statement… you know that he was turning the knife a little bit into India,” he added. Gupta also observed that Lavrov did not get an audience with PM Modi on the pretext that the former was campaigning in West Bengal. “In January 2020, when Lavrov came to India, he had been given an audience by Modi. On the other hand, when he goes to Pakistan, he meets… the Army Chief who matters most of all, and the Prime Minister. “Russians have let it be known that they are skeptical of the Indo-Pacific concept and Quad and see it as a destabilising entity.. .and an anti-China grouping,” said Gupta. https://theprint.in/opinion/why-russia-is-no-longer-a-strategic-ally-for-india-in-new-bipolar-world-led-by-us-and-china/636906/
Kashmir
Update 121: Week Mar.,29, 2021 to Apr.,4,2021
1.
Social media and
Kashmir: mar 28 2021: For
decades, India has sought to obfuscate what is happening in Kashmir. Since
1947, it has worked hard to appropriate Kashmir’s history, culture, and
identity and distort them. It has sought to muffle Kashmiri voices speaking out
against the oppression of the Kashmiri people and whitewash its crimes. With
the advent of social media, Kashmiris found a much-needed platform for free
expression where they were able to share their plight with the world. Kashmiri
solidarity pages proliferated and conversations about the Kashmiri struggle
moved online. But this newly found freedom did not last long. Social media platforms, under the pressure of
the Indian government, started shutting down Kashmir-related pages and the
accounts of Kashmiri activists. In 2016, amid a crackdown on protests in
Kashmir, Facebook took down pages focusing on Kashmir and posts about the
ongoing events. Journalists reported that videos of police brutality were
blocked. Academics and intellectuals also saw their accounts disabled. Following
the Indian government’s abrogation of Kashmir’s special status on August 5,
2019, and the imposition of a brutal lockdown, social media platforms were
quick to censor content on Kashmir once again. As Kashmir was cut off from the
world, with the internet and mobile communications suspended, Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter started to remove posts, block videos and shut down
accounts trying to shed light on the dire situation in the region. social media
platforms have continued to purge Kashmir-related content. In the latest
episode of censorship, Twitter shut down the accounts of Kashmir Civitas, Stand
With Kashmir, the Kashmir Podcast, the account of young Kashmiri academic Ifat
Gazia, and my personal Twitter account @fchak in March. By removing content and
accounts critical of India’s policies in Kashmir, Facebook and Twitter are
complicit in suffocating those Kashmiri voices that are resisting the military
occupation and settler-colonialism of their land. By censoring these voices,
social media networks are curtailing the right to freedom of speech. Our
organisation, Kashmir Civitas is a non-governmental civil society and strategic
advocacy entity registered in Canada and committed to the socio-political, and
economic empowerment of the peoples in the disputed territory of Jammu and
Kashmir. As such, our organisation champions the democratic principles of
freedom, equality and the inherent dignity of all human beings, irrespective of
race, religion, gender or creed. It aims to lobby, facilitate and work for the
moral, educational, economic, cultural and political uplifting of Kashmiri
society on both sides of the ceasefire line and among the diaspora It is in this in dire situation that
platforms like Twitter and Facebook are choosing to side with the repressive
Indian government, which – amid its rising authoritarianism – still claims to
be democratic. By shutting down the accounts of collectives like Kashmir
Civitas and Stand With Kashmir, Facebook and Twitter are siding with
undemocratic forces that seek to silence not just Kashmiris but anyone who
dares to oppose them. Although the accounts are now reinstated, we must remain
vigilant and ensure that power does not remain unchecked. By doing the bidding
of the Indian government, Twitter and Facebook have gone against their own
“commitment to freedom of expression” and to “defending and respecting the
user’s voice”.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/3/27/why-is-twitter-silencing-kashmiri-voices
2.
Youth martyred; mar
29 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu
and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred two
Kashmiri youth in Shopian district. The troops martyred the youth during a
siege and search operation in Wangam area of the district.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/27/indian-troops-martyr-another-kadhmiri-youth-in-shopian/
3. US HRs report: Mar., 31, 2021: governments also placed severe
restrictions on religious freedom and freedom of movement. Corruption within
the bureaucracy, lack of investigation and accountability for violence against
women were also common. Problems identified in India include trafficking in
persons; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of
racial and ethnic minorities. The chapter on India also mentioned crimes
involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, or intersex persons by nonstate actors. The report noted that in
both countries, efforts to address the abuses were marred by “a lack of
accountability as official misconduct persisted at all levels of government,
contributing to widespread impunity.” ”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1615606/us-report-highlights-serious-rights-violations-in-india-and-pakistan
4.
Protests: Apr.,1, 2021: Pakistani-Kashmiri,
Bangladeshi and Sikh rights groups have vowed to stage demonstrations across
the United Kingdom (UK) on Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's scheduled visit to attend G7 summit 2021. Tehreek-
e- Kashmir TeK (UK) President Raja Fahim Kayani, Dalkhalsa
Chairman Gurcharan Singh, and Former Councillor and Chief Advisor of British
Bangladeshi Community Alliance, Mozaquir Ali held a discussion on Wednesday to
chalk out the campaign under the banner of United Front against Modi, on the
occasion of his scheduled visit to the UK in the Coastal Town of Carbis Bay
Cornwall to attend the G7 Summit being held on June 11-13. Dalkhalsa Chairman
Gurcharan singh, representing Sikh's in the UK, said that he would like to call
on the British people to oppose PM Modi's visit to the UK. “Modi is a fascist
dictator whose sole aim in politics is Hindu supremacy and creation of a Hindu
state.” https://tribune.com.pk/story/2292574/protests-planned-for-modis-visit-to-attend-g7-summit-in-uk
5. Focus on Jammu
& Kashmi by Dr. Ghulam Nabi
Fai: April 1, 2021: Once again, the United States Department of State, 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued on March 30, 2021 has reproached
India on her human rights record. The country report contains graphic
documentation of human rights violations being committed by the Indian military
and paramilitary forces in Jammu & Kashmir. This is a significant step
towards greater international recognition of the serious abuses committed
against Kashmiris at the hands of Indian army. This report will take the veil
of secrecy off of India’s crimes against humanity. The country report cites
various examples where the authorities intimidate and threaten the media. The
report says, “Journalists working in Jammu and Kashmir
continued to face barriers to free reporting through communications and
movement restrictions. Criminal prosecutions were often used to gag journalists
critical of the authorities, including the use of a section of the penal code
that includes sedition punishable by life imprisonment. In February the Kashmir Press Club stated security
agencies had routinely deployed intimidation tactics such as threats,
summonses, and physical attacks on journalists in Jammu and Kashmir.” The country report in particular describes an incident
when “On April 18, police in Kashmir booked photojournalist Masrat Zahra under the UAPA for indulging
in “antinational activities” on social media. In a statement police accused
Zahra of “uploading antinational posts with criminal intention, uploading posts
that glorify antinational activities and dent the image of law enforcing
agencies besides causing disaffection against the country.” Zahra maintained
she was sharing archival images that had already been published in different
local and international social media platforms. The investigation continued at
year’s end.” “On April 10, authorities arrested pregnant
student leader Safoora Zargar under the UAPA for allegedly conspiring to incite
the Delhi riots. The Delhi High Court released her on June 23 after the central
government did not object to her release.”The country report details
many instances where the use of draconian laws has given sense of total
impunity to the Indian army in Kashmir. It states “Under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the
central government may designate a state or union territory as a “disturbed
area,” authorizing security forces in the state to use deadly force to
“maintain law and order” and to arrest any person “against whom reasonable
suspicion exists” without informing the detainee of the grounds for arrest. The
law also provides security forces immunity from civilian prosecution for acts
committed in regions under the AFSPA.” “The Public Safety Act (PSA), which applies only in Jammu
and Kashmir, permits authorities to detain persons without charge or judicial
review for up to two years without visitation from family members.” The
country report underscored that “There
were allegations of enforced disappearance by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
Although authorities denied these charges and claimed no enforced
disappearances had occurred since 2015, the International Federation for Human
Rights reported that cases of enforced disappearances continued through 2019.”
“In February the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances identified
seven cases under its standard procedures concerning individuals who were
arrested, detained, or otherwise deprived of rights. The Working Group had not
received permission to visit the country since it first submitted a request to
the government in 2010.”The country report cites specific incidents where the Indian
Government violated the very principles of human decency and democratic freedom
against the people of Kashmir. The report states that, “In
responding to demonstrations that started in July 2016, Indian security forces
used excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number of
injuries. … One of the most dangerous weapons used against protesters during
the unrest in 2016 was the pellet-firing shotgun.” The country report was very concerned about arbitrary
arrests and detention. It says, “Following
the central government’s August 2019 abrogation of a special constitutional
provision that provided autonomous status for Jammu and Kashmir, authorities
used a public safety law to detain local politicians without trial. Most
detainees were released during the year. Media reports indicated those released
were required to sign bonds agreeing not to engage in political activity.” The country report talks about the denial of fair public
trial. It says, “In April, Mohammed Yasin Malik, leader of the pro-independence
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was arrested and charged with murder
in the death of four Air Force officials in 1990. Malik was denied the right to
be physically present in court. Human rights groups in Kashmir, including the
JKCCS, expressed concern regarding whether Malik was receiving a fair trial.” Political prisoners are facing many hardships. Their
relatives do not have free access to meet with them even on special occasions.
The report says, “NGOs reported the central government held political prisoners
and temporarily detained individuals in Jammu and Kashmir under the PSA. On
September 15, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed parliament that 223
political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, who had been detained after August
2019, remained in detention but added “no person is under house arrest.” The country report quoted international experts and NGOs
who have not been able to visit Jammu & Kashmir. The report says, “Various
domestic and international human rights organizations continued to express
serious concern at the use of pellet guns by security forces for crowd-control
purposes in Jammu and Kashmir. In March the Jammu and Kashmir High Court
dismissed the public interest litigation petition seeking a ban on the use of
pellet guns on protesters, asserting that police have the right to administer
force in self-defense when facing violent protests.” The country report cites many examples of torture which
has been used against civilians in Jammu & Kashmir. The report says, “A May
2019 report by the JKCCS and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons
alleged that police, military, and paramilitary forces in Jammu and Kashmir
used torture against civilians and opposition over the past four decades. The
report documented 432 testimonies from individuals who claimed to have been
tortured. There were continued allegations of physical abuse and torture
following the government’s enhanced security measures in Jammu and Kashmir
after the August 2019 move to abrogate Article 370 of the constitution.” As we all know that Internet ban has been a serious
problem. The report says, “The center reported the longest shutdown occurred
between August 4, 2019, and March 4 in Jammu and Kashmir.” The right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly
are basic human rights. The report says, “Jammu and Kashmir was an exception,
where the state government sometimes denied permits to separatist political
parties for public gatherings, and security forces reportedly occasionally
detained and assaulted members of political groups engaged in peaceful protest
(see section 1.g.). During periods of civil unrest in Jammu and Kashmir,
authorities used the law to ban public assemblies and impose curfews.” International NGO’s including the United Nations Special
Rapporteurs have been denied entry into Kashmir. The report says, “The
government continued to decline access by the United Nations to Jammu and
Kashmir and limit access to the northeastern states and Maoist-controlled
areas. In an August statement, UN human rights experts called on the government
“to take urgent action to address the alarming human rights situation in the
territory.” The UN special rapporteurs noted that since August 2019, “the human
rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir has been in free fall,” and they were
“particularly concerned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many protesters are
still in detention and Internet restrictions remain in place.” The group appealed
to the government “to schedule pending visits as a matter of urgency,
particularly of the experts dealing with torture and disappearances.” It is
well documented that the bloody occupation has resulted in
massive human rights violations, particularly targeting women and children. The
sanctity of women has been violated, in a gruesome and unforgiving fashion. It
is our hope that the State Department Country Report will mobilize the policy
makers and the members of Congress to do everything in their constitutional
power to stop the killings in Kashmir. It is further our hope that the Biden
Administration will look to solving the root cause of the problem – the
unfulfilled promise of self-determination as guaranteed by successive United
Nations Security Council resolutions. We believe that history is not
predestined, and it is up to us to make peace its destiny in Kashmir through
all of our energies, goodwill, wisdom, and compassion for the tragic
afflictions of that once glorious land. Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is the
Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Washington, D.C. He can be
reached at: 1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com
6. Three youth martyred: Apr., 2, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Kakapora area of the district. The troops also blasted a house with explosive material during the operation. The killing of the youth triggered forceful anti-India demonstrations in the area. Several persons, including a woman, were injured, some of them critically, due to the firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by the troops on the demonstrators. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/04/02/indian-troops-martyr-one-kashmiri-youth-in-iiojk-3/
Kashmir
Update 120: Week Mar.,22, 2021 to Mar.,28,2021
1.
Four youth martyred: Mar., 23, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred four Kashmiri youth in
Shopian district, today. The youth were killed by the troops in a fake
encounter during a violent cordon and search operation in Manihal area of the
district. The operation was jointly launched by Indian Army, Central Reserve
Police Force and Indian police. The troops destroyed many houses during the
operation.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/22/indian-troops-martyr-four-kashmiri-youth-in-shopian-3/
2. Middle East Oil and India: Mar., 27, 2021: Indian
state refiners are planning to cut oil imports from Saudi Arabia by about a
quarter in May, in an escalating stand-off with Riyadh following OPEC's
decision to ignore calls from New Delhi to help the global economy with higher
supply. Two sources familiar with the discussions said the move was part of the
government's drive to cut dependence on crude from the Middle East. Indian
Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp., Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Mangalore
Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd are preparing to lift about 10.8 million
barrels in May, the sources said on condition of anonymity. State refiners,
which control about 60% of India's 5 million barrels per day (bpd) refining capacity,
together import an average 14.7-14.8 million barrels of Saudi oil in a month,
the sources said. India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer,
imports more than 80% of its oil needs and relies heavily on the Middle East. Hit
hard by rising oil prices, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has
repeatedly called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
and its allies, known as OPEC+, to ease supply curbs. He has blamed Saudi's
voluntary cuts for contributing to a spike in global oil prices. OPEC+ decided
this month to extend most cuts into April. Responding to Pradhan's request,
Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman suggested India dip into
strategic reserves filled with cheaper oil bought last year. https://www.livemint.com/industry/energy/india-plans-to-cut-saudi-oil-import-as-stand-off-escalates-11615949230271.html
3.
Youth martyred: Mar., 28,
2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their
fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one Kashmiri youth in Shopian district
on Saturday evening. According to Kashmir Media Service, the troops martyred
the youth during a siege and search operation in Wangam area of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/27/indian-troops-martyr-another-kadhmiri-youth-in-shopian/
4.
Human right violations in IOK:
Mar., 28, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu
and Kashmir, unrelenting military siege imposed by Narendra Modi-led fascist
Indian government on August 05, 2019, continues to take a heavy toll on daily
life of the people in the territory. A report released by the Research Section
of Kashmir Media Service on the completion of 600 days (almost 20 months) to
the military siege, today, revealed that Indian troops martyred 323 Kashmiris
including 7 women during the period. It said that most of the victims were
killed by the troops in fake encounters and in extra-judicial manner in the
garb of so-called cordon and search operations. The report maintained that most
of the youth were picked up from their homes and then eliminated after falsely
labeled as mujahideen or over-ground workers of mujahid organizations. It said
that the killings during the period by the troops during the last 600 days
rendered 17women widowed and 39 children orphaned. The report pointed out that
at least 1,753 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force
including firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by Indian troops on
peaceful demonstrators in the territory. It said that at least 14,621 persons
including Hurriyat leaders, activists, women, students and young boys were
arrested and thousands of them were booked under black laws. The troops damaged
1,008 houses and structures and molested or disgraced 106 women in the period,
it added.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/27/323-kashmiris-martyred-by-indian-troops-during-600-day-siege/
Kashmir
Update 119: Week Mar.,15, 2021 to Mar.,21,2021
1.
Youth martyred: Mar., 15, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in
Shopian district, today( Sunday). The troops martyred the youth during a
violent cordon and search operation in Rawalpora area of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/14/indian-troops-martyr-one-youth-in-iiojk-6/
2.
Youth martyred: Mar., 16, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir; Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one more Kashmiri youth
in Shopian district, today, raising the toll to two in the past two days. The
troops martyred the youth during a violent cordon and search operation in
Rawalpora area of the district while body of one youth was recovered on Sunday
from the debris of a house destroyed by the troops. Wilayat Lone alias Sajad Afghani has been
killed in the three-day long operation in Rawalpora area of Shopian district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/15/indian-troops-martyr-one-more-youth-in-shopian/
3.
Kashmir
Can Unlock War in Afghanistan:
Mar 18, 2021: The Kashmir question is one of the
oldest unresolved international problems in the world. The experience of nearly
seven decades has shown that it will not go away and that an effort is urgently
required to resolve it on a durable basis. ‘Durable’, in this context is
synonymous with ‘equitable’. It is imperative, whatever be the rights and
wrongs in the equation as far as arguments go, real populations with a
pronounced sense of identity of their own, with their suffering and their
aspirations rather than just legal title and merit are involved. Kashmir dispute primarily involves the life
and future of the 23 million people of the land. Bcause of its impact on
relations between India and Pakistan, however, it directly affects the peace
and stability of the region of South Asia that includes Afghanistan as well.This
is a region, which contains one-fifth of the total human race. When the Kashmir dispute erupted in
1947-1948, the United States championed the stand that the future status of
Kashmir must be ascertained in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of
the people of the territory. The United States was the principal sponsor of the
resolution # 47 which was adopted by the Security Council on 21 April 1948 and
which was based on that unchallenged principle.
Following the resolution, the United States as a leading member of the United
Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP), adhered to that stand. The
basic formula for settlement was incorporated in the resolutions of that
Commission adopted on 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949. The part played
traditionally by the United States Government is apparent from: The appeal made
by President Harry Truman and British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee that any
contentious issues between India and Pakistan relating to the implementation of
the agreement on Kashmir must be submitted to arbitration; the appointment of
an eminent American, Admiral Chester Nimitz, as Plebiscite Administrator on
Kashmir; the appeal personally made in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy to the
President of Ireland to the effect that Ireland sponsor a resolution on Kashmir
in the Security Council reaffirming the resolutions of the Commission; the
forceful advocacy by the U.S. Delegation of points regarding the
demilitarization of Kashmir preparatory to the plebiscite at countless meetings
of the Security Council from the years 1947-48 to 1962 and its sponsorship of
twelve substantive resolutions of the Council to that effect; the
protracted negotiations conducted by another distinguished American, Mr. Frank
Graham, from 1951 to 1958 in the effort to bring about the demilitarization of
Kashmir, making possible the holding of a free and impartial plebiscite. Secretary
of State John Foster Dulles stated on 5 February 1957 that: "We continue
to believe that unless the parties are able to agree upon some other solution,
the solution which was recommended by the Security Council should prevail,
which is that there should be a plebiscite. On 15 June 1962, the American
representative to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, stated that: " ...
The best approach is to take for a point of departure the area of common ground
which exists between the parties. I refer of course to the resolutions which
were accepted by both parties and which in essence provide for demilitarization
of the territory and a plebiscite whereby the population may freely decide the
future status of Jammu and Kashmir. This is in full conformity with the
principle of the self‑determination of people which is enshrined in Article I
of the Charter as one of the key purpose for which the United Nations exists.” Unfortunately,
all these pronouncements and commitments by the United States remain
unfulfilled until today and Kashmir dispute has brought both India and Pakistan
to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Now, it is being said that peace between
India and Pakistan could help unlock another conflict with even higher stakes
for the United States: the war in Afghanistan. Indeed, a growing chorus of
experts has begun arguing that the road to Kabul runs through Kashmir — that
the U.S. will never stabilize the former without peace in the latter. Suddenly,
bringing India and Pakistan together seems to be very much in America's
interest. Which makes the Biden administration's determination to avoid the
issue increasingly hard to fathom. There is a convergent thinking among Indian,
Pakistan and American scholars that key to progress of peace in Afghanistan
lies in Kashmir. On one hand, Indian Independent thinker and writer, Pankaj
Mishra wrote in :the New York Review of Books, “As always, the road to
stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan runs through the valley of Kashmir,” and
on the other hand, Pakistani journalist, Ahmed Rashid wrote in ‘Foreign
Affairs’ on October 11, 2010, “The road to Kabul runs through Kashmir…There can
be no peace in Afghanistan until these two neighbors (India & Pakistan) sit
down and talk about a common approach to both Kabul and Kashmir, rather than
negotiating by proxy war.:And see the similarities of idea with an American
journalist, Jonathan Tepperman who wrote in Newsweek on February 10, 2010, “To
understand why Kashmir is so important to Afghanistan, start with the fact that
the U.S. can't defeat the Afghan insurgency without Pakistan's help. Fear of
India also keeps Pakistan from putting enough troops on its
2,250-kilometer-long Afghan border, which the Taliban still cross at will… Yet
even he (Richard Holbrooke) concedes that Kashmir makes Afghanistan "more
difficult to resolve," and Washington simply can't afford to avoid it if
it hopes to leave the region any time soon.” And Dutch Independent write and
researcher, Laura Schuurmans is equally passionate to suggest to the world
powers to intervene in both crisis: Kashmir and Afghanistan. She wrote in
November 2013, “The world will have to take notice of this issue if it really
wants stable and durable peace in Afghanistan, south Asian subcontinent and
consequently the whole world….A new beginning can start from Kashmir and
therefore, peace and stability can return to Afghanistan through the valleys of
Kashmir.” Incidentally, it was just on March 8, 2021 that Zalmay
Khalilzad, US Negotiator on Afghanistan met with General Bajwa of Pakistan and
discussed the issue of Afghanistan and matters of mutual interest. Meanwhile,
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has announced to sponsor a meeting on
Afghanistan. Foreign minister of India and Pakistan along with foreign
ministers of China, Iran, Russia and United States are invited. It has been
suggested that the meeting will take place in Turkey. Turkey’s President
Erdogan has already said on March 1, 2021, "Developments
in Afghanistan are closely related to the security and stability of the region.
We closely follow the developments in friendly and brotherly Afghanistan. We
hope that the peace process which aims to put an end to the ongoing conflicts
of more than 40 years succeeds." President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, March 1,
2021. We hope that Turkish
meeting on Afghanistan will take the into consideration the recommendations
made by Professor Patrick J Larkin, Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey,
California, he made in March 2013, “The U.S. will not be able to achieve a
lasting peace in Afghanistan without the unilateral support of Pakistan and
India. If the conflict in Kashmir can be reconciled, this will aid U.S.
objectives of a secure Afghanistan…Only by finding a final status on Kashmir
with South Asia be able to achieve a real, lasting peace. I believe that the
time has come that the United Nations and world powers, particularly the
United States intervenes in Kashmir to bring peace and prosperity not only to
Kashmir but also to the whole region of South Asia, including Afghanistan. In
this regard, President Biden can listen to Steve Coll, Dean of the Columbia
University Graduate Scholl of Journalism, who wrote in ‘New York Review of
Books on September 30, 2010, “Silence and indirectness about the conflict
is no longer workable…. The United States does not need to intervene directly
in Kashmiri negotiations to support the Indo-Pakistani peace process. It does,
however, need to rediscover the sense of urgency and international leadership
that characterized its engagement with Kashmir in the 1950s and early 1960s.” And
we hope that President Biden will heed to the advice of President Barack
Obama who said on October 30, 2008, “The most important thing we're going to
have to do with respect to Afghanistan, is actually deal with Pakistan… We
should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and
India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they can stay focused not
on India, but on the situation with those militants.” President. Dr.
Fai is the Secretary General, Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum.
He can be reached at: 1-202-607-6435 or gnfai2003@yahoo.com
4.
Women
in IOK: Mar., 21, 2021: The panelists discuss the issue of 'half-widows' of Kashmir atan online
conference. The conference was moderated by prominent peace activist Marijan Lucas
from the Netherlands and Ali Raza Syed who is the chairman of Kashmir council
EU. Mashal Malik, head of the
Peace and Culture Organisation, says that women in Occupied Kashmir have been
facing a lot of hardships.The woes of Kashmiri 'half-widows' is a
very serious issue and should be immediately addressed.
The term "half-widow" is used for Kashmiri women whose
husbands have disappeared and still missing during the ongoing conflict in
Kashmir. These women are called "half-widows" because they have no
idea whether their husbands are dead or alive. Assabah Khan from Srinagar, who
is a human rights activist for the last 20 years, narrated her story. Khan’s
husband, Farooq Ahmed Dar, is in an Indian jail. She also mentioned the names
of some women in the occupied valley who are fighting for the release of their
loved ones. Assabah also highlighted that in an alarming sign, there are
currently 18,000 Kashmiri children in Indian jails whose mothers are worried.
Hawala Siddiqui from Canada, the co-founder of the Silk Organisation, said that
people should highlight the issues of women in Occupied Kashmir, especially
sexual violence against them, through social media. Over 10,000 Kashmiri men
have been missing and their wives, mothers, and sisters were still waiting
because they did not know if they were dead or alive, Hawala said. Suraya
Siddiqui, another Kashmiri woman from Canada, also stressed the need for global
action against violence against Kashmiri women. https://www.geo.tv/latest/340574-panelists-discuss-hardships-faced-by-half-widows-of-iok-at-virtual-conference
5.
Women’s rights in conflict area, a case study of
Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmi by Dr.
Shagufta Ashraf : March 20, 2021:Kashmiri women are the biggest
victims of the ongoing conflict. They have suffered human rights abuses under
the impunity of the suffocating Indian military presence in Indian administered
Kashmir. According to statistics from Jammu and Kashmir state commission from
women, a now defunct government institution is established to protect women and
children rights to ensure quick prosecutions. Cases of domestic violence and
general violence have been rising more than three thousand a year during the
previous clampdowns in 2016 and 2017. Ever increasing number of widows and half
widows in Indian Administered Kashmir is a matter of great trauma as it reduces
the grace and color of life of a woman. There is a long way to get freedom for
women from the clutches of suppression and humiliation committed against them.
Women of Indian Administered Kashmir die in silence. The economic, social and
psychological status of widows devastates under the social patriarchy and
inequality. In most of the cases she loses the property rights. There is no
existence of initialization and rehabilitation. Most of the widows and half
widows are from poor. Kunan and Poshpora in the India-administered Kashmir was such an
incident that had changed the social and mental life of our women when 150
girls and women were raped that night; nearly 200 men were tortured. Barns
became torture chambers. The next morning, as one can well imagine, was marked
by immense horror and paralyzing pain. And yet, justice is elusive over all
these years, as the Indian army has continued to exercise brutality and has
enjoyed complete impunity, thanks to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA). The controversial law lets Indian Army personnel enter any premise at
any time in the Valley, without a search warrant, and use lethal force, if they
deem it necessary. The Indian state has continuously avoided responsibility for
abuses at the hands of the Army. Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned
extrajudicial killings by Indian forces [BBC report]. The Shopian rape and
murder case is the abduction, rape and murder of two young women allegedly by
local Indian army, in mysterious circumstances between 29 and 30 May 2009 at
Bongam, Shopian district in the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Two women who were sisters-in-law went missing from their orchard on the way
home on 29 May 2009. The next morning, their bodies were found both one kilometer
apart. Local police rejected the allegations saying that the women appeared to
have drowned in a stream. There has been no justice since and that is what they
mean when they say justice denied. “The killers, the rapists are the ones who
are doing the investigation,” says the father of one. How can you trust a
system that is run by the very people who are part of the society that
questions the integrity of a woman who has been raped?, Eight year A. was
kidnapped and gang raped and then murdered by the priest and government
servants in a temple in Kathua, in Indian-administered Kashmir. On the morning
of 17 January, Muhammad Yusuf Pujwala was sitting outside his home in Kathua
when one of his neighbors came running towards him. He stopped in front of Me
Pujwala and broke the news: they had found his eight-year-old daughter, A. B..
Her body lay in bushes in the forest, a few hundred meters away. The Indian
Administered Kashmir valley has a turmoiled relationship with India - the way
women and children have been targeted. I demand an impartial investigation of all
these cases by international organizations. The way women and children are used
as weapons of war are alarming. Indian rule from 1989 to 2020 has increased
pain among women and their families by arresting their only bread earners and
kept in different Indian jails. Despite the fact that 187 countries have
ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), discrimination against widows has been
ignored. Before conclusion it needs to be emphasized that every conflict has
many consequences. Oppression and state sponsored terrorism are responsible for
increasing the population of widows, half widows and rape victims. Enlightened
opinion of the world must converge to resolve the conflict by redeeming their
democratic right to choose their future as per United Nations Charter and
United Nations resolutions. :She can be reached at:xhagufta@yahoo.com
6. US and India: Mar,21, 2021: India on Saturday resolved to intensify
defence cooperation with the U.S. Central Command
in Florida and with the U.S. Commands in the Indo-Pacific region and Africa.
The announcement in this regard was made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who
held talks with U.S. Secretary of Defence General (Retd.) Lloyd James Austin
III who described the partnership as a “central pillar” of the American policy
for the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Defence Secretary
also addressed the issue of human rights in India during
his meetings with Cabinet Ministers here on Saturday. An informed source said
the issue also came up during his conversation with External Affairs Minister
S. Jaishankar which also covered a broad range of topics like the situation in
Afghanistan and the West Asian tension. Earlier, addressing a select group of
American and Indian media outlets, Mr. Austin said he raised the violation of
human rights of the Muslims in Assam with the Indian side. “I did have a
conversation with other members of the Cabinet on this issue,” Mr. Austin was
quoted saying by the NDTV. He however clarified that he “did not have an
opportunity to talk to” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on reports of human rights
violations targeting minority communities.
Kashmir
Update 118: Week Mar.,8, 2021 to Mar.,14,2021
1.
China
on India: Mar., 8,2021 China’s
Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday said India and China needed “to create
enabling conditions for the settlement” of the boundary dispute, even as he
reiterated China’s view that “the rights and wrongs” of last year’s crisis were
clear. His comments came at his annual press meet along the sidelines of the
on-going convening in Beijing of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the
ceremonial Communist Party-controlled legislature. Mr. Wang addressed China’s
relations with the United States, the EU, Japan and India among other issues.
“The China-India relationship is essentially about how the world’s two largest
developing countries get along and pursue development and rejuvenation
together,” he said to a question on the on-going disengagement along the Line
of Actual Control (LAC). Mr. Wang reiterated the statement he made during a
February 25 call with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar that “the
boundary dispute, an issue left from history, is not the whole story of the
China-India relationship”. “It is important that the two sides manage disputes
properly and, at the same time, expand and enhance cooperation to create
enabling conditions for the settlement of the issue,” he told reporters. “The
rights and wrongs of what happened in the border area last year are clear, so
are the stakes involved. It again proves that initiating confrontation will not
solve the problem. Returning to peaceful negotiation is the right way forward.
China’s position is very clear. We are committed to settling the boundary
dispute through dialogue and consultation. At the same time, we are resolved to
safeguard our sovereign rights and interests.” India
has conveyed a different message, underlining that without full disengagement
along the LAC, and then de-escalation, restoring normalcy in the relationship
would not be possible.
2.
Australian Ex Senator on Kashmir: Mar., 8, 2021: Former Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon in her message on
the eve of International Women Day has said that the idea of IWD 2021 should
speak for the Kashmiri women’s demand for self-determination. Senator Lee
Rhiannon in her video message on the occasion urged the world to mark
International Women’s Day 2021 by standing with Kashmiri women.“The need is to
expose the crimes against Kashmiri women on International Women’s Day 2021,”
she added. Since 1990, around 10,000 Kashmiri women have been raped and 27,000
have been made half-widows. She added that Indian military personnel have
committed these shocking crimes, but no one was charged. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/07/former-aussie-senator-speaks-for-kashmiri-women/
3.
Youth martyred: Mar., 10., 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in
Sopore town of Baramulla district, today.The troops martyred the youth
identified as Ghani Khawaja during a cordon and search operation in Tujjer area
of the town. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/09/indian-troops-launch-caso-in-baramulla-5/
4.
Britain on Kashmir: Mar., 10, 2021: Raising the Kashmir issue in his first press briefing
after assuming charge as new High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to India,
Alex W Ellis has said that the British government is concerned about the matter
and is keen to analyze the ground situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.In
his first press interaction in New Delhi, Ellis laid emphasis on changing
global order and finding a just solution to the Kashmir conflict, Indian media
reported. The UK envoy also expressed the desire to travel Indian Illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “We are keen to go. I think you know we talked to
the government about Kashmir. We are keen to get up there to have a look,” he
remarked.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/09/british-govt-concerned-about-situation-in-iiojk-says-new-envoy/
5. Children in Kashmir: Mar., 11, 2021: The Jammu and
Kashmir Police have arrested as many as 39 youths on charges of being involved
in the stone-pelting
incident at Srinagar city’s Jama Masjid last Friday, Inspector General of
Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said here on Wednesday. According to the senior
police official, of them 15 youth have been slapped with the controversial
Public Safety Act (PSA). “We will not allow stone pelting at any cost. We
have arrested 39 stone-pelters in Srinagar recently. Fifteen of them will be
booked under PSA,” IGP Kumar said during a press conference in Srinagar. The
youths have been accused of stone-pelting during last Friday’s clashes between
locals and government forces at Nowhatta locality on the day senior Hurriyat
leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was expected to address the weekly congregation at
the central Jama Mosque. He was, however, detained at his Nigeen residence,
leading to protests. IGP Kumar also claimed that the police had arrested a
group of persons who were part of a module of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM). According to the police the group was planning a Pulwama-like IED attack
in the region. “We arrested a first year bachelor’s student who was motivated
through social media applications. After interrogating him four more youth were
arrested,” Kumar said https://www.newsclick.in/kashmir-fifteen-39-youths-arrested-stone-pelting-charged-PSA
6. China’s new Five-Year Plan: Mar.,12, 2021: China
on Thursday formally approved the outline of its 14th Five-Year Plan
(2021-2025) which highlights a number of
key strategic projects to be pursued as a priority, including the first dam in
Tibet on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo or Brahmaputra, a
Sichuan-Tibet railway line near the India border, and a push for
self-sufficiency in emerging industries such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).
7.
Two youth martyred: Mar., 12, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in
Islamabad district, today. The youth were martyred, today, during a cordon and
search operation launched by the troops in Kandipora area of the district,
yesterday. A house was also damaged in the operation. The authorities suspended
internet service in Islamabad district immediately after the killing. The
martyred youth were identified as Adil Ahmad Butt, a resident of Bijbehara and
Zahid Ahmad Rather, a resident of Sirhama, Islamabad district.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/03/11/indian-troops-martyr-one-youth-in-iiojk-5/
Kashmir
Update 117: Week Mar.,1, 2021 to Mar.,7,2021
1. Children in Kashmir :
Feb., 28, 2021:
Speakers at a webinar hosted by Kashmir Institute of International
Relations (KIIR) and World Muslim Congress (WMC) made a passionate appeal to
the international community urging it to stand up for the rights of Kashmiri
children who have been the worst victims of the lingering dispute and Indian
state terrorism. Hosted in Islamabad as a sideline event of the ongoing 46th
Session of United Nations Human Rights Council, the webinar titled “Forgotten
children of Kashmir conflict” was participated and addressed by noted human
rights activists, scholars, academicians and international experts including
His Excellency Ambassador Dr Shahid Ameen Khan, World Chairman and Ambassador
at Large, International Human Rights Commission; Ms Danielle Khan Special
Assistant to Dean Eliot A Cohen at Johns Hopkins Paul H Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies; Rana Shama Nazir, Chairperson British Kashmiri
Women Council, UK; Barrister Nida Salam, British-Kashmiri Barrister; Ms Marrina
Zucca, Human Rights Activist Italy; Dr Shaheen Shora, Consultant Psychiatrist
and Medical Lead for Mental Health Services, Hertfordshire, UK; Mr Ahmed Bin
Qasim, son of political prisoners Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo and Aasiya Andrabi;
and Prof Shugafta Ashraf, Amb. Ibhrim Dadu Said of Lebanon, whereas the event
was moderated by the KIIR Chairman, Altaf Hussain Wani. The speakers while
highlighting the plight of Kashmiri children said that decade-old conflict has
left the life of Kashmiri children completely devastated. “Besides affecting the
mental and physical health of children the unending violence has rendered their
future bleak”, they said adding that the life of Kashmiris especially the
children who have always been at the receiving end has sadly been crippled by
the long-running dispute.“The fact remains that no facet of life in Kashmir has
been left unaffected from the brutal war. However, being a vulnerable segment
of the society children in Kashmir have been the worst victims of direct and
indirect forms of violence and brutality, which has left indelible imprints of
war on their memory. The atmosphere of violence has virtually robbed them of
their childhood activities and cherished memories. Grown up witnessing nothing
but the sounds of gunshots, killings and cries of the injured, the children
have literally lost the meaning of childhood,” they said. The speakers
maintained that like other parts of the world, children of Kashmir deserve the
right to live a peaceful life in a violence-free environment. They said, these
silent sufferers of the conflict deserve the right to health and education.
“Hundreds of innocent children have fallen to the bullets of Indian army while
thousands of others have become orphans after losing their parents, and many
have been left to rot in detention and interrogation centers without any fault.
Young generation of Kashmir has been searing in the flames of withering
injustice, discrimination,” the deplored. The speakers said apart from dire
economic impact, the violence has cast a dark shadow on the physical and mental
health of Kashmiri children. “Having seen their loved ones killed by firing of
the Indian army the Kashmiri children have been under tremendous mental
depression. Anxiety, fear and trauma occupy their early emotional state has led
to other psycho-social problems. The conflict has snatched from them the most
cherished childhood days,” they added. Referring to impact of violence on
education of children, the speakers said that due to many psycho-social
problems many orphan children could not continue their education and some of
them are studying in orphanages run by socio-religious organizations. Ahmed bin
Qasim, son of political prisoners Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo and Aasiya Andrabi,
highlighted the suffering of his parents and family. He said his mother has
spent over 12 years of her life in prison and his father was jailed just two
months after Ahmed was born. “The people of Kashmir call my father the Nelson
Mandela of Kashmir – I just hope he too is a free man one day in a free
Kashmir. Now my father is serving a life sentence and was recently shifted to a
jail outside Indian illegally occupied Jammu and I am not alone Kashmiri –
every Kashmiri child has such harrowing stories of the atrocities inflicted on
us by the occupying Indian forces,” Qasim added.The speakers said that like
other parts of the world, children of Kashmir deserve the right to live a
peaceful life in a violence-free environment. They said that it was incumbent
upon the global community to play its due role to help secure the future of
Kashmiri children and make India accountable for its crimes against humanity in
IIOJK.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/27/webinar-seeks-end-to-violence-against-children-in-iiojk/
2.
LoC ceasefire: Mar., 2, 2021: ceasefire suddenly reinstated on Thursday is
holding along the Line of Control (LoC) which divides the hotly disputed state,
mystery surrounds the circumstances in which the South Asian foes agreed to
call a halt to the thousands of skirmishes that have taken place along the LoC
since their air forces clashed in February 2019. Coming so soon after the
February 11 agreement between India and China to end their military stand-off in the
Ladakh region, the timing of the ceasefire reinstatement with Pakistan suggests
the moves may have been choreographed with China, analysts said. The analysts also believe the
newly installed administration of US President Joe Biden was in
the loop, if not actively involved, because it wants Pakistan fully invested in
persuading its Taliban allies to agree to a political settlement for Afghanistan “The surprise would be
if the four capitals did not discuss all these elements – especially since this
conversation, as we know from Trump’s super-public statements, has been ongoing
for a while, in one way or the other,” said Indian security analyst Praveen
Swami. “From India’s perspective, it may make sense to lower temperatures with
Islamabad to free up more policy space to focus on the China issue,” said
Michael Kugelman, senior South Asia associate at the Wilson Centre, a Washington-based
think tank. “The onus of creating an
enabling environment for further progress rests with India,” Khan said. “India
must take necessary steps to meet the long-standing demand and right of the
Kashmiri people to self determination.”
Analysts in India, Pakistan and the United States are in consensus that the restoration of the
ceasefire is the result of months of secretly conducted diplomacy involving
Modi’s national security adviser Ajit Doval. His Pakistani counterpart Moeed
Yusuf has denied taking part, so it remains unclear who represented Pakistan.
The decision to participate would undoubtedly have come from its top military
leadership, which exercises a veto over foreign and defence policymaking. The
first indication of a thaw between the two countries came in a February 2
speech by Pakistan’s army chief of staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, by far the
country’s most powerful decision maker. “It is time to extend a hand of peace
in all directions,” he told an audience of Pakistan Air Force cadets. The
ceasefire restoration deal “is a huge development in South Asia. India-Pakistan
relations have been really bad, especially since August 2019. In addition, 2020
was a bloody year on the LoC. Both armies and civilians along the border
suffered substantial losses, said Asfandyar Mir, a postdoctoral fellow at the
Centre for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University in
California. “The real question is why did India agree to this now? Given the
infiltration levels along the LoC are down and Pakistan has taken some action
against one major jihadist group, it is possible India believes it has obtained
some nominal goals so it is time to take an off-ramp,” Mir said. Last year,
Pakistani courts convicted and jailed leaders of Jamaatud Dawah on charges of
financing terrorism. The group was responsible for the November 2008 terrorist attacks on
Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. Echoing Kugelman of the Wilson Centre,
Mir said it was more likely that “India’s continued engagements with China led
Indian policymakers to believe that they need to lower the level of hostility
with Pakistan.” Many analysts believe the restoration of the LoC ceasefire is
the first step of a broader re-engagement between India and Pakistan that is
likely to follow a scheduled set of tentative confidence-building measures,
such as the posting of ambassadors after a two-year hiatus. “It is
likely to be received positively by the new Biden administration and China,”
Mir said
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3123558/china-behind-mystery-kashmir-ceasefire-between-india-and?utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_campaign=enlz-scmp_china&utm_content=20210302&tpcc=enlz-scmp_china&MCUID=5db4b6f7af&MCCampaignID=2a393a0d70&MCAccountID=3775521f5f542047246d9c827&tc=26
3.
US on Kashmir; Mar., 5,2021:The United States has welcomed the steps taken to return Jammu and
Kashmir to full economic and political normalcy consistent with India's democratic
values. It also said that there is no change in its policy on J&K and it
will continue to follow the developments in the region closely. "We
continue to follow developments in Jammu and Kashmir closely, our policy has
not changed. We welcome steps to return the Union Territory of Jammu and
Kashmir to full economic and political normalcy consistent with India's democratic
values," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday. While
stressing that the United States has a strategic partnership with India, Price
asserted that they will continue to work with Pakistani authorities for shared
interests."They are not a zero-sum proposition when it comes to US foreign
policy. We have productive, constructive relations, and productive and
constructive relationships with one do not detract from the relationship we
have with the other. It does not come at the expense of the relationship we
have with the other," Price said. https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/we-continue-to-follow-developments-in-jammu-and-kashmir-closely-policy-not-changed-us-state-department/727798
4. Journalists in IOK: Mar., 7, 2021: Two journalists in Srinagar were allegedly manhandled by
the Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday when an incident of stone-pelting broke
out outside the Jamia Masjid. Shafat Farooq, a multimedia journalist at BBC
Urdu, said doctors at Bone and Joint Hospital Srinagar diagnosed him with a
“soft injury” on his back and gave him medication. The Wire has seen a
copy of his hospital card confirming the injury. According to Farooq, he was
caught on the wrong side of the clashes between police and protesters and was
assaulted. “I joined my fellow journalists when the police came towards us and
started chasing us,” he said. “While they ran away, I pulled up near a police
van near a safer area and that’s when I felt something heavy ramming against my
back. It was butt of a gun that a cop was holding. I immediately fled,” he
said. Saqib Majeed, a photojournalist whose work has been featured in several
international publications, alleged that a police officer held him violently to
point of “choking”. “There was already a
ruckus inside the mosque because worshippers were probably angry when they
realised that Mirwaiz was not arriving,” Majeed said. “Then we heard a
commotion and went outside. I put myself on the side of the police. That’s what
we always do. When police began chasing the protesters, I also raced down the
street leading to the mosque for a better angle. That’s when an officer wrapped
an arm around my neck,” he said. A group of journalists later confronted the
police over the assault. The confrontation was filmed and put on social media
showing cops engaging in a heated verbal exchange with the reporters and
camerapersons. The incident has renewed concerns over the decline in press
freedom in the erstwhile state, which has been subject to several restrictions
that critics believe severely undermine the ability of journalists to report
without fear. The police also summoned Fahad Shah, the editor of Kashmir
Walla, an English language weekly in connection with a video story and a
news item that appeared on the outlet’s Twitter handle and the website. When his colleagues put out tweets and raised
alarm over his summoning to the Safa Kadal police station in Srinagar, the Committee to
Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, took notice of
the matter and urged authorities to release Shah immediately. “Srinagar police
summoned Fahad Shah, the editor of The Kashmir Walla, today at 6:30 pm in
relation to a news story published by the outlet, according to his colleague
Yashraj Sharma,” it said in a tweet. “Shah is yet to come out of the police
station, Sharma added. CPJ demands his immediate release.” At 10:02 pm, Fahad
tweeted out the confirmation of his release. “They had called me in connection
with an FIR filed on May 19 when the police objected to our coverage of the
gun-battle that had taken place in Nawa Kadal,” he told The Wire. “Police
said I was exaggerating the incidents”
Shah is an alumnus of SOAS University of London where he was enrolled as
a Felix scholar in 2013. He has also edited an anthology, Of Occupation and
Resistance: Writings from Kashmir, published by Tranquebar Press. He is
currently working on two books. He is also a correspondent at the Christian
Science Monitor, an American newspaper and has been featured in
publications like Time Magazine, Atlantic, Guardian and Foreign
Affairs and Foreign Policy. “I can simply go and work in the US and
UK. But I feel I should stay in Kashmir and contribute to this place in spite
of such a suffocating and press-averse environment,” he said. India’s press
freedom ranking has seen a consistent decline over the last few years. Last
week, Freedom House downgraded India’s status from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’ and among the reasons listed for this demotion was Modi
government’s crackdown on “expressions of dissent by the media, academics,
civil society groups, and protesters”. Authorities in J&K have also issued
a slew of new policies that restrict media freedom. In 2020, the Department of
Information and Public Relations J&K enacted a media policy that threatens to strike off newspapers from official
empanelment and punish reporters and editors for “anti-national” coverage. Last
year J&K police charged two Kashmiri journalists under anti terrorism laws.
FIRs have also been lodged against Peerzada Ashiq, a reporter with The Hindu, Sajad Gul, journalism student at Central University in Ganderbal,
Yashraj Sharma, senior editor at Kashmir Walla and Mir Junaid and Qazi
Shibli, who work for The Kashmiriyat, an online news venture.
Previously, the J&K government also pulled
advertisements from newspapers allegedly over their
coverage. Last month, authorities de-empanelled 34 newspapers, suspended ads
for 13 and issued notices to 17 for alleged
“malpractice”. Last year, the government also seized the office of the Srinagar bureau of the Kashmir Times
newspaper. https://thewire.in/rights/srinagar-journalists-allege-manhandling-by-police-amidst-clashes-at-jamia-masjid
5.
Kashmir
Update 116: Week Feb.,22, 2021 to Feb.,28,2021
1.
Iran on Kashmir:
Feb., 21, 2021: Iran has called for the need to respect
the rights of the people of Kashmir in ‘determining their own destiny’ and
their human rights. The foreign Minister of
Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Javed Zarif while answering a question during
an interview with state-run Press Tv said, “Our policy has been very clear. We
emphasise the need to respect the rights of people of all places, including
Kashmiris, their human rights, and their right to determine their own destiny.”
Last year Iran’s Foreign Ministry had expressed concerns over the tear-gassing
and pellet firing on a Muharram procession in Kashmir.
https://thekashmirwalla.com/2021/02/iran-respects-right-of-kashmiris-to-determine-their-own-destiny-foreign-minister/
2.
Arms denied to India: Feb., 21, 2021: In a
big snub to India, over its “poor human rights record” in the illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the German government declined license to two firms
planning small arms export. Though Germany is India’s sixth-largest trading
partner and its largest trading partner from the European Union, it feared that
their small arms could be used against the civilian population in Indian
Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). According to a report published
in Telegraph India, the concerns over the security forces’ human rights record
in Jammu and Kashmir had raised a barrier before Germany’s small arms exports
to India.Two Indian security officials familiar with the bar on German small
arms producers said these companies had failed to obtain export licences from
their government on account of the “poor human rights record” in Kashmir. The
report also revealed that a Belgian arms manufacturer too had recently walked
out of a deal to supply arms to India’s army amid concerns in the Belgian
government that the weapons would be used in Jammu and Kashmir. Belgium’s FN
Herstal had signed the Rs 70-crore deal in 2020 to supply small arms and assault
rifles to the army’s Special Frontier Force (SFF). Reports have said that
German arms manufacturer Heckler and Koch, whose MP5 submachine guns have been
part of the armoury of the National Security Guards (NSG) and Marine Commando
(Marcos) units, has withdrawn from the Indian market saying it lacked approval
from the German government. In November 2019, three months after the Centre had
revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and restricted movement and
communication, Germany had expressed reservations about the clampdown and
concern for the people of the region. Germany had earlier too restricted arms
export to India citing poor human rights records in states such as Gujarat,
Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. According to the Telegraph
India, a defence ministry official recalled that Germany had, during the Kargil
conflict of 1999, halted technology transfer for India’s indigenously made
Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv and withheld replacement parts and supplies for
German equipment. https://dunyanews.tv/en/World/589069-Germany-declines-arms-export-to-India-for-poor-human-rights-record
3. Dr Fais solution: Feb., 22, 2021:
Kashmir is internationally recognized as a
disputed territory whose final status is yet to be determined by the
people. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and have fought three
wars during the past 73 years. This is a matter that urgently needs to be put
on a road to find a just and viable solution.. Any effort to resolve the
conflict requires confronting the issue directly and honestly, and that is
something that seems difficult for the Government of India to do. India does
not want to resolve the Kashmir conflict but to dissolve it. India wants Kashmir
issue to be buried under the rug when the issue is raised in the international
community by alleging that it is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan
and no one else’s business. It could be strictly a bilateral issue if
forthrightness was involved. It may also be mentioned here that India
presents a wholly false picture of the situation in Kashmir. The agenda of the
Indian government and its various mouthpieces to mislead the public about the
conflict in and about Kashmir continues on unimpeded. New
Delhi has tried to weave a smokescreen with some unfounded myths, which seek to
discredit the genuine struggle of the people. But these ploys will never be
able to cover up the reality and sufferings of people in the Jammu &
Kashmir. India has particularly failingly tried to equate Kashmiri people with
fundamentalism. I want to debunk this myth created by India that Kashmir is an
issue of fundamentalism. Here are few latest shining examples of diversity in Kashmir: Daily
Kashmir Observer reported that Muslims helped a Hindu family in the cremation
process of a man who died in the Maisuma area of Srinagar city on February 8,
2021. According to reports, one Rakesh Kumar breathed his last on Monday.
Muslim neighbours arranged everything required for the cremation process.
Locals said they arranged a priest and shouldered the dead body upto the
cremation ground; India’s leading
newspaper, Hinsdustan Times reported on May 1, 2020. Muslim men help Hindu
man’s kin conduct his funeral rites in north Kashmir’s Uri. Due to the
lockdown, the relatives of the deceased could not reach the place for his
funeral and no vehicle was available to carry the body to the cremation ground.
Members of the Muslim community helped in performing the last rites of their
Hindu neighbour (54-year-old Shekhar Kumar) in north Kashmir’s Uri town amid
the nationwide lockdown. Deceased’s son Ghautam Kumar said that the Muslim
community has always helped them in tough times. ‘It was not possible to
perform my father’s last rites without their support,’ he said; India’s another
daily, The Hindu, reported on June 5, 2020. “Local Muslims made special
arrangements to perform the last rites (of Mrs. Rani Bhat– a Hindu). Firewood
was arranged for cremation. The body was also shouldered by Muslims. It’s our
duty to ensure that we are with our Pandit neighbours in thick and thin,’ Abdul
Qadir, a Muslim villager, said. Joginder Singh Raina of the All
Party Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) said “Kashmir is about Kashmiriyat
which means brotherhood…Sikhs settled in city during the turmoil but never went
away but now Kashmiri Pandits should also come and live together like us.” I believe the best solution of
this dilemma is that the Pandit brethren should return to the Valley and the
majority community must open their hearts and minds in order to give them moral
support and sense of security. The rights and culture of Kashmiri Pandits must
be respected and protected at all costs. Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani, President,
JKCHR has expressed the sentiments of the majority community in these words. “
My teachers at the Higher Secondary School, College and at the University were
Kashmiri Pandits. Men and women of great character and stature. Many close
friends were Kashmiri Pandits. They would let me into their homes except their
kitchen. It did not bother me. The trusting atmosphere was overwhelming and I
did not have time to consider the merits of ‘kitchen’ being a no go area. I
felt sorry for their exodus in 1990. The sense of glee and emotion is
uncontrollable, whenever a Kashmiri Pandit visits his or her home in Kashmir.
Therefore, I raised the issue of their rights at the UN Human Rights Commission
and Sub Commission in Geneva.” The Biden administration
faces two options with regard to Kashmir. First, it can continue the Trump
administration policy of ignoring the Kashmiri dispute while warning India and
Pakistan against going to war with each other. Besides condoning the atrocities
being committed in Kashmir, this policy rests on a tacit agreement between India
and Pakistan that war between them is unacceptable. With the growth of fascist
ruling party in India, however, such an agreement is extremely vulnerable. The
prospect of a nuclear exchange in the subcontinent, which contains a fifth of
the world's population, cannot be dismissed in the event of an outbreak of
hostilities. The second U.S. option is to play a more activist mediating role
by initiating a new peace process for Kashmir. This could take the shape of a
quadrilateral dialogue involving the U.S., India, Pakistan and Kashmir, or an
appropriate use of the new mechanisms and abilities of the United Nations. In
either case the U.S. would supply the necessary catalyst for a settlement.
4.
UN report on Kashmir: A UN
report on held Kashmir has greatly damaged India’s narrative on Kashmir which
it was trying to build for two years. In the report, the UN experts voiced
their concern over India's decision to revoke the occupied Kashmir's autonomy
and enact laws that could curtail the political participation of Muslims and
other minorities. They also said Muslims and other minority groups stood to
lose on issues such as employment and land ownership. The statement by Fernand
de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and Ahmed Shaheed, Special
Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, was released as diplomats from
nearly two dozen countries concluded a two-day visit to the occupied valley
arranged by the Modi Sarkar. Thus, it had more impact and greatly hurt the
narrative that India was building for the foreign diplomats. The UN experts
noted that on August 5, 2019, India "unilaterally and without
consultation" revoked the constitutional special status of the region and
passed the so-called domicile rules in May 2020 which removed protections given
to those from the occupied territory. Subsequent changes to land laws are
further eroding these protections in the only state in India with a Muslim
majority. “The loss of autonomy and the imposition of direct rule by the
government in New Delhi suggests the people of Jammu and Kashmir no longer have
their own government and have lost power to legislate or amend laws in the
region to ensure the protection of their rights as minorities,” the UN experts
said.“The number of successful applicants for domicile certificates that appear
to be from outside Jammu and Kashmir raises concerns that demographic change on
a linguistic, religious and ethnic basis is already under way,” the statement
added.“These legislative changes may have the potential to pave the way for
people from outside the former state of Jammu and Kashmir to settle in the
region, alter the demographics of the region and undermine the minorities’
ability to exercise effectively their human rights,” the experts said. The festering problem has led to the barbaric
killings of thousands of people in the valley, including women and children.
They said India, to counter the impact of the Kashmir Solidarity Day in
Pakistan, arranged the visit, which was immediately sabotaged by the UN rights
report. Soon after the diplomats’ visit, three policemen were killed in attacks
in the disputed region, two of them in held Srinagar, showing the conflict was
not frozen in time and no matter how many guided tours were arranged, ground
realities in the disputed region remained the same.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/793711-un-report-on-held-kashmir-setback-for-india
5.
Modi’s
visit to Kashmir: Feb., 23, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference has reiterated its appeal to the people of Jammu
and Kashmir asking them to observe complete shutdown on the proposed visit of
Narendra Modi, the fascist and killer Prime Minister of India, black day would
be observed while black flags be displayed in every nook and corner of the
territory as a mark of strong protest against the visit.The spokesman while
condemning the barbaric and ruthless behaviour of the fascist regime of India,
said that after the abrogation of Article 370 and other land laws, the
demography of the territory witnessed drastic changes on the ground
level.“Millions of domicile certificates have been issued to the non-state
subject Hindus to convert the Muslim majority status of Jammu and Kashmir into
a minority area.” Terming the Indian policy on Kashmir as a replica of Israel’s
policy, the spokesman urged the United Nations Secretary General to take a
legal action against India’s illegal intervention in the disputed territory of
Jammu and Kashmir.The spokesman said India has unleashed a reign of terror and
violence particularly after August 5, 2019 to suppress the will of the people
by its military might. The spokesman reiterated the APHC stance that the people
of Kashmir, as a matter of their birth right, demand free and fair plebiscite
under the auspices of the United Nations to find out the solution to the
Kashmir dispute. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/22/aphc-reiterates-call-for-shutdown-on-modis-visit-to-iiojk/
6.
Turkey on Kashmir: Feb., 24 2021: The Legal Forum for Oppressed Voices of Kashmir (LFOVK)
Tuesday extended its gratitude to foreign minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu for expressing the aspirations of
Kashmiris at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to seek an end of illegal Indian occupation from Jammu and Kashmir. "We reiterate our call to the Indian government to ease the
current restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir. We wish the resolution of the issue
through peaceful means on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions and legitimate expectations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," said a news release while quoting Turkey foreign minister address to 46th session of
the UNHRC on February 22. The Turkey statement
comes on the heels of observations made by Genocide Watch (an
independent US-based watch dog) that; "The Indian government's actions in Kashmir have been an extreme
case of persecution and could very well lead to genocide. At present the [Kashmir]
valley is suffering from a 'pre-genocidal' situation." Turkey's stand on Kashmir should awaken the
UNHRC, and world community, on
Kashmir which must call a special session to discuss the humanitarian crisis in
the region and seek implementation of right to self-determination in the
disputed region, it added. The LFOVK sought establishment of war crimes
tribunal under UNHRC and international support to prosecute the Indian occupational forces to take them to task
for the heinous crimes committed in the occupied territory. These vicious
crimes must shake conscious of UNHRC members and they must do what is
necessary: hold India accountable.
According to LFOVK research, more than 470 people, including armed rebels and
occupational Indian troops, were killed in gunfights and
"staged" clashes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. Indian forces also killed some 65
civilians "extra-judicially", meaning in staged gunfights. https://www.urdupoint.com/en/kashmir/lfovk-hails-turkeys-call-for-justice-on-kash-1175514.html
7.
Youth martyred: Feb., 25, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian
troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in
Islamabad district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a violent
cordon and search operation in Srigufwara area of the district. Occupation
authorities suspended internet service in the district to prevent dissemination
of information about the brutalities of Indian forces in the area. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/24/indian-troops-martyr-two-youth-in-iiojk/
8. Cease fire: Feb., 26, 2021: Pakistan and India have agreed to the
strict observance of all agreements, understandings and ceasefire along the
Line of Control (LoC) and all other sectors, with effect from Wednesday
midnight. “In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable
peace along the borders, the two Directors General of Military Operations
(DGMOs) agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns which have
propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence,” a joint statement said,
referring to the military operations heads of the two countries. According to
the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the DGMOs of the two countries held
discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact. "Ninety two
per cent of the figures shared occurred between 2014 and 2021," he said,
adding that 49 women and 26 children have been martyred in the last four years.
He said that the year 2019 witnessed the most ceasefire violations while 2018
had the most casualties. "After the understanding between the two
countries, it has been agreed to implement the 2003 ceasefire in letter and
spirit," he said. 33 civilians martyred, 260 injured by Indian shelling in
AJK in 2020.Indian troops committed more than 2,900 ceasefire violations across
the LoC in 2020, leaving as many as 33 innocent civilians martyred and another
260 wounded in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). “Not only the
civilians, they also targeted the UN military observers in this year while they
were on a routine monitoring mission along the LoC,'' the minister had said,
referring to the Dec 18 shooting at a UN vehicle in Poonch district.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609331/pakistan-india-agree-on-strict-observance-of-all-agreements-ceasefire-along-loc-ispr
9.
OIC on Kashmir : Feb., 26, 2021: The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation, Dr Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen has reaffirmed the OIC’s
commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental
freedoms, including in Jammu and Kashmir. The OIC Secretary General made the
statement in his address to the High-Level Segment of the ongoing 46th Session
of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The UNHRC’s session, which
commenced on February 22, will continue till March 23 in a virtual mode. He
said, this session takes place at a time when the world is facing numerous
challenges affecting peace, security, human rights and development. “The
COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on all aspects of life and
especially on human rights. It has exacerbated social inequality and
vulnerability,” he said.Dr Al-Othaimeen highlighted the massive Israeli human
rights violations against the Palestinian people, the human rights situation in
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the post-conflict rehabilitation
and reconstruction in Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijan, the situation of the
Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar and other Muslim communities in non-OIC
member states. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/25/in-address-to-unhrc-oic-chief-mentions-hr-situation-in-iiojk/
10.
US role in Thaw;
Feb., 27, 2021: A little more than a month into Joe Biden’s presidency, the
United States has played the Big Brother by bringing quarreling south Asian
nations — India, Pakistan, and China — on the dialogue table to ensure greater
stability in the region long considered a nuclear flashpoint. India and
Pakistan have reached an agreement to uphold the ceasefire on the de facto
borders of Jammu and Kashmir for “mutually beneficial and sustainable peace”,
potentially bringing an end to several years of hostilities and countless loss
of lives and property. The two countries, partitioned in 1947, have agreed to
address “each other’s core issues”. Pakistan has stated that its only dispute
with India is over Kashmir. New Delhi is yet to react to the statement but has
sent out feelers for possible diplomatic negotiations. On India’s eastern
front, it has reached an agreement with China to de-escalate the border
situation in Ladakh, formerly a part of J-K. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
claimed that India hasn’t lost any territory to China but independent reports
suggest otherwise.The US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that the
Biden administration since the outset had urged India and Pakistan to reduce
tensions. Biden took oath as the president on 20 January this year. “You’ve
heard me say from this podium and others from this administration say that we
had called on the parties to reduce tensions along the LoC by returning to that
2003 ceasefire agreement,” he said at a press briefing in Washington yesterday.
Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy
Research, wrote in the India Forum that “more public engagements and meetings
are likely to be announced soon” between India and Pakistan. administration’s indifference in its wake led
Pakistan further closer to China. The hyper-nationalist Modi government —
famous for its “we will attack them on their territory” stance on its
neighbours – projects itself as immune to foreign intervention but has softened
its stand after Biden won the historic general election in the US.
https://thekashmirwalla.com/2021/02/us-role-evident-in-india-pakistan-bonhomie/
11. UNHRC on Kashmir: Feb., 28,
2021: Bachelet
also spoke on the situation in Kashmir, noting that restrictions on
communications and clampdowns on civil society activists “remain of concern”.
She observed that despite the restoration of 4G access for the first time since
August 2019 in Kashmir, the “communications blockade has seriously hampered
civic participation, as well as business, livelihoods, education, and access to
health-care and medical information”.”Raids against human rights defenders in
October and November exemplify the continued restrictions on civil society, and
resulting impact on the rights of the people of Kashmir to impart and receive
information, and to engage in free, open debate on Government policies
affecting them,” she noted. https://thewire.in/rights/un-human-rights-chief-michele-bachelet-farmers-protests-sedition-charges-social-media-curbs-kashmir
12. Journalist: Feb., 28, 2021: The Clooney Foundation for Justice will monitor the trial
of award winning Kashmiri
journalist Aasif Sultan who has been detained in Kashmir for over two and a
half years and faces the death penalty if convicted. Sultan is a journalist who
reported on human rights and political issues for the Kashmir Narrator. He has
been imprisoned since his arrest in August 2018 and was only indicted five
months later. He is now charged with supporting the terrorist group, Hizbul
Mujahideen, and conspiring to kill a police officer. If convicted after trial,
he faces the death penalty. Press and human rights organisations believe the
charges actually stem from Sultan’s reports on the killing of a Kashmiri
militant by Indian security forces. The killing set off anti-government
demonstrations in Kashmir in July 2016. The indictment cites Sultan’s social
media posts and letter pads of the Hizbul Mujahideen at his home as evidence of
his involvement with the banned group. According to the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ), after the group called for Sultan’s release in The
Washington Post, the Jammu and Kashmir police responded on
Twittersaying that Sultan was not being held for his work but for “hatching a
criminal conspiracy, harbouring and supporting terrorists who martyred a police
constable.” He is one of a number of journalists in Kashmir who appear to have
been detained, investigated, or prosecuted in connection with their
journalistic activities under counterterrorism and related laws.
https://thewire.in/media/clooney-foundation-to-monitor-trial-of-kashmiri-journalist-detained-for-over-2-years
Kashmir
Update 115: Week Feb.,15, 2021 to Feb.,21,2021
1.
37th. anniversary of Mqbool Bhat
commemorated: Feb., 15. 2021: Kashmiri diaspora commemorated
the 37th anniversary of the martyrdom of Kashmiri icon Maqbool
Butt with a renewed commitment to achieve the hero's dream: self-determination
as prescribed by the United Nations, international law, and moral justice.
Since his execution, February 11 has been observed b y all Kashmiris as a black
day of mourning for the martyr of a brave Kashmiri statesman. This year’s
webinar was attended by speakers from the United States and abroad. Dr. Ghulam
Nabi Fai, Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum said, “11 February
is a somber day but at the same time a day of remembrance and a day to
revitalize our resolve to be true to the mission of Martyr Maqbool Bhat. Maqbool
Bhat's life has inspired countless Kashmiris to persist in the struggle for
self-determination against India's intransigence. His vision of a free and fair
Kashmiri self-determination on its sovereign destiny did not die with his
death. He gave his life for the cause because he believed in it with all
sincerity and honesty.” Maqbool Bhat gave a lesson to the generations to come
that it is very hard but only choice to accept martyrdom instead of slavery.
His courage demonstrated such savagery would backfire, and intensify the
Kashmir resistance. Dr. Fai added, while
we must pay rich tributes to the memory of this great martyr, our true tribute
will be emancipation of the Kashmiri people from under the Indian brutal
occupation and senseless subjugation. Javed Rathore continued: “Indian
authorities could jail Maqbool Bhat and silence him by execution but they could
not silence his ultimate desire - the struggle for the people of Kashmir. The
spirit of Maqbool Bhat is alive. Today, he is an inspiration to millions of
Kashmiris and those striving for human rights and human dignity. Claire
Bidwel, Chairperson, “Let Kashmiris Decide” Scotland,discussed in detilas her
initiative to shake the conscience of the world leaders to come to rescue the
leader of Kashmiri political resistance movement – Mohammad Yasin Malik. Her
signature campaign has already received thousands of responses all over the
world. Ariful Haq Arif, senior most journalist who knew Maqbool Bhat
personally when he met him in Karachi, quoted him saying, “We faced every form
of torture with the belief that this (new) challenge we are facing will
ultimately bring revolution to our thinking.” Arif said that Maqbool Butt was
certainly a charismatic leader who gave his today for the betterment of
tomorrow. His dastardly death will inspire living Kashmiris for ages. Dr.
Zulfiqar Kazmi, a well-known scholar said that Maqbool Butt was undoubtedly, a
selfless leader and we, the people of Kashmir miss him dearly. His dastardly
death will inspire living Kashmiris for the ages, just as Reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr.'s assassination did in the United States. Sardar Shoaib
Irshad, the organizer of the webinar, quoted Maqbool Bhat Shaheed, “The
children of oppressors are provided with all the luxuries and comfort of the
world, but the children of resistance leaders are not attracted to these kinds
of luxuries and comfort. They get satisfaction from struggling against the
system of oppression.” Dr. Akhlaq Barlas, prominent Kashmir scholar and leader
said, Maqbool Butt was hanged by India's authorities for protesting their
illegal and iron-fisted occupation of Kashmir since 1947. Kashmiri diaspora
must get united and seek representation from all zones of the State of Jammu
& Kashmir. Mohammad Arshad Shah, (Canada) said, Maqbool Bhat had previously
been tortured and inhumanely imprisoned as part of India's state sponsored
terrorism in the disputed territory of Kashmir. We must intensify our
activities so that his mission remains alive. Sardar Naseem Iqbal (England), a
well-known community leader, urged everybody to take a leaf from the long
history of Kashmir which is full of trials and tribulations. Those who
contemplate on the past will ultimately come closer to achieve their objective
– the freedom for the people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Sardar
Zulfiqar Roshan Khan spoke from Islamabad that the sacrifice of Shaheed Maqbool
Bhat will never be wasted. The blood of Kashmiri martyrs brings the goal for
freedom and justice nearer. Sardar Zubair Khan said that the lesson of the
martyrdom of Bhat Sahib is that we should be consciously ready to give
sacrifices for the cause as was demonstrated by our leader. Sardar Aftab Roshan
Khan said that Maqbool Bhat has given us an important message that we may have
to give more sacrifices till the whole nation is liberated. Tariq Khan, Canada
said that the decision of Raja Farooq Haider, the prime minister of Azad
Kashmir to announce February 11th a holiday is the right step in the
right direction. But on this day, we must highlight the contribution of Maqbool
Bhat to our younger generation through organizing seminar, debates and
conferences. Raja Liaqat Kiyani, President, Kashmir House, Washington said that
people of Azad Kashmir are united in pursuing the mission of Maqbool Bhat
irrespective of their party affiliations and political beliefs. Sardar Zarif
Khan, President, Washington Chapter of Kashmir Solidarity Council and the emcee
of the event, said Maqbool Butt was undoubtedly, a selfless leader and we, the
people of Kashmir miss him dearly. While paying tribute to Shaheed Maqbool
Bhat, Zarif said that worldly luxuries meant nothing to Bhat. He always
preferred a day of freedom to a life of luxuries without any freedom. At the
conclusion of the event, it was demanded that the Government of India return
the mortal remains of Shaheed Maqbool Bhat and Shaheed Afzal Guru to their
relatives in Kashmir. It has been a sacrilege to have kept them in India for
thirty-seven callous years respectively. Other speakers included:Hamid
Malik; Shakeel Ahmed Janjua ; Sajjad Baloch; Zahid Khan; Aftab Khan; Azmat
Khan; Mujeeb Kazi; Raheel Shaikh
2.
4G restoration: Feb., 16, 2021: Asaduddin Owaisi said that instead of taking an all-party
delegation to J&K the saffron party is presenting its third report card to
European diplomats. Calling it “embarrassing”, Owaisi further claimed that 4G
mobile Internet service in the Union Territory was restored after US pressure.
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/bjp-internationalised-kashmir-issue-says-owaisi-claims-restoration-of-4g-was-done-under-us-pressure/720200
3.
US and China on Kashmir:
Feb., 16, 2021:
There is more to: Biden’s telephone call to Modi; and the LaC troop pullback by
China and India., than meets the eye. Since then 4G has been restored and Shah
has claimed that full statehood is around the corner for J&K. Chinese actions related to the LaC are said
to stem from: distrust of the BBP – Modi government; and to the change in
status of J&K. The Chinese deem these are unilateral changes made to an
area that is in dispute between three States and has UN and International
recognition as a disputed area. The recent agreement to pull back troops from
one part of the LaC and subsequent Interior Minister Shah’s statement on the
status of J&K seems connected. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had both made
some statements related to the Kashmir issue (and on status of minorities in
India) during the election campaign. .
The recent telephone call between Biden and Modi , was reported to be about
bilateral issues but :democratic values’ and human rights were mentioned. The
restoration of 4G (since then partly withdrawn) has something to do with this
telephone call.
4.
EU: Feb., 17, 2021: In
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, complete strike will be observed,
tomorrow, on the expected visit of a selected European parliamentary group to
the territory. The visit has been arranged by the Indian authorities. the EU parliamentarians’ arranged visit is a
ploy to hoodwink the international community. They pointed out that the paid
visit is a disgrace to the world because those who call themselves true
democrats are making entertainment trips to the imprisoned paradise on earth. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/16/complete-shutdown-in-iiojk-tomorrow/
5. EU
Kashmir visit: Feb., 18, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and
Kashmir, complete strike was observed, today, to register protest against the
visit of a selected European parliamentary group completely controlled by
Modi-led fascist Indian government to mislead the international community about
the ground situation of the territory.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/17/complete-shutdown-observed-in-iiojk-today/
6. UN : Feb., 19, 2021”“The loss of autonomy and the
imposition of direct rule by the Government in New Delhi suggests the people of
Jammu and Kashmir no longer have their own government and have lost power to
legislate or amend laws in the region to ensure the protection of their rights
as minorities”, Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and
Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, said in a
statement. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1085112
7. EU: Feb., 19, 2021:
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Harriet
Conference has said that the complete and exemplary shutdown in the territory
on Wednesday against the nefarious designs and ploys of India to hoodwink the
international community is an eye-opener for New Delhi as well as the visiting
team of European envoys.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/18/exemplary-shutdown-in-iiojk-an-eye-opener-for-india-eu-delegation-aphc/
8. Tlaib on Kashmir: feb., 19, 2021: US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) spoke at
the February 5 webinar sponsored by Justice for All, Tlaib introduced a
resolution in Congress “condemning the human rights violations taking place in
Jammu and Kashmir and supporting Kashmiri self-determination.” Ahmed bin Qasim, a journalist with
the Turkish TRT World, joined
Tlaib at the Kashmir solidarity .During
the webinar, UK parliamentarian Afzal Khan described J&K as “one of the
oldest unresolved dispute[s] on the UN books.” He added, “the suffering of the
Kashmiri people is not new, but it’s been going on for more than 70 plus years.
And what is sad is that the suffering is actually increasing by the day.” “We
have truth on our side and we always will because every single child that is
harmed will continue to speak the truth even years later as they try to pretend
it never happened,” Tlaib said. “And as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants, I
see it happening to my ancestors, my family, every single day.” https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/02/18/rashida-tlaib-speaks-at-kashmir-event-featuring-jihad-supporters/
9. Youth martyred: Feb., 20, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/19/indian-troops-martyr-three-kashmiris-in-iioj
Kashmir
Update 114: Week Feb.,8, 2021 to Feb.,14,2021
1. US on Kashmir: Feb., 8, 2021: The US State
Department has stressed India to fully protect the basic human rights in Held
Kashmir. “Pakistan and India should work out for the reduction of tensions
along the Line of Control (LoC) and start positive dialogue on the Kashmir
issue,” the Urdu spokesperson of the State Department Zed Tarar stated in an
exclusive interview with The News in Dubai. He said Pakistan and India are
partners of the United States and both must formulate the strategy to ease
tensions through dialogues. Speaking on the human rights and digital blockades
in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Zed Tarar demanded that
Indian government should lift the internet blockade in the region and “freedom
of expression” must be respected and protected in the Valley https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/786368-us-asks-pakistan-india-to-begin-talks-on-kashmir-issue
2. China on LaC: Feb, 9, 2021: After Union minister V.K. Singh claimed that India has “transgressed” more times than China along the Line of Actual Control
(LAC), Beijing responded by saying that it was an “unwitting confession” and
alleged that New Delhi’s “frequent acts of trespass” was at the root of border
tensions. Minister of state for road transport and highways, V.K. Singh told
reporters in the city of Madurai on Sunday that China had transgressed several
times across the un-demarcated border “with his own perception of the LAC”. He
added, “Similarly, none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed
as per our perception. Chinese media does not cover it”.The former army chief
underlined, “Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must
have done it at least 50 times”. In response to Singh’s remarks, Chinese foreign
ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin
stated that this was an acknowledgement of encroachment by India. “This is an
unwitting confession by the Indian side. For a long time, the Indian side has
conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt to
encroach on China’s territory and constantly created disputes and frictions,
which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border,” he stated
at the daily briefing on Monday. He added, “We urge the Indian side to follow
through on the consensus, agreements and treaties it reached with China, and
uphold peace and stability in the border region with concrete actions”.
https://thewire.in/security-security/vk-singh-lac-transgression-china-india-border
3. OIC:
Feb., 8, 2021: The Organization of
Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, which held a
virtual meeting in New York, has reaffirmed its unwavering support to their
just struggle for the exercise of their right to self-determination under the
United Nations resolutions, media reports said. The meeting, in which permanent representatives of Pakistan,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azerbaijan took part, was organized on Friday
to commemorate Kashmir Solidarity Day, the reports added. A statement issued by the Contact Group in New
York expressed deep concern at the continued violations by India of the
fundamental human rights in Jammu and Kashmir. “The Contact Group called on the
UN Secretary General, the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council
to urge India to halt the human rights violations in occupied Jammu and
Kashmir, rescind the unilateral and illegal measures taken on and after August
5, 2019, and to implement the Security Council resolutions calling for a
plebiscite to enable the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir to
exercise their right to self-determination,” the reports said. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/08/oic-urges-un-to-persuade-india-to-revoke-illegal-actions-in-iiojk/
4. US Kashmir Policy: Feb., 12, 2021: The United States
State Department has clarified that there has been no change in America’s
Kashmir policy and Washington still considers both Jammu and Kashmir as a
territory disputed between India and Pakistan.
. But the clarification on the Kashmir issue shows that the Biden
administration is not insensitive to Pakistan’s concerns either. “I want to be
very clear, there has been no change in US policy in the region,” said State
Department spokesperson Ned Price when reminded at a briefing that a tweet the
department posted earlier on Wednesday did not mention the region’s disputed
status . ". “I would say generally that around the world we are committed
to supporting democratic values, including freedom of expression,” Price said.
“When it comes to Twitter’s policies, we’d have to refer you to Twitter itself
. https://www.dawn.com/news/1606744
5. J&K Statehood; Feb., 14, 2021: Indian Home Minister Amit Shah told Lok Sabha on Saturday
that the government would restore full Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at an
appropriate time. Shah was replying to a discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir
Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in Lok Sabha .“This legislation has
nothing to do with statehood, and Jammu and Kashmir will be accorded the status
at an appropriate time,“ Shah said. The J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill
seeks to merge the all-India services J&K cadre with the Arunachal Pradesh,
Goa, Mizoram Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. He said the region’s union
territory status was temporary, just as the Article 370 that granted special
status to Jammu and Kashmir was supposed to be. Jammu and Kashmir has been a
top priority for the current government since it took power in 2014, the
Minister said.
6. Human rights violations: Feb., 14,
2021: Indian
brutalities at peak in IIOJK https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/13/indian-brutalities-at-peak-in-iiojk/
7
Kashmir
Update 113: Week Feb.,1, 2021 to Feb.,7,2021
1. Farooq: Jan.,31, 2021: Wamiq Farooq On
January 31, 2010, after offering noon-time prayers at a mosque and eating lunch
with his family, Wamiq tucked a cricket ball into his pocket, waved to his
mother through the window and left. He never returned. Later that evening,
Wamiq was hit on the head by a tear-smoke shell that was allegedly fired at close range by constable
Mohamad Akram of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on the orders of ASI Abdul
Khaliq. The police later justified their action in the FIR (12/2010), claiming
that “in order to disperse the unruly mob, the mild force was used such as
tear-smoke shells, as a result, thereof one shell hit a boy who was taken by
the locals to the hospital…” However, key eyewitnesses have contested the
narrative, “There was no mob or any incident of stone-pelting, even the nearby
shops were open, everything was normal.”
On August 22, 2013, the chief judicial magistrate of Srinagar issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Abdul Khaliq Sofi and
Mohammad Akram after the prima-facie guilt of the accused
was established based on a judicial inquiry and police probe. However, no arrests were made. The case also went to the Supreme Court, and
on April 7, 2015, it asked the trial court Srinagar to proceed with a trial in
the case “uninfluenced” by findings of the SIT and observations of the J&K
high court. As a result, on his 11th
death anniversary, justice still evades Wamiq Farooq and his family.
https://thewire.in/rights/wamiq-farooq-killing-kashmir-2010-justice
2.
HR violations: Feb., 2, 2021:In Indian illegally
occupied Jammu and Kashmir, unrelenting military siege imposed by Narendra
Modi-led fascist Indian government on August 05, 2019, continues to take a
heavy toll on daily life of the Kashmiri people in the territory. A report
released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service , today, revealed
that the Indian troops martyred 308 Kashmiris including 7 women during the
period. Most of the victims were killed by the troops in fake encounters or in
custody. Youth are picked up from their homes during so-called cordon and
search operations and are eliminated after being labeled as mujahideen or
over-ground workers. The killing by the troops during the period rendered 16
women widowed and 38 children orphaned. The report maintained that at least
1,701 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force, bullets,
pellets and teargas shelling by the Indian troops on peaceful demonstrators in
the territory. The troops damaged over 993 houses and structures and molested
or disgraced 103 women and arrested 14,489 people during the period.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/02/01/indian-troops-martyr-308-kashmiris-during-18-months-siege/
3.
China deploys
tanks: Feb., 3,2021: China has deployed a huge number of troops, armored tanks, and
military trucks along the Line of actual control in eastern Ladakh According to
a report by Times Now, a video has surfaced which shows that People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) continues to build up military assets close to the LAC. Quoting
their correspondent, the news channel reported that China’s military has
deployed around 350 tanks near the border. Beijing has deployed a sizeable number
of its most sophisticated main battlefield tank ‘Type 99’ close to the Indian
border. The PLA has deployed its tanks in many areas, including Despang Area
and South Bank. https://thekashmirwalla.com/2021/02/china-deploys-350-battlefield-tanks-near-indian-border-in-ladakh-report/?fbclid=IwAR12Hbw1FSSsdyJm6OXwDExqbRyysMZuKPKxlEKQ-GtJ-Xi7oT0Eo0x2bYM
4. KASHMIR DAY: Feb., 5, 2021: Kashmir Solidarity Day, or
Kashmir Day, is a national holiday in Pakistan on 5 February each year. It is
in observance of Pakistan's support of and unity with the people of Indian
administered Kashmir. The extraordinary struggle for freedom of the Kashmiri
people is recognized and those who lost their lives to barbaric oppression are
remembered. Human rights violations like rape, blinding, illegal detention and
communications lock down are condemned.
5. Plebiscite: Feb., 6, 2021: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said
Pakistan will allow Kashmiris to decide between choosing to join Pakistan or
remaining independent even after they vote in favour of Pakistan in a future
plebiscite. Premier also reminded the United Nations and the international community
that they had failed to provide the promised right to the people of Kashmir to
determine their own future. He recalled that the world had promised Kashmiris
in 1948 that they would get the right to decide their own future as per UN
Security Council https://www.dawn.com/news/1605627/kashmiris-may-choose-pakistan-or-independence-pm-imran
6. New York State Assembly: Feb., 7, 2021: The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday said that
the New York State Assembly's decision to adopt a resolution marking Feb 5,
2021, as “Kashmir-American Day” was a "welcome development" and proof
that India cannot hide "its gross and systemic violations of human rights
of the Kashmiri people anymore". “The resolution appreciates the courage
and perseverance of the Kashmiri people and recognises their unique cultural
and religious identity. It also underscores that 'the State of New York
endeavours to champion human rights including the freedom of religion,
movement, and expression for all Kashmiri people'," said FO spokesman
Zahid Hafeez Chaudri. On Wednesday, New
York became the first state in the United States to proclaim February 5, 2021,
as “Kashmir-American Day” when Pakistani and Kashmiri communities across the
world observed Kashmir Solidarity Day, voicing full support to the just
struggle of Kashmiri people for the exercise of their UN-promised right to
self-determination. The New York State Assembly marked Feb 5 as
“Kashmir-American Day” by adopting a resolution through a voice vote, a
significant development which was the result of years of efforts by the
American-Pakistani Advocacy Group.“The State of New York endeavours to champion
human rights including the freedom of religion, movement, and expression for
all Kashmiri people,” the resolution said. APAG is a non-profit social service
and advocacy organisation based in New York
https://www.dawn.com/news/1605819/pakistan-hails-new-york-assembly-resolution-marking-feb-5-as-kashmir-american-day
Kashmir
Update 112: Week Jan.,25, 2021 to Jan.,31,2021
1. LaC : Jan., 26, 2021: On
Jan 20 Indian and Chinese troops were involved in another brawl on their
contested Himalayan border, leaving injuries on both sides, military officials
said on Monday. The Indian military played down the latest skirmish as a “minor
face-off” at Naku La pass, which connects Sikkim state with Tibet on the
Chinese side. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he
didn’t have anything to offer on the incident but urged India to exercise
restraint.“I would like to stress though that China’s border troops are
committed to upholding peace and tranquillity along the border with India. We
urge the Indian side to work in the same direction as us and refrain from
actions that might escalate or complicate the situation along the border,” he told
a regular news briefing. “We hope both sides will take proper actions to manage
their differences and take concrete actions to safeguard peace and stability
along the border.” China and India, who fought a border war in 1962, blame each
other for the increased tensions and each has poured tens of thousands of extra
troops into border zones. The latest de-escalation talks between military
commanders were held on Sunday but there have been no signs that either side is
ready to back down. India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last
month that relations between the neighbours had been “significantly damaged” by
the events of the past year.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1603536/india-says-troops-had-minor-face-off-with-china-in-sikkim-border-areat
Indian ports. China has in turn warned that India will suffer economically from
the dispute.
2.
Black day: Jan., 27, 2021: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world
over observed India’s Republic Day as Black Day, today, to send a loud and
clear message to the world that they categorically reject illegal occupation of
their motherland by India. The leaders urged the UN and other human rights
organizations to take cognizance of gross human rights violations by brutal
Indian forces in the territory and resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance
with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.While speakers at an international
online seminar, organized by Kashmir Council Europe, emphasized that all the
issues related to Kashmir including media gag should be raised in Europe. The
webinar was attended by a number of European and Kashmiri political figures,
intellectuals, experts on international and regional affairs and journalists.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/26/kashmiris-observe-black-day-across-globe/
3. US VP: Jan., 29, 2021: Some hope has sprung in Kashmir, residents
of the valley say, as Kamala Harris, the new American vice president and critic
of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has taken office. Harris, who was
inaugurated as US President Joe Biden’s deputy last week, has been critical of
the Indian government’s discriminatory policies toward the country’s Muslim minority
and its annexation of Kashmir in 2019. she called for international
intervention “to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world” soon
after New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s special autonomous status and split it into
two Union Territories in August 2019. Her role in the US administration as well
as the recent appointment into Biden’s team of Sameera Fazil and Aisha Shah —
both of Kashmiri descent — have raised some cautious hope for change in the
region” https://www.arabnews.com/node/1798186/world
4. Youth martyred: Jan., 30, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Tral area of Pulwama district, today.The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Mandoora area of Tral. Indian police arrested a youth from a check-post in Patushahi area of Bandipora. . https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/29/indian-troops-martyr-three-kashmiri-youth-in-iiojk/
Kashmir
Update 111: Week Jan.,18, 2020 to Jan.,24,2021
1. UK and Kashmir: Jan., 29, 2021: MP Debbie Abrahams of the All Party
Parliamentary Kashmir Group has raised concerns about human rights violations,
revocation of special status and illegal detentions in Indian held Kashmir in
an official letter to UK PM Boris Johnson. MP Debbie Abrahams in her letter
said that the Group consists of parliamentarians from all faiths and Kashmiri
Indian and Pakistani heritage. Our focus has been on promoting human rights
across all parts of Kashmir. She said. “While I fully support your endeavours
to strengthen international relations which support jobs and investment across
the UK I need to make you aware of the strongly held views parliamentarians of
all political parties have regarding the primacy of human rights and that these
cannot be compromised in any trade deal. The Group is particularly concerned
about escalating violence across Indian administered Kashmir (particularly
Jammu and Kashmir) and most recently at the Line of Control.“I am sure you will
agree with me that for the world s largest democracy to be reported to be
behaving in these ways is very alarming. “Given our key role in the
international community we believe it is essential that you and the government
more widely raise these very serious concerns directly in your on-going
discussions with Prime Minister Modi and his government. I also repeat the
concerns raised by Group members that the protection of fundamental human
rights must not be traded for economic gain and would like your reassurance
that any trade deal will make this explicit. As the UK government embarks on a
year for Global Britain on the world stage, it is essential that we set out our
stall with the rule of law and human rights at its heart. “I draw your
attention to the warning that your own High Commission in Pakistan made to the
Group delegation in February 2020 and which I reported to Lord Ahmad the
escalating tensions between India and Pakistan both nuclear powers makes
Kashmir the number one security concern in the world. The recent conflict
between India and China adds to this. I urge you to raise these matters with
Prime Minister Modi in your ongoing discussions and when you visit India.”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/776474-boris-urged-to-talk-held-kashmir-abuses-with-modi
2.
Arrests:
Jan., 21, 2021: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,
Indian troops arrested two more innocent youth in Islamabad district.The troops
laid nakas at multiple places and intensified checking in different areas of
the district. The troops arrested two youth, Ayaz Ahmed and Rayees Ahmed,
during the checking. https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/20/indian-troops-arrest-two-youth-in-iiojk/
3. Biden’s Team: Jan., 21,
2021: Kashmiri origin Sameera Fazili, who
is the newly appointed Deputy Director of the National Economic Council of the
Biden administration, has played an important role in anti-India protests in
the US over the Kashmir issue. Sameera Fazili played a key role in one of the
protests within four days of abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. She
supports ‘Stand with Kashmir’ (SWK), a Kashmiri diaspora-led international
solidarity movement’. In August 2019, following the abrogation of Article 370,
which granted special status to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir,
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) introduced her as a member of
SWK. “We urge people of conscience to come out and show support and solidarity
for the people of Kashmir as authoritarianism and Islamophobia rise around the
world, from India to the United States to Europe. Come show your support for
human rights, international law, and democracy,” Fazili had said
then.Pertinently, in the Obama-Biden administration, Fazili served as a senior
policy advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council and as a senior
advisor at the US Treasury Department in both Domestic Finance and
International Affairs. Prior to that, she was a clinical lecturer of law at
Yale Law School. Originally from Buffalo, Fazili is a graduate of Yale Law
School and Harvard College. She also worked at Shore Bank, US first CDFI
(community development financial institution) bank. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has
inducted a second Pakistani American, Salman Ahmed, into his foreign policy
team. Ahmed, who served as head of strategic planning in the Obama National
Security Council, is joining the US State Department as director policy
planning. Ahmed was chief of staff of the US
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/20/biden-picks-fazili-in-team-who-opposed-abrogation-of-iiojks-status/Mission
to the United Nations and senior policy adviser to the US Permanent
Representative to the UN.
4. China and Arunachal Pradesh:
Jan., 22, 2021: China on Thursday said its
construction of a village across the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh was “beyond reproach” because it had “never
recognised” Arunachal. India’s Ministry of External Affairs said earlier this
week it was aware of the construction “along the LAC”. This followed a report
showing satellite images of the village, built between November 2019 and
November 2020 and located a couple of kilometres across the LAC, beyond what
India sees as the border separating Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet, on the banks
of Tsari Chu river in Upper Subansiri district in Arunachal. Indian officials
said this area has been under Chinese control since 1959. There are close to
two dozen spots along the entire length of the LAC in all sectors where India
and China do not agree on its alignment. Indian officials said China had
earlier built a permanent construction of military barracks in this area. The
construction of the village has been seen by analysts as a move to bolster
China’s claim to the area, and part of a broader recent push by China to build
civilian settlements in disputed frontier areas, which it has also done with
Bhutan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday said at a press briefing, to a
question about the construction, that China’s “position on Zangnan [or South
Tibet, as China refers to Arunachal] region is consistent and clear”. “We never
recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh,” spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
“China’s development and construction activities within our own territory are
normal. This is beyond reproach as it is in our territory.” The site of the
village is close to where China had attacked an Assam Rifles post in 1959, in
what is known as the Longju incident, said south India-based Tibet scholar
Claude Arpi. He said it is at least 2 km south of the McMahon Line, which China
doesn’t recognise. After the 1962 war, India stopped patrolling the area. Arpi
said the construction appeared to be part of a program by China to build what it calls “poverty
alleviation” villages. He estimates that under the initiative, launched after a
Tibet economic work conference in 2015, some 600 villages have been built, of
which around 100 are in border areas.
5.
Gaw Kadal massacre: Jan., 22, 2021:In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown is being observed
in Gaw Kadal and its adjoining areas in Srinagar, today, on the completion of
31 years to the horrible Gaw Kadal massacre. Call for the shutdown has been
given by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and supported by other Hurriyat
organizations. Indian troops had killed more than 50 innocent people in Gaw
Kadal area of Srinagar on this day in 1990 by opening indiscriminate fire on
peaceful demonstrators who were protesting against the molestation of several
women by the troops on the previous night.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/21/shutdown-in-srinagar-on-gaw-kadal-massacre-anniversary/
6. UK MP: Jan., 23, 2021:
KEIGHLEY
MP Robbie Moore has called on the Government to press for a UN-led
investigation into allegations of genocide by the Indian authorities in
Kashmir. Speaking in Parliament, Mr Moore
said the situation in the region was “harrowing”.It is claimed that several
hundred Kashmiris have been killed and many more injured, plus hundreds of
homes destroyed, since special status for Kashmir was revoked. It’s also
alleged that thousands of people have been arrested “without due cause”.“A
number of local organisations and individuals have contacted me over the past
12 months in relation to this issue. I know it is close to the hearts of many
of my constituents who originated from Kashmir. “I would like to see UN human
rights officials get access to both sides of the line of control, to find out
the facts.
https://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/19030627.keighley-mp-seeks-probe-kashmir-genocide-claims/
7.
Human rights in
India : an., 23, 2021: The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an
advocacy organization dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant
ethos, has launched a report titled, “Crushing Dissent: 2021
Status Report on Human Rights in India,” detailing human rights
abuses in India. At the launch of this report, UN Special Rapporteur Ms. Mary
Lawlor called upon the Indian government to immediately release 16 human rights
defenders who have been imprisoned on charges of terrorism in the
‘Bhima-Koregaon Case’. “These people should not be in jail. They are our
modern-day heroes and we should all be looking to them and supporting them and
demanding their release,” Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation
of Human Rights Defenders, said on Thursday. Along with Father Stan Swamy, the
octogenarian Jesuit priest against whose “arbitrary detention” in this case she
has already written to the Indian Government, Ms. Lawlor said 15 others jailed
in the same case must also be released. Ms. Lawlor while read out the names of
the imprisoned rights activists who have worked to uphold the rights of
the others should be acknowledged and they are Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson,
Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereria; Supreme Court
lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj; authors Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde; poet
Varvara Rao; academicians Hany Babu and Shoma Sen; and theater artistes Ramesh
Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap. The so-called Bhima-Koregaon case
refers to violence at a public meeting called three years ago by low-caste
Hindus at a village known as Bhima-Koregaon in Maharashtra state. Several civil
rights investigations have established that upper caste Hindus allied with
India’s ruling party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, carried out the
violence. Police have; however, targeted human rights defenders, who deny their
involvement. Ms. Lawlor, whose three-year term as UN Special Rapporteur began
last May, also called out the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),
under which the Bhima-Koregaon accused have been charged, as among the “several
prominent pieces of legislation that would appear on paper and in practice to
undermine rights contained in the covenant and the work of human rights
defenders.”Amendments to the UAPA made in 2019, which granted “greater powers”
to designate individuals as terrorists “despite the definition of a terrorist
act not being precise or concrete,” failed to “comply with the principles of
legal certainty,” Ms. Lawlor said. “This has opened up the Act, which was
already being used to target human rights defenders, to greater abuse. In 2020,
it continued to be applied against human rights defenders with the extremely
damaging effect of conflating the defense of human rights with terrorist
activities,” Ms. Lawlor said, adding, there was “a very concerning
deterioration of the environment for defending human rights” in India. Saying
that India’s human rights “situation is very serious,” Ms. Lawlor said she sent
“six communications” to the Indian Government since May to “convey our concerns
on human rights issues”. India had responded to just one. In June she wrote to
the Indian Government raising concerns over the arrest of 11 human rights
defenders for protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. “However, this
communication has gone unanswered.” Noted human rights defender Teesta Setalvad
said “among human rights defenders who are today incarcerated, besides those
mentioned by Mr. Lawlor, we have a list of almost 23 very young and dynamic
human rights defenders incarcerated in post February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in
Delhi. Among the 23, almost 19 happened to be young Muslims activists, who
actually came into the forefront of leadership to resist the draconian
citizenship Amendment Act. These young activists were deliberately targeted by
the state because of their clarity, courage and determination. “The lower caste
(the untouchables) have been singularly targeted for thousands of years and
subjected to othering and discrimination by the dominant caste. Then, it is the
Muslim community who is facing discrimination and marginalization for the last
40 years. And since the 1990s, Indian Christian community has also been subject
to this kind of othering. added Teesta. The Indian Government had arrested
Father Stan Swamy only because he had worked for four decades for the uplift of
the poor tribal people in Jharkhand state, Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit
priest and a human rights defender, said. Fr. Swamy became an obstacle for
successive governments who, “in collusion with vested interest, especially
those who deplete the forests of the precious resources, like the mining mafia,
the timber merchants,” wanted to wrest control of the forests from the tribal
people. “Fr. Swamy was fighting for the release of more than 3000 tribal youth,
struggling for their rights, accompanying them in their legal battles, and so
on.” Former Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon said “the notion that India is a
great secular democracy has become a cloak to conceal the extent of the
injustice.” The foundation on which is India’s judiciary, parliamentary and
education systems have been “extensively eroded” as Mr. Modi’s government’s
“passing discriminatory laws, neutralizing judges and cultivating a BJP
controlled police force is at an advanced stage.” IAMC National General
Secretary Mohammad Jawad said “This exhaustive report’s coverage of all the
aspects — from the sedition laws and hate speech, to national security
legislation and the criminalization of dissent, from the questions on the
independence of the judiciary to the dilution of labor laws and the universal
health policies — demonstrates how the Modi government is set to undo decades
of positive and progressive work in India.” IAMC will share the 2021 Human Rights
report, “Crushing Dissent”, with members of US Congress, the White
House, the Department of State, the National Security Council, think-tanks, the
US academia and research community and the civil rights activists and NGOs, he
added. https://twocircles.net/2021jan22/440701.html
Kashmir
Update 110: Week Jan.,11, 2020 to Jan.,17,2021
1. Non judicial murder: Jan., 11, 2021: Preliminary
investigations conducted by the army’s Court of Inquiry, as well as the J&K
police, have found that Captain Bhoopendra Singh of 62 RR regiment, aided by
two civilian informers, had “staged” the July 8 encounter in Kashmir’s
Amshipora and “killed” three daily wage laborers working in apple orchards,
allegedly to claim a cash bounty of Rs 20 lakh granted by the army as reward
for killing terrorists.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/army-captain-stage-managed-jk-encounter-for-rs-20-lakh/articleshow/80203557.cms
2. UN: Jan., 2021: India’s bid to assume the chairmanship of some of the
most important subsidiary bodies of the UN Security Council could not muster
support from other members of the 15-nation body, according to diplomatic
sources.The sources said that the Indians pushed for, but failed to secure the
chairmanship of the powerful “1267” Al-Qaeda/Da’esh Sanctions Committee and the
“1540” Non-proliferation Committee, and also to become the custodian of the
Afghanistan file in the Security Council. Aware of India’s narrow bilateral
agenda to utilise the Al-Qaeda and Da’esh Sanctions Committee for its own
purposes, the vast majority of Council members were opposed to giving India the
chairmanship of this key committee. A Council source told APP's correspondent
at the United Nations, that India tried its utmost, until the very last moment,
to get this position, lobbying intensively in New York and in the capitals of
the Council’s members, but it failed to convince them. According to the source,
it is no secret that New Delhi’s bid for the post was designed to advance
India’s own agenda, mainly against Pakistan.“The work of the Al-Qaeda Sanctions
Committee is too important to be given in the hands of the Indians,” an African
diplomat remarked. Pakistan last year submitted four listings of Indians
nationals for supporting the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar
(JuA) in Afghanistan. But these listings were blocked by some of India’s
friends in the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee. Similarly, India’s bid for the
Non-proliferation Committee encountered resistance in the Security Council,
diplomats said. Many Western countries considered that India was not suited to
head this important panel since it is not a party to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty ( NPT). This raises a serious question mark regarding
New Delhi’s nuclear status. India also wanted to manage the Afghanistan issue
in the Security Council but found that even some of its close friends felt that
India’s role would not be positive in advancing the Afghan peace process. The
Afghan file was given instead to two European countries, which the Council
members consider will play a more impartial and constructive role in the
present delicate phase of the situation in Afghanistan. As a sop to India’s
wounded pride, it was given the chairmanship of the 1988-Taliban Sanctions
Committee, where the proposals for listing and de-listing of individuals rests
mainly with the US and other permanent members of the Council and the chair’s
role is minimal. About the hype created by the Indian UN Mission about assuming
the chairmanship of the “1373” Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC), a Western
diplomat noted that India has been given only a one-year rather than the normal
two-year term as the chair of this currently dormant committee, and that too
deferred until next year when the incumbent chair leaves the Council. In addition,
India will head the Libya sanctions committees which is also lying dormant.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2279394/unsc-members-rebuff-indias-bid-to-secure-leadership-of-key-committees-sources-reveal?fbclid=IwAR0M9AK6Wl8uxPdh2l6pd1L7y0dGbHZK3IRKR8M7GvSosgx8xedkz1n3o_I
3.
UK debate on Kashmir: Jan., 15, 2021: The UK has demanded of India to lift all restrictions in
Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and allow a team from its High
Commission in Delhi to visit the Valley for a first-hand assessment of the
situation. The demand was made by the UK Secretary of State for Justice, Robert
Buckland, while replying to a debate on the “political situation in Kashmir” in
the Westminster Hall by Members of Parliament (MPs). The debate took place a
day after the UK MPs discussed “Persecution of Muslims, Christians and Minority
Groups in India”. Last week, the UK MPs had lobbied for repeal of India’s farm
laws. “We continue to talk frankly to India about our human rights concerns and
call for all remaining restrictions to be lifted as soon as possible.” https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/14/uk-urges-india-to-lift-restrictions-allow-its-team-to-visit-iiojk/
4.
Turkey in Kashmir: Jan., 15.2021: The Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness
Forum (WKAF) has expressed sincere appreciation to the bold and courageous
statement given by Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on the Kashmir
dispute during 2nd Trilateral Meeting of the foreign ministers of Pakistan,
Azerbaijan and Turkey held in Islamabad. The WKAF Secretary General, Dr Ghulam
Nabi Fai, in a statement issued in Washington said, “We in particular would
like to express our thanks to the government of Turkey for reiterating that the
peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute has to be explored in accordance with
the United Nations Security Council resolutions.” “This is consistent with the
statement issued by the UN the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres on August 8,
2019 that the position of the UN is that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved
under the United Nations Charter and under applicable UN resolutions,” he said.
Dr Fai also thanked Jeyhun Bayramov, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, who
joined Mevlüt Cavusoglu and Shah Mehmood Qureishi, the Foreign Minister of
Pakistan, in issuing a joint statement of solidarity with the oppressed people
of Kashmir and reaffirming the fact that Kashmir dispute needs to be resolved
under the UN resolutions. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the foreign minister of Turkey
during 2nd Trilateral Meeting of the foreign minister of Pakistan, Azerbaijan
and Turkey said, “We expressed our full solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers
and sisters in the face of worsening human rights situation and demographic
change, especially in the last two years. We believe unilateral steps
complicate the situation further. We reaffirm our concern and expectation, which
were also addressed during the OIC ministerial meeting in Niger. We believe in
dialogue and peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute within the framework of the
United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/14/turkish-fm-deserves-our-sincere-appreciation-dr-fai/
5. Kashmiri nomads: Jan., 16, 2021: Nomad
forest dwellers in Indian-administered Kashmir are pinning their hopes on the
implementation of a 14-year-old law to save their land and homes, as the
government announces plans to evict tens of thousands of people it says are
encroaching on protected land. Last month, the forest department of the
disputed federal territory published a list of about 63,000 people it says are
living and farming “illegally” on a total of 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of
forest land. Now the tribal communities living in the region’s forests are
looking for protection under India’s Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006, which is
coming into effect in the region more than 10 years after it was enacted
elsewhere in India. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/15/kashmir-forest-dwellers-hope-long-delayed-law-will-stop-evictions
6. UK debates: Jan., 16, 2021: Earlier in the week, UK Member of
Parliament (MP) Sarah Owen from the Labour party made a moving speech in
Westminster Hall, where a discussion took place on the situation in occupied
Kashmir. A vocal supporter of the
Kashmiri people who has in the past expressed solidarity with those living
under occupation, she called on the British government to do more to condemn
the situation in Kashmir. In her speech, Owen highlighted how the pandemic had
affected the everyday realities of Kashmiris. “Muslims have reported being
turned away from hospitals. This is shocking at the best of times, but
especially so during a pandemic,” she said, adding: “There are numerous reports
of Kashmiri women and girls being raped. Senior officials in the BJP put on
record their intentions to make Kashmiri women a part of this conflict. And I
have heard [that there are] women in Kashmir that are terrified of being
assaulted by the thousands of soldiers on their doorstep. Women fear for their
lives and do not feel safe.” https://www.dawn.com/news/1601662
7. Biden team: Jan., 16,
2021: Sameera Fazili, a Kashmiri origin
woman, has been appointed by United States President-elect Joe Biden in his
core team ahead of his oath-taking ceremony scheduled for January 20. Sameera
Fazili will be the deputy director of the National Economic Council (NEC)
focussed on manufacturing, innovation and domestic competition. Earlier in
December 2020, another Kashmir-born woman, Aisha Shah, was inducted into Biden’s
team as partnership manager of Digital Strategy team of White House. There has
been much speculation in New Delhi and Srinagar’s power corridors that under a
Democratic Party government, there could be a boost to international human
rights groups’ activism on Kashmir. The appointment of two Kashmiri-born
experts in Biden’s core team is being seen as an indicator of the same. It is
pertinent to add that Sameera Fazili in one of her previous stints worked at
Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and while posted there she
testified before the U.S. Congress on the religious freedom of Muslims in
western Europe. Her experience in international human rights and development
includes work at the World Health Organisation and the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees. Her work has taken her to human rights violation hotspots such as
Palestine and Kashmir https://frontline.thehindu.com/dispatches/us-president-elect-joe-biden-inducts-second-kashmir-born-expert-in-his-team-leading-to-speculation-of-a-boost-to-international-human-rights-groups-activism-on-kashmir/article33579468.ece
8.
HRW Report: Jan., 16, 2021: A prominent international human rights watchdog has denounced
Narendra Modi-led Indian government for intensifying repression in Indian
illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, targeting Muslims in India and for
harassing, arresting and prosecuting activists, journalists, and others
critics. In its World Report 2021, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said the Indian government continued to impose harsh and discriminatory
restrictions in IIOJK since revoking special status of the territory in August
2019. The report said scores of people remained detained in IIOJK without
charge under the draconian law Public Safety Act, which permits detention
without trial for up to two years. It said, the Indian government announced a
new media policy in Kashmir in June 2020 that empowers the authorities to
decide what is “fake news, plagiarism and unethical or anti-national
activities” and to take punitive action against media outlets, journalists, and
editors. “The policy contains vague provisions that are open to abuse and could
unnecessarily restrict and penalize legally protected speech. The government
also clamped down on critics, journalists, and human rights activists,” it
said. “The restrictions, including on access to communications networks, since
August 2019 adversely affected livelihoods, particularly in the
tourism-dependent Kashmir Valley. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and
Industries estimated that the first three months of the lockdown to prevent
protests since August 2019 cost the economy over US$2.4 billion, for which no
redress was provided. Losses nearly doubled since the government imposed
further restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 in March 2020,” it
added. The report said the pandemic made access to the internet crucial for
information, communication, education, and business. However, even after the
Supreme Court said in January that access to the internet was a fundamental right,
the Indian authorities permitted only slow-speed 2G mobile internet services,
leading doctors to complain that the lack of internet was hurting the Covid-19
response, it said. The report maintained that the Armed Forces Special Powers
Act continued to provide effective immunity from prosecution to Indian forces,
even for serious human rights abuses. In July, the forces’ personnel killed
three people in Shopian district, claiming they were militants, it said.
“However, in August, their families, who identified them from photographs of
the killings circulated on social media, said they were laborers. In September,
the army said that its inquiry had found prima facie evidence that its troops
exceeded powers under the AFSPA and it would take disciplinary proceedings
against those “answerable”,” it added. The HRW said that the Indian forces also
continued to use shotguns firing metal pellets to disperse crowds, despite
evidence that they are inherently inaccurate and cause injuries
indiscriminately, including to bystanders, violating India’s international
obligations. In the 761-page World Report 2021, its 31st edition, Human Rights
Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries.In his
introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth argues that the incoming
United States administration should embed respect for human rights in its
domestic and foreign policy in a way that is more likely to survive future US
administrations that might be less committed to human rights. Roth emphasizes
that even as the Trump administration mostly abandoned the protection of human
rights, other governments stepped forward to champion rights. The Biden
administration should seek to join, not supplant, this new collective effort. The
HRW pointed out that the attacks continued against minorities, especially
Muslims, in India even as authorities failed to take action against BJP leaders
who vilified Muslims and BJP supporters who engaged in violence. The Covid-19
lockdown disproportionately hurt marginalized communities due to loss of
livelihoods and lack of food, shelter, healthcare, and other basic needs, it
said. “The Indian government seems determined to punish peaceful criticism
using draconian laws, while sending a broader message that chills dissent,”
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a
statement. “Instead of addressing growing attacks on Muslims, minorities, and
women, Indian authorities increased their crackdown on critical voices in
2020,” she added. The report said that last February communal violence in Delhi
killed at least 53 people, with over 200 injured, properties destroyed, and
communities displaced in targeted attacks by Hindu mobs. While a policeman and
several Hindus were also killed, the vast majority of victims were Muslim. The
attacks came after weeks of peaceful protests against the Indian government’s
discriminatory citizenship policies. “Violence broke out after BJP leaders
openly advocated violence against the protesters, while witness accounts and
video evidence showed police complicity. The Delhi Minorities Commission
reported that the violence was “planned and targeted” and found that the police
were filing cases against Muslim victims, but not taking action against the BJP
leaders who incited it,” the report said. The HRW said that crimes against
Dalits increased, in part as backlash by members of dominant castes against
what they might perceive as a challenge to caste hierarchy. “Crimes against
women increased too. In September, a 19-year old Dalit woman died after being
gang-raped and tortured, allegedly by four men of dominant caste in Uttar
Pradesh. The authorities’ response highlighted how women from marginalized
communities faced even greater institutional barriers to justice,” it added. The
report maintained that the intensifying repression in India resulted in
international criticism, including by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who raised concerns over human rights
violations in Jammu and Kashmir, arrests of activists, and restrictions on
civil society.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/15/hrw-slams-india-for-hr-abuses-in-iiojk-attacks-against-muslims-and-crackdown-on-critics/
Kashmir Update 109: Week Jan.,3,
2020 to Jan.,9,2021
1. Land Grab: Jan., 4,
2021: “A housing colony for soldiers
on even 10 acres of land is a big problem for us. Soldiers will need security
and that means a continuous movement of soldiers. If they are attacked, we will
have to face the music,” Dar said. A similar proposal had in 2016 triggered
protests by pro-freedom groups. Masood Khan, “expressed serious concern over Indian
government’s move to build the first military settlement in Budgam.” Abdul
Samad Malla, an elderly resident of Rakh-e-Arth, told Anadolu Agency that an
exclusive housing colony for retired Kashmiri soldiers at Rakh-e-Arth could be
a precursor to similar projects for retired soldiers from outside.“This is an
explosive situation. We won’t allow any soldiers’ settlement here. The
government has failed to develop this piece of land for decades. Rather than
developing this Noted human rights activist Ahsan Untoo questioned the need for
a soldiers housing colony in the “most militarized region in the world.” “When
an army convoy passes by on highways, all traffic comes to a standstill. This
is a gross human rights violation. Patients, office goers, students suffer. Now
imagine the situation of a soldiers’ colony in the midst of a civilian
settlement,” he said. Untoo cited examples of several places in northern
Kashmir, like Kupwara, where India military camps in the proximity of civilian
areas have curtailed people’s movement. Three Sainik colonies already exist in
the Jammu province of the Jammu and Kashmir region. Several Indian states also
have colonies where subsidized housing is provided for retired soldiers. A plan
to build the first one in Kashmir fell through after protests by pro-freedom
groups in 2016. At the time of the protests, Tarun Vijay, a Hindu right-wing
member of Indian parliament, who had mooted the idea of setting up such
colonies in Kashmir in parliament, had told the media that “a Sainik colony
would be like planting saffron in Kashmir.” Saffron is the sacred color for
Hindus and several of the ruling Hindu right-wing’s symbols, like flags, have
saffron color. Vijay had said a Sainik colony would bring "fragrance of
Indianness and principal mainstream of patriotic India to overcome the smell of
stone-pelting and guns.”
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/kashmir-residents-say-they-won-t-allow-soldiers-colony/2095766
2.
Protest: Jan., 5, 2020: Kashmiris
on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over will observe the Right
to Self-Determination Day, tomorrow, with the pledge to continue their
liberation struggle till it reaches its ultimate goal. It was on 5th January in
1949 when the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution supporting
the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through UN-sponsored
plebiscite. The day will be marked by various
activities including rallies, seminars and conferences across the world to
remind the UN that it must implement its relevant resolutions to settle the
Kashmir dispute to save the Kashmiris from the Indian brutalities.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2021/01/04/un-asked-to-prevent-bloodshed-in-iiojk-by-ensuring-kashmiris-birth-right/
3.
THIS PAGE WILL UPDATE, ON A WEEKLY BASIS NEW RELATED TO THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM BY THE KASHMIRI PEOPLE.. Kindly refer
To: https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2020/03/kashmir-struggle-news-update-weekly.html
to https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/12/kashmir-struggle-news-weekly-update.html (Kashmir Struggle News (weekly) Update (JR107)
for previous updates .
Kashmir
Update 87: Week Aug.,3, 2020 to Aug., 9, 2020
1. One year: Aug., 4, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, unrelenting military siege and
crippling lockdown imposed by the fascist Modi government of India on August 5,
last year, have almost completed a whole year. A report released by the
Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, revealed that Indian troops
had martyred
214 Kashmiris including 4 women and 10 young boys during the period. It said
that at least 1390 people were critically injured due to the use of
brute force by Indian troops on peaceful demonstrators and mourners in the
territory. The killings since August 5, 2019 have been higher than those in
2011, 2012, 2013,2014, 2015 and 2019. The report said, most of the victims were
killed in fake encounters during cordon and search operations in the length and
breadth of the territory. It said, youth are picked up from houses and then
eliminated after falsely labeled as mujahideen or overground workers.
The report said that these killings rendered 9 women widowed and 22 children
orphaned. “The troops damaged over 946 houses and structures and molested or
disgraced 84 women and arrested 13,680 including aged woman and half a dozen
girls during cordon and search operations across the occupied territory in the
period. After the custodial killing of prominent young Kashmiri
resistance leader, Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, the troops injured 10,240 by
pellets and blinded over five dozen while eyesight of 385 was damaged. Indian
troops killed 95,647 kashmiris from 1990 to till date. The life of Kashmiris has been
particularly made miserable since New Delhi illegally abrogated Article 370 of
its constitution on August 5, 2019. The move, the report added, was aimed at
snatching away the identity of the Kashmiris through changing the
Muslim-majority status of the occupied territory into a minority. As
the entire occupied Kashmir has been turned into an open-air prison, thousands
of Hurriyat leaders, political and human rights activists, religious heads,
journalists, businessmen, lawyers and civil society members, youth and
activists were arrested after or before 5 August 2019, and still continue to
remain in Tihar and other jails of India and Kashmir. Prominent among them are:
Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Sehria,Masarrat Aalam
Butt, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fahmida Sofi, Nayeem Ahmad Khan,
Mohammad Aiyaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajudin Kalwal,
Farooq Ahmad Dar, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Maulana Mushtaq Veeri, Farooq Ahmad
Tawheedi, Muhammad Yasin Attai, Ameer-e-Hamza, Abdul Samad Inqilabi, Abdul Ahad
Parra, Muhammad Yosuf Mir, Muhammad Rafiq Gania, Feroz Ahmad Khan, Dr Qasim
Fakhtoo, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, Zahoor Watali, Syed Shahid Yousuf Shah, Syed
Shakeel Yousuf Shah, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Bashir Ahmad Querishi, Hayat Ahmad
, Asif Sultan and Qazi Shibli. Senior Hurriyet leaders Syed
Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq continue to remain under house detention in
Srinagar. The continued ban on high-speed internet has deprived
Kashmiris of useful local and world information regarding education, business,
and coronavirus, the report said. India had suspended the internet 4G services
in occupied Kashmir on August 05, 2019. “Modi regime is engaged in
changing the Muslim majority status of occupied Kashmir. For this purpose, it
has granted domicile certificates to thousands of Indians,” it added.The report
deplored that press freedom is under a constant threat in occupied Kashmir
where journalists are detained and harassed. “Cruel military lockdown has
pushed occupied Kashmir into the stone age. Communications blockade has made
the Kashmiris’ lives miserable,” it added. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/08/03/httpskmsnews-orgnews20200803india-massacring-iiojk-youth-in-fake-encounters-report/
2.
Muslim leaders: Aug., 5, 2020: .The Chairman of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation Human Rights Council, Adama Nana
addressed a webinar organized by the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF) and
condemned the yearlong lockdown and communication blackout in
Indian-administered Kashmir."The Indian government has persecuted human
rights activists and innocent people on false charges under draconian laws
which is a serious violation of international laws," Nana said. The
continued lockdown has caused a major economic loss to the region and residents
of Kashmir which is deplorable as India purses the systemic persecution of Kashmiri
Muslims, he added. Sami Al-Arian, Director of the Center for Islamic and Global Affairs
of Turkey, said Kashmiris and Palestinian people are struggling for
self-determination under military occupations and are facing racists and
Zionist powers."Both nations, Kashmiris and Palestinians, are suffering
from poverty as occupation forces have caused them huge economic loss and using
forces against innocent people," Arian said.He lamented growing
Islamophobia and said the Israel and Indian governments are promoting
Islamophobia while world powers provide arms and economic assistance to both
countries against innocent Muslims. Renowned British author, biographer, and
historian Victoria Schofield also spoke at the webinar and said
Kashmiris, who are living in a beautiful valley, should enjoy the freedom
others are enjoying. She characterized the situation in Kashmir at extremely
concerning to the entire international community and said even journalists are
not allowed to report the real situation from the ground. Mohammad Abdul Hamid,
President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization;
Ibrahim Bulushi from Kenya; Ghulam Nabi Mir, the head of WKAF and security
general of the Ghulam Nabi Fai forum also spoke. Participants
demanded an immediate lifting of the yearlong military siege, restoration of
all internet connectivity and communications links and releasing all political
prisoners including underage children, journalists and civil society members. "Allow
unfettered access to monitor and report on human rights violations by credible
international bodies including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
International Federation for Human Rights, World Organization Against Torture
(WOAT), Doctors without Borders, Physicians for Human Rights, and UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture and other UN thematic rapporteurs," participants
demanded. They urged a halt to and a rescinding of all laws, such as the
Domicile Laws, that have been instituted to speed demographic changes and
promote ethnic, cultural, and political cleansing of Jammu and Kashmir. "Disarm
and withdraw all Indian military and paramilitary personnel from the occupied
territories so that all the people in Jammu&Kashmir can exercise their
unfettered right of self-determination through a free and fair referendum as
agreed to by both the Governments of India and Pakistan as well as the United
Nations Security Council as early as 1948," the Kashmiri leaders said. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/muslim-leaders-express-concerns-about-kashmir-situation/1931766
3. Kashmiri Lives Matter: Aug., 6, 2020: Kashmiri rights
groups in the UK organised a digital campaign with the hashtag
#KashmiriLivesMatter and #KashmirSeigeDay on 'Youm-e-Istehsal', or August 5,
2020, exactly a year after India scrapped the Muslim-majority region's special
status and imposed a brutal lockdown. The slogan was displayed on the British
Parliament, Marble Arch, One Marylebone, and various other locations in Central
London. The event marked the first anniversary of India's annexation of Kashmir
after revoking Article 370, which gave special status to the disputed territory
. Lord Nazir Ahmed, a member of the House of Lords, and Kashmir Council Europe
(KC-EU) Chairperson Ali Raza Syed have also appealed to the international
community to take notice of Indian atrocities and inhumane acts in occupied
Kashmir. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/696410-youm-e-istehsal-kashmirilivesmatter-digital-campaign-launched-in-uk
4.
One year report:
Aug., , 2020: Kashmir Reading Room has released a report marking one year of
the de-operationalization of Article 370, and unilateral revocation of
Kashmir’s special status by the government of India on August 5, 2019. The
report titled ‘(Dis)Integration at Gunpoint’ is prepared by Kashmir Reading
Room (KRR) .The panelists then discussed how August 5, 2019, is marked by
Kashmiris as a day when India’s expansionist policy on Kashmir “has been laid
bare in an undeniable manner.” Parvez Imroz, Human Rights lawyer with JKCCS
while commenting on the Kashmir conflict said that, “Truth is a major casualty
in any conflict area.” He discussed India’s gripping control of the people of
Kashmir and thanked KRR for adopting mechanisms of active and comprehensive
dialogue to generate international awareness on the conflict in Jammu and
Kashmir. He then mentioned Newton’s law indicating that India’s repressive
measures against the territories cannot continue for long as evident in
Newton’s law. “There will be a reaction,” he said. Commenting on the Indian
Judiciary’s approach to Kashmir Imroz said, “Judiciary is complicit by their
omissions in not taking measures to protect human rights.” He accused the
judiciary of being a failure while noting that this report has in fact
documented all the changes taking place on the political, legal, policy, and
economic sphere since August 2019 in the bifurcated territories. The panelists highlighted that the report
comprehensively covers a wide range of subjects from recent changes in Domicile
law; amendments of laws affecting the transfer of state land to non-state
subjects and corporate entities; mining rights; developments in Constitutional
Courts concerning the amendment to Article 370; treatment of PSA petitions;
Habeas Corpus litigation and media petitions in the last year. Other attendees
noted that it has included perspectives from minorities and voices from Ladakh,
Jammu, and the Kashmir valley while additionally providing an overview of the
human rights violations, curbs on freedom of the press, repression of Kashmiri
journalists, and disenfranchisement of Kashmiris. The full report can be
accessed here: https://jklpp.org/kashmir-reading-room-report-aug-2019-aug-2020/. http://twocircles.net/2020aug05/438457.html
5. UNSC: Aug.,6, 2020: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday
expressed concerns over the human rights situation in the Indian Illegally
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), particularly Indian authorities’ continued
oppression as well as attempts to change its demography.The 15-member Council
met to discuss the current Kashmir situation on the request of Pakistan. China,
which is a permanent member of the UNSC, played key role in arranging the
closed-door discussions for the third time in a year after India revoked the
special status of the disputed territory. The UN Secretariat and the United Nations Military Observer Group in
India and Pakistan (Unmogip) representatives also briefed the
Council on the current situation in IIOJK, the foreign minister said. Earlier in the day, China and Turkey
reiterated their principled stance over the Kashmir issue and stressed that any
unilateral change in the status quo in the IIOJK was illegal and invalid, as it
did not contribute to peace and stability in the region.“Our position is consistent
and clear. This issue is a dispute left over from history between Pakistan and
India that is an objective fact established by the United Nations Charter,
United Nations Security Council’s resolutions and bilateral agreement between
Pakistan and India,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said
during his regular briefing on Wednesday.“Any unilateral change to the status
quo (in IIOJK) was illegal and invalid,” Wang said, emphasising that the issue
should be properly resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation
between the parties concerned.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2258144/unsc-voices-concern-over-hr-situation-in-iiojk
6. Protest: Aug., 6, 2020: Kashmiris settled in Europe and United Kingdom took to
the streets to condemn the August 5, 2019 move of the Modi government for
annexing Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) with India.
7. Rallies and conferences were conducted in Oslo,
Copenhagen, Glasgow, Scotland, Brescia, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal, Barcelona,
Spain Berlin, Germany, Hamburg, Germany Zurich, Switzerland and more than eight
cities of UK.
8. The rallies and seminars were organised by
Tehreek-e-Kashmir Europe and UK. In Birmingham, the main anti-India rally was
taken out in front of Birmingham Council House, Victoria Square in which
hundreds of overseas Kashmiris and Pakistanis participated. TeK leader in
Norway Shah Hussain also led the anti-India protest. Hundreds of people were
present in the rally.On the occasion, protesters passed a resolution in support
of Kashmiris freedom struggle. In Italy, TeK President Mehmood Sharif, in
Germany Riaz Ghulam, Switzerland Ejaz Chaudary, Spain Nasir Shezad, Portugal
Mehboob Ahmed and Tufail Hussain Shah also addressed the anti-India and Kashmir
solidarity rallies and jointly vowed to continue their support for the people
of IIOJK in the genuine and political rights struggle which India has been
trying to suppress since 1947. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2258126/kashmiris-hold-demonstrations-across-europe-to-denounce-indias-aug-5-move
9.
US Committee: Aug., 7, 2020: The
US Congress’s powerful house foreign affairs committee has sent a letter
addressed to external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, expressing concern that
the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had “not normalised” one year after
the revocation of its constitutional autonomy. Dated August 5, the joint letter was written by the US
House committee on foreign affairs’ democrat chairman, Elliot Engel, and the
Republican ranking member Michael McCaul, to mark the one-year anniversary of
the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into
two Union Territories. “It is because of our support for the bilateral
relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir
have not normalized one year after India’s repeal of Article 370 and the
establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory,” the letter stated.
During the weekly briefing in New Delhi on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava said that the letter reflected the bipartisan support for the
bilateral relationship. The first
expression of concern from the US administration had been by an anonymous state
department official during a background briefing on August 21 last year. “We
recognize that it’s an internal matter, but it obviously has implications
outside of India’s borders,” the official
said. The senior US diplomat noted that
Washington’s “near term” focus was on release of detainees and restoration of
“basic freedoms”. The next step would be restoration of “political normalcy” on
Jammu and Kashmir, first as a union territory and then as a state, the official
stated.A week later, the US embassy spokesperson also echoed those words and called for a return
to “normal political status” as committed by
Modi in his Independence Day speech. https://thewire.in/diplomacy/us-congresss-powerful-house-foreign-affairs-committee-jaishankar-kashmir-article-370
10.
China on Kashmir: Aug., 7, 2020: The spokesperson of China's Permanent
Mission to the United Nations said Wednesday that the Chinese ambassador has
called on parties concerned to exercise restraint in Kashmir. Zhang Jun, China's permanent
representative to the United Nations, expounded on China's principled position
on Kashmir during the Security Council's closed-door discussions on Wednesday,
said the spokesperson. Zhang said that
India unilaterally changed the status quo of Kashmir through constitutional
amendments in August 2019, stoking tensions in the region. A year later, there is
no fundamental improvement but a risk of further escalation in the situation of
Kashmir, according to the spokesperson. Zhang
said China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and
the relevant military actions. China opposes unilateral actions that will
complicate the situation, and calls on relevant parties to exercise restraint
and act prudently. In particular, they should refrain from taking actions that
will escalate tensions, according to the spokesperson. Zhang underlined that the Kashmir issue is a dispute
left over from the past and should be peacefully and properly addressed in
accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and bilateral
agreement. It is the responsibility of the Security Council to help ease the
tensions and properly resolve relevant issues. The international community
remains highly concerned about the Kashmir situation, with the expectation that
the Security Council should perform its own duties, according to the
spokesperson. Zhang said that both
India and Pakistan are friendly neighbors of China and big developing countries
at a critical stage of development. China is committed to growing friendly
relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on
national development, set store by safeguarding peace and stability in South
Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon zero-sum thinking, avoid
unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and
consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region, according
to the spokesperson.The Security Council on Wednesday heard briefings from the
UN Secretariat on the current situation in Kashmir and the work of the UN
Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, said the spokesperson. Security Council members expressed concern over the
current situation in Kashmir and expressed the hope that relevant parties would
exercise restraint and properly resolve relevant issues through dialogue to
jointly maintain regional peace and stability, said the spokesperson. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1196878.shtml
11.
Blue print for Acton Aug., 9,
2020: Pakistan’s Kashmir policy is struggling to
achieve quantifiable objectives, one of the key reasons is this: a failure (or
refusal) to recognise the location of the battle to be fought. In today’s
world, this battle for Kashmir has to be fought on seven places. Pakistan is
not among them.The seven battlefields: Washington D.C., New York, London, Moscow,
Paris, New Delhi and Srinagar. Here’s why: The situation on the ground in
occupied Kashmir has worsened in the last one year. India may claim normalcy in
the region but the reality — as acknowledged by independent voices (the few
that are left in India) — is that repression is on the up, as is defiance by
the people. Pakistan’s core objective is to ensure the world knows the reality
of the situation. But the world, in this context, is really just the members of
the United Nations Security Council. These countries, the so-called P5, wield
power to make a difference in Kashmir. Among these five — United States, United
Kingdom, China, Russia and France — China is already engaged in the Kashmir
issue and hardly needs any convincing. The New York battlefield refers to the
United Nations headquarters.Our battle for India-held Kashmir, for now, has to
be fought through diplomacy and strategic communication. If we want to be smart
with our policy, we need to focus an overwhelming effort on this target audience.
The opinion of the people and governments of these four countries is the only
thing that should matter to us. Add to this the obvious emphasis on New Delhi
and Srinagar and we have ourselves six Kashmir battlefields. Every battle needs
warriors, weapons and an accurate mapping of the terrain. Our battle for
Kashmir, for now, has to be fought through diplomacy and strategic
communication. These seven battlefields will therefore require strategies that
are tailored for respective terrains To
start off, they have to recognise the futility of fighting for Kashmir on the
wrong battlefield. The next phase is planning and executing the diplomatic and
communications war simultaneously on all seven battlefields. While diplomacy
has a well-entrenched system in place, the strategic communications arena
requires special attention. With occupied Kashmir being Ground Zero, a
brief outline of a strategic communications plan would include the following
steps: 1) Facilitate and equip Kashmiris to capture raw video and audio content
on devices; 2) Create a way to have this content relayed to Pakistan; 3)
Establish a Kashmir strategic communications organisation that can process this
content into various formats for all types of formal, informal and social media
platforms as well as for official presentations; 4) Translate all content into
the languages of the six battlefields; 5) Dissect and tailor content into two
categories: for governments and for people; 6) Create a system for distribution
of this content on broadcast, print and digital platforms that make it reach
the target audience; 7) Construct a system to monitor and measure the reach and
impact of the content in terms of viewership and readership including
demographic analysis of the audience reached; 8) Create and train the official
manpower needed to manage this strategic communications infrastructure; 9)
Institutionalise and budget a permanent financial pipeline for Kashmir
strategic communications; and 10) Aim to shape opinion through this content in
a way that it translates into pressure on official policy.This is
the mere tip of the iceberg. So much is doable. But first, let’s stop fighting
on the wrong battlefield. https://www.dawn.com/news/1573255
Cost of Kashmir struggle
(From Jan 1989 till July 31, 2020)
Total Killings *
95,647
Custodial Killings
7,144
Civilian arrested
160,621
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
110,345
Women Widowed
22,917
Children Orphaned
107,797
Women gang-raped / Molested
11,214
(July 2020)
Total Killings *
24
Custodial Killings
3
Tortured/Injured
59
Pellet Injured :
09
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged
1
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured
3
Civilian arrested
98
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
11
Women Widowed
1
Children Orphaned
4
Women gang-raped / Molested
7
From July 8, 2016)
Kashmir
Update 87: Week Aug.,3, 2020 to Aug., 9, 2020
1. One year: Aug., 4, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, unrelenting military siege and
crippling lockdown imposed by the fascist Modi government of India on August 5,
last year, have almost completed a whole year. A report released by the
Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, revealed that Indian troops
had martyred
214 Kashmiris including 4 women and 10 young boys during the period. It said
that at least 1390 people were critically injured due to the use of
brute force by Indian troops on peaceful demonstrators and mourners in the
territory. The killings since August 5, 2019 have been higher than those in
2011, 2012, 2013,2014, 2015 and 2019. The report said, most of the victims were
killed in fake encounters during cordon and search operations in the length and
breadth of the territory. It said, youth are picked up from houses and then
eliminated after falsely labeled as mujahideen or overground workers.
The report said that these killings rendered 9 women widowed and 22 children
orphaned. “The troops damaged over 946 houses and structures and molested or
disgraced 84 women and arrested 13,680 including aged woman and half a dozen
girls during cordon and search operations across the occupied territory in the
period. After the custodial killing of prominent young Kashmiri
resistance leader, Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, the troops injured 10,240 by
pellets and blinded over five dozen while eyesight of 385 was damaged. Indian
troops killed 95,647 kashmiris from 1990 to till date. The life of Kashmiris has been
particularly made miserable since New Delhi illegally abrogated Article 370 of
its constitution on August 5, 2019. The move, the report added, was aimed at
snatching away the identity of the Kashmiris through changing the
Muslim-majority status of the occupied territory into a minority. As
the entire occupied Kashmir has been turned into an open-air prison, thousands
of Hurriyat leaders, political and human rights activists, religious heads,
journalists, businessmen, lawyers and civil society members, youth and
activists were arrested after or before 5 August 2019, and still continue to
remain in Tihar and other jails of India and Kashmir. Prominent among them are:
Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Sehria,Masarrat Aalam
Butt, Syeda Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fahmida Sofi, Nayeem Ahmad Khan,
Mohammad Aiyaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajudin Kalwal,
Farooq Ahmad Dar, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Maulana Mushtaq Veeri, Farooq Ahmad
Tawheedi, Muhammad Yasin Attai, Ameer-e-Hamza, Abdul Samad Inqilabi, Abdul Ahad
Parra, Muhammad Yosuf Mir, Muhammad Rafiq Gania, Feroz Ahmad Khan, Dr Qasim
Fakhtoo, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, Zahoor Watali, Syed Shahid Yousuf Shah, Syed
Shakeel Yousuf Shah, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Bashir Ahmad Querishi, Hayat Ahmad
, Asif Sultan and Qazi Shibli. Senior Hurriyet leaders Syed
Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq continue to remain under house detention in
Srinagar. The continued ban on high-speed internet has deprived
Kashmiris of useful local and world information regarding education, business,
and coronavirus, the report said. India had suspended the internet 4G services
in occupied Kashmir on August 05, 2019. “Modi regime is engaged in
changing the Muslim majority status of occupied Kashmir. For this purpose, it
has granted domicile certificates to thousands of Indians,” it added.The report
deplored that press freedom is under a constant threat in occupied Kashmir
where journalists are detained and harassed. “Cruel military lockdown has
pushed occupied Kashmir into the stone age. Communications blockade has made
the Kashmiris’ lives miserable,” it added. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/08/03/httpskmsnews-orgnews20200803india-massacring-iiojk-youth-in-fake-encounters-report/
2.
Muslim leaders: Aug., 5, 2020: .The Chairman of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation Human Rights Council, Adama Nana
addressed a webinar organized by the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF) and
condemned the yearlong lockdown and communication blackout in
Indian-administered Kashmir."The Indian government has persecuted human
rights activists and innocent people on false charges under draconian laws
which is a serious violation of international laws," Nana said. The
continued lockdown has caused a major economic loss to the region and residents
of Kashmir which is deplorable as India purses the systemic persecution of Kashmiri
Muslims, he added. Sami Al-Arian, Director of the Center for Islamic and Global Affairs
of Turkey, said Kashmiris and Palestinian people are struggling for
self-determination under military occupations and are facing racists and
Zionist powers."Both nations, Kashmiris and Palestinians, are suffering
from poverty as occupation forces have caused them huge economic loss and using
forces against innocent people," Arian said.He lamented growing
Islamophobia and said the Israel and Indian governments are promoting
Islamophobia while world powers provide arms and economic assistance to both
countries against innocent Muslims. Renowned British author, biographer, and
historian Victoria Schofield also spoke at the webinar and said
Kashmiris, who are living in a beautiful valley, should enjoy the freedom
others are enjoying. She characterized the situation in Kashmir at extremely
concerning to the entire international community and said even journalists are
not allowed to report the real situation from the ground. Mohammad Abdul Hamid,
President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization;
Ibrahim Bulushi from Kenya; Ghulam Nabi Mir, the head of WKAF and security
general of the Ghulam Nabi Fai forum also spoke. Participants
demanded an immediate lifting of the yearlong military siege, restoration of
all internet connectivity and communications links and releasing all political
prisoners including underage children, journalists and civil society members. "Allow
unfettered access to monitor and report on human rights violations by credible
international bodies including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
International Federation for Human Rights, World Organization Against Torture
(WOAT), Doctors without Borders, Physicians for Human Rights, and UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture and other UN thematic rapporteurs," participants
demanded. They urged a halt to and a rescinding of all laws, such as the
Domicile Laws, that have been instituted to speed demographic changes and
promote ethnic, cultural, and political cleansing of Jammu and Kashmir. "Disarm
and withdraw all Indian military and paramilitary personnel from the occupied
territories so that all the people in Jammu&Kashmir can exercise their
unfettered right of self-determination through a free and fair referendum as
agreed to by both the Governments of India and Pakistan as well as the United
Nations Security Council as early as 1948," the Kashmiri leaders said. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/muslim-leaders-express-concerns-about-kashmir-situation/1931766
3. Kashmiri Lives Matter: Aug., 6, 2020: Kashmiri rights groups in the UK organised a digital campaign with the hashtag #KashmiriLivesMatter and #KashmirSeigeDay on 'Youm-e-Istehsal', or August 5, 2020, exactly a year after India scrapped the Muslim-majority region's special status and imposed a brutal lockdown. The slogan was displayed on the British Parliament, Marble Arch, One Marylebone, and various other locations in Central London. The event marked the first anniversary of India's annexation of Kashmir after revoking Article 370, which gave special status to the disputed territory . Lord Nazir Ahmed, a member of the House of Lords, and Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) Chairperson Ali Raza Syed have also appealed to the international community to take notice of Indian atrocities and inhumane acts in occupied Kashmir. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/696410-youm-e-istehsal-kashmirilivesmatter-digital-campaign-launched-in-uk
4.
One year report:
Aug., , 2020: Kashmir Reading Room has released a report marking one year of
the de-operationalization of Article 370, and unilateral revocation of
Kashmir’s special status by the government of India on August 5, 2019. The
report titled ‘(Dis)Integration at Gunpoint’ is prepared by Kashmir Reading
Room (KRR) .The panelists then discussed how August 5, 2019, is marked by
Kashmiris as a day when India’s expansionist policy on Kashmir “has been laid
bare in an undeniable manner.” Parvez Imroz, Human Rights lawyer with JKCCS
while commenting on the Kashmir conflict said that, “Truth is a major casualty
in any conflict area.” He discussed India’s gripping control of the people of
Kashmir and thanked KRR for adopting mechanisms of active and comprehensive
dialogue to generate international awareness on the conflict in Jammu and
Kashmir. He then mentioned Newton’s law indicating that India’s repressive
measures against the territories cannot continue for long as evident in
Newton’s law. “There will be a reaction,” he said. Commenting on the Indian
Judiciary’s approach to Kashmir Imroz said, “Judiciary is complicit by their
omissions in not taking measures to protect human rights.” He accused the
judiciary of being a failure while noting that this report has in fact
documented all the changes taking place on the political, legal, policy, and
economic sphere since August 2019 in the bifurcated territories. The panelists highlighted that the report
comprehensively covers a wide range of subjects from recent changes in Domicile
law; amendments of laws affecting the transfer of state land to non-state
subjects and corporate entities; mining rights; developments in Constitutional
Courts concerning the amendment to Article 370; treatment of PSA petitions;
Habeas Corpus litigation and media petitions in the last year. Other attendees
noted that it has included perspectives from minorities and voices from Ladakh,
Jammu, and the Kashmir valley while additionally providing an overview of the
human rights violations, curbs on freedom of the press, repression of Kashmiri
journalists, and disenfranchisement of Kashmiris. The full report can be
accessed here: https://jklpp.org/kashmir-reading-room-report-aug-2019-aug-2020/. http://twocircles.net/2020aug05/438457.html
5. UNSC: Aug.,6, 2020: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday
expressed concerns over the human rights situation in the Indian Illegally
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), particularly Indian authorities’ continued
oppression as well as attempts to change its demography.The 15-member Council
met to discuss the current Kashmir situation on the request of Pakistan. China,
which is a permanent member of the UNSC, played key role in arranging the
closed-door discussions for the third time in a year after India revoked the
special status of the disputed territory. The UN Secretariat and the United Nations Military Observer Group in
India and Pakistan (Unmogip) representatives also briefed the
Council on the current situation in IIOJK, the foreign minister said. Earlier in the day, China and Turkey
reiterated their principled stance over the Kashmir issue and stressed that any
unilateral change in the status quo in the IIOJK was illegal and invalid, as it
did not contribute to peace and stability in the region.“Our position is consistent
and clear. This issue is a dispute left over from history between Pakistan and
India that is an objective fact established by the United Nations Charter,
United Nations Security Council’s resolutions and bilateral agreement between
Pakistan and India,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said
during his regular briefing on Wednesday.“Any unilateral change to the status
quo (in IIOJK) was illegal and invalid,” Wang said, emphasising that the issue
should be properly resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation
between the parties concerned.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2258144/unsc-voices-concern-over-hr-situation-in-iiojk
6. Protest: Aug., 6, 2020: Kashmiris settled in Europe and United Kingdom took to
the streets to condemn the August 5, 2019 move of the Modi government for
annexing Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) with India.
7. Rallies and conferences were conducted in Oslo,
Copenhagen, Glasgow, Scotland, Brescia, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal, Barcelona,
Spain Berlin, Germany, Hamburg, Germany Zurich, Switzerland and more than eight
cities of UK.
8. The rallies and seminars were organised by
Tehreek-e-Kashmir Europe and UK. In Birmingham, the main anti-India rally was
taken out in front of Birmingham Council House, Victoria Square in which
hundreds of overseas Kashmiris and Pakistanis participated. TeK leader in
Norway Shah Hussain also led the anti-India protest. Hundreds of people were
present in the rally.On the occasion, protesters passed a resolution in support
of Kashmiris freedom struggle. In Italy, TeK President Mehmood Sharif, in
Germany Riaz Ghulam, Switzerland Ejaz Chaudary, Spain Nasir Shezad, Portugal
Mehboob Ahmed and Tufail Hussain Shah also addressed the anti-India and Kashmir
solidarity rallies and jointly vowed to continue their support for the people
of IIOJK in the genuine and political rights struggle which India has been
trying to suppress since 1947. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2258126/kashmiris-hold-demonstrations-across-europe-to-denounce-indias-aug-5-move
9.
US Committee: Aug., 7, 2020: The
US Congress’s powerful house foreign affairs committee has sent a letter
addressed to external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, expressing concern that
the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had “not normalised” one year after
the revocation of its constitutional autonomy. Dated August 5, the joint letter was written by the US
House committee on foreign affairs’ democrat chairman, Elliot Engel, and the
Republican ranking member Michael McCaul, to mark the one-year anniversary of
the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into
two Union Territories. “It is because of our support for the bilateral
relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir
have not normalized one year after India’s repeal of Article 370 and the
establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory,” the letter stated.
During the weekly briefing in New Delhi on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava said that the letter reflected the bipartisan support for the
bilateral relationship. The first
expression of concern from the US administration had been by an anonymous state
department official during a background briefing on August 21 last year. “We
recognize that it’s an internal matter, but it obviously has implications
outside of India’s borders,” the official
said. The senior US diplomat noted that
Washington’s “near term” focus was on release of detainees and restoration of
“basic freedoms”. The next step would be restoration of “political normalcy” on
Jammu and Kashmir, first as a union territory and then as a state, the official
stated.A week later, the US embassy spokesperson also echoed those words and called for a return
to “normal political status” as committed by
Modi in his Independence Day speech. https://thewire.in/diplomacy/us-congresss-powerful-house-foreign-affairs-committee-jaishankar-kashmir-article-370
10. China on Kashmir: Aug., 7, 2020: The spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said Wednesday that the Chinese ambassador has called on parties concerned to exercise restraint in Kashmir. Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, expounded on China's principled position on Kashmir during the Security Council's closed-door discussions on Wednesday, said the spokesperson. Zhang said that India unilaterally changed the status quo of Kashmir through constitutional amendments in August 2019, stoking tensions in the region. A year later, there is no fundamental improvement but a risk of further escalation in the situation of Kashmir, according to the spokesperson. Zhang said China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and the relevant military actions. China opposes unilateral actions that will complicate the situation, and calls on relevant parties to exercise restraint and act prudently. In particular, they should refrain from taking actions that will escalate tensions, according to the spokesperson. Zhang underlined that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from the past and should be peacefully and properly addressed in accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreement. It is the responsibility of the Security Council to help ease the tensions and properly resolve relevant issues. The international community remains highly concerned about the Kashmir situation, with the expectation that the Security Council should perform its own duties, according to the spokesperson. Zhang said that both India and Pakistan are friendly neighbors of China and big developing countries at a critical stage of development. China is committed to growing friendly relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on national development, set store by safeguarding peace and stability in South Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon zero-sum thinking, avoid unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region, according to the spokesperson.The Security Council on Wednesday heard briefings from the UN Secretariat on the current situation in Kashmir and the work of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, said the spokesperson. Security Council members expressed concern over the current situation in Kashmir and expressed the hope that relevant parties would exercise restraint and properly resolve relevant issues through dialogue to jointly maintain regional peace and stability, said the spokesperson. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1196878.shtml
11.
Blue print for Acton Aug., 9,
2020: Pakistan’s Kashmir policy is struggling to
achieve quantifiable objectives, one of the key reasons is this: a failure (or
refusal) to recognise the location of the battle to be fought. In today’s
world, this battle for Kashmir has to be fought on seven places. Pakistan is
not among them.The seven battlefields: Washington D.C., New York, London, Moscow,
Paris, New Delhi and Srinagar. Here’s why: The situation on the ground in
occupied Kashmir has worsened in the last one year. India may claim normalcy in
the region but the reality — as acknowledged by independent voices (the few
that are left in India) — is that repression is on the up, as is defiance by
the people. Pakistan’s core objective is to ensure the world knows the reality
of the situation. But the world, in this context, is really just the members of
the United Nations Security Council. These countries, the so-called P5, wield
power to make a difference in Kashmir. Among these five — United States, United
Kingdom, China, Russia and France — China is already engaged in the Kashmir
issue and hardly needs any convincing. The New York battlefield refers to the
United Nations headquarters.Our battle for India-held Kashmir, for now, has to
be fought through diplomacy and strategic communication. If we want to be smart
with our policy, we need to focus an overwhelming effort on this target audience.
The opinion of the people and governments of these four countries is the only
thing that should matter to us. Add to this the obvious emphasis on New Delhi
and Srinagar and we have ourselves six Kashmir battlefields. Every battle needs
warriors, weapons and an accurate mapping of the terrain. Our battle for
Kashmir, for now, has to be fought through diplomacy and strategic
communication. These seven battlefields will therefore require strategies that
are tailored for respective terrains To
start off, they have to recognise the futility of fighting for Kashmir on the
wrong battlefield. The next phase is planning and executing the diplomatic and
communications war simultaneously on all seven battlefields. While diplomacy
has a well-entrenched system in place, the strategic communications arena
requires special attention. With occupied Kashmir being Ground Zero, a
brief outline of a strategic communications plan would include the following
steps: 1) Facilitate and equip Kashmiris to capture raw video and audio content
on devices; 2) Create a way to have this content relayed to Pakistan; 3)
Establish a Kashmir strategic communications organisation that can process this
content into various formats for all types of formal, informal and social media
platforms as well as for official presentations; 4) Translate all content into
the languages of the six battlefields; 5) Dissect and tailor content into two
categories: for governments and for people; 6) Create a system for distribution
of this content on broadcast, print and digital platforms that make it reach
the target audience; 7) Construct a system to monitor and measure the reach and
impact of the content in terms of viewership and readership including
demographic analysis of the audience reached; 8) Create and train the official
manpower needed to manage this strategic communications infrastructure; 9)
Institutionalise and budget a permanent financial pipeline for Kashmir
strategic communications; and 10) Aim to shape opinion through this content in
a way that it translates into pressure on official policy.This is
the mere tip of the iceberg. So much is doable. But first, let’s stop fighting
on the wrong battlefield. https://www.dawn.com/news/1573255
|
Cost of Kashmir struggle
From July 8, 2016) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Atrocities by Indian Troops
(Jan-Jul 2020 )
Total Killings *
172
Custodial Killings
8
Tortured/Injured
492
Total
pellet Injured
90
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged
6
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured
13
Civilian arrested
2219
Arson (Houses etc)
888
Women Widowed
6
Children Orphaned
13
Women gang-raped / Molested
39
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Aug 5, 2019- July 2020)
(Aug
5, 2019- July 2020)
Total Killings *
214
Custodial Killings
16
Tortured/Injured
1390
Total
pellet Injured
437
Persons whose sight in one eye has damaged
17
Persons whose one or both eyes are injured
134
Civilian arrested
13680
Arson (Houses etc)
946
Women Widowed
9
Children Orphaned
22
Women disgraced / Molested
84
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Casualties during ongoing
uprising
(From July 8, 2016 - Jul 31 2020)
Total Killings *
1275
Custodial Killings
86
Tortured/Injured
29125
Arrested
25566
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
4267
Women Widowed
100
Children Orphaned
227
Women gang-raped / Molested
1021
Inured by pellets
10240
Eye-sight damaged/ at the verge of blindness
385
Compiled by Kashmir
Media Service
Kashmir
Update 86: Week Jul.,27, 2020 to Aug., 2, 2020
1. Youth martyred: Jul., 30,
2020: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops
in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred two Kashmiri youth in Rajouri
district.The troops martyred two youth and injured another during a military
operation in Nowshehra area of the district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/07/29/indian-troops-martyr-two-youth-in-rajouri-2/
2. Youth arrested: Jul., 30,
2020: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops
on Wednesday arrested three Kashmiri youth during house raids in Bandipora
district.The youth were arrested after Indian Army, police and paramilitary
Central Reserve Police Force jointly launched cordon and search operations in
different parts of the district. a case
under draconian law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), has been
registered at Bandipora police station against the youth. The FIR said that the
detained youth were involved in providing shelter, logistics support and
assistance to mujahideen operating in the district. However, locals while
refuting the police claim said that Abrar, Waqar and Muneer were
innocent youth who were being implicated by the Indian police on false charges.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/07/29/indian-forces-personnel-arrest-3-youth-during-raids-in-bandipora/
6. Cost of Kashmir struggle
Compiled by Kashmir
Media Service |
||||||||||||||||||||||
HR
Violations
(From Jan
1989 till May 31,2020)
Total Killings *
95,592
Custodial Killings
7,141
Civilian arrested
160,487
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
110,327
Women Widowed
22,915
Children Orphaned
107,792
Women gang-raped / Molested
11,204
From July 8, 2016)
(May 2020)
Total Killings *
23
Custodial Killings
0
Tortured/Injured
25
Civilian arrested
46
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
18
Women Widowed
1
Children Orphaned
4
Women gang-raped / Molested
0
From July 8, 2016)
|
(From Jan
1989 till May 31,2020)
|
|
|
Total Killings *
|
95,592
|
|
Custodial Killings
|
7,141
|
|
Civilian arrested
|
160,487
|
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
|
110,327
|
|
Women Widowed
|
22,915
|
|
Children Orphaned
|
107,792
|
|
Women gang-raped / Molested
|
11,204
|
|
(May 2020)
|
|
|
Total Killings *
|
23
|
|
Custodial Killings
|
0
|
|
Tortured/Injured
|
25
|
|
Civilian arrested
|
46
|
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
|
18
|
|
Women Widowed
|
1
|
|
Children Orphaned
|
4
|
|
Women gang-raped / Molested
|
0
|
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 Service
Kashmir
Update 85: Week Jul.,20, 2020 to Jul., 26, 2020
|
(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 Service
|
|
Kashmir
Update 84: Week Jul.,13, 2020 to Jul., 19, 2020
4.
Youth Martyred: Jul, 17, 2020: In
occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred
a youth in Kulgam district, today( Thursday).The youth was killed by the troops
during a cordon and search operation in Nagnad Chimmer area of south Kashmir’s
Kulgam district.
https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/07/17/indian-troops-martyr-youth-in-iok-6/
Kashmir Update 84: Week Jul.,13, 2020 to Jul., 19, 2020
Kashmir
Update 83: Week Jul.,6, 2020 to Jul., 12, 2020
Kashmir
Update 82: Week Jun.,29, 2020 to Jul., 5, 2020
7. Youth Martyred: Jul., 3, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops
in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one Kashmiri youth in Srinagar
city, today.The youth was martyred by troops in Hazratbal area of the city https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/07/03/indian-troops-martyr-one-kashmiri-youth-in-srinagar/
8.
Grandfather
killed: Jul., 3, 2020:
Barrister Tramboo and Prof Shawl expressed their anguish and shock
having seen the images of 3 years old child over the his grandfather dead body,
which was riddled with bullets, crying and screaming for help at Sopore in
occupied Kashmir. Both the leaders emphasised that the slain civilian, Bashir
Ahmad Khan, was killed by the Indian troops having dragged out of the car, shot
dead at a point blank range thereafter placing his grandson on his body and
audaciously taking the pictures. The car in which the deceased was travelling
had no trace of any bullet shots. In all probability, he was dragged out of the
car, shot and his body stretched on the ground with his arms and hands upwards
and placing his grandson on his chest; and The slain Khan’s pictures taken with
his 3-year-old grandson by the Indiantroops to cover their ghastly execution.
The OKC leaders further highlighted that the reign of terror has intensified in
occupied Kashmir since 5th August 2019 when the Indian authorities repealed the
special status of Kashmir and divided it into two union territories. They
called upon the international community and the world leaders to constitute an
international commission of enquiry on all the killings including that of
3-year-old boy’s grandfather. They also urged the world community to persuade
the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open a formal
investigation to bring to book all the perpetrators of the crime of genocide in
occupied Kashmir. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/07/02/okc-leaders-highlight-indias-cruelties-in-occupied-kashmir/
Kashmir
Update 81: Week Jun.,22, 2020 to Jun.,28, 2020
Kashmir Update 81: Week Jun.,22, 2020 to Jun.,28, 2020
Kindly respond with comments or news that
you wish included in next weeks update at: jarad_us@yahoo.com
Kashmir Update 80:
Week Jun.,15, 2020 to Jun.,21, 2020
1.
China
and Kashmir ; Jun., 15,, 2020: While
China and India were trying to resolve the standoff at high-altitude Ladakh
region through military contacts, there has been a messaging going on at the
civilian leadership level between the two countries. If observers and
assessment of the diplomatic circles in Islamabad are to be believed, China has
linked the de-escalation in tensions with India to its commitment for restoring
the status of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to pre-August 5, 2019 level.
this is for the first time the current standoff between China and India is
being linked with Modi’s August 5 move in IOJ&K. a recent article written
by a Chinese scholar, who is working with an influential Chinese think tank,
hinted at China’s border tussle with India having tied to the Kashmir dispute.
Dr Wang Shida, deputy director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at China
Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, writes that India has,
since last August, taken constant actions to unilaterally change the status quo
of Kashmir and continued to exacerbate regional tensions. On the Chinese side,
he adds India “opened up new territory on the map,” incorporated part of the
areas under the local jurisdiction of Xinjiang and Tibet into its Ladakh union
territory, and placed Azad Jammu Kashmir within its so-called union territories
of Jammu and Kashmir.“This forced China into the Kashmir dispute, stimulated
China and Pakistan to take counter-actions on the Kashmir issue, and
dramatically increased the difficulty in resolving the border issue between
China and India,” Dr Wang notes. Significantly, the spokesperson of the Chinese
Embassy in Islamabad shared the article, something that created a storm in New
Delhi, with Indian commentators termed the move as an extraordinary
development. “China wants both ways: PLA has changed LAC alignment, made DSDBO
road to SSN adjacent to Siachen unusable for army reinforcements. China wants
Indian commitment from the highest level to restore the J&K state. Indian
military cannot do much and the US will not. Modi’s government’s biggest
challenge!,” tweeted Pravin Sawhney, a retired Indian army officer and expert
on China. .Some reports suggested the
corps commander level meeting took place at least 3.5 kilometres inside a
territory which was under the Indian control in Ladakh region before the
current standoff began. Indian govt and media were reluctant to acknowledge the
fact that Chinese troops changed the alignment of Line of Actual Control (LAC)
by now controlling areas that were under Indian control till May. Not just
that, Chinese forces have made advances at the LAC, a de facto border between
two countries, to the extent that the road recently built by India in Ladakh
for defence purposes is no more usable
In fact, the current border tussle was triggered by the road and other
military infrastructure built by India in the Himalayan region. China,
observers believe, moved to stop such infrastructure since it considered the
area as part of China. Before the corps commanders level meeting, there were at
least 18 sessions between the level of local commanders and three meetings took
place at the level of major generals. However, all those efforts yielded no
result with China strengthening its position as some of the Indian retired
generals admitted that China now controls 40 to 60 square kilometres of the
Indian territory in the disputed region. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2242695/3-china-wants-occupied-kashmirs-pre-aug-5-status-restored/
Kashmir Update 79:
Week Jun.,8, 2020 to Jun.,14, 2020
1.
Petition: http://chng.it/rTKQnhPPxc
Kindly sign and support this petition which demands that 4G be immediately
restored in Indian Occupied Kashmir
Muneeb-Ul- Haq Sheikh ,r/o Sugan; Owais
Ahmad Bhat,r/o Molu Chitargam.; and Unknown.
6.
Visa denial: Jun.,
12, 2020:
India has turned down a travel request for members of a US government
panel seeking to review its religious freedom, saying foreign agencies had no
standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens. The visa snub to the
US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Wednesday came as the US Congress released its own
religious freedom report while a top Trump administration
official said he was "very concerned" about the South Asian country's
situation US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo on Wednesday released a new 2019 International Religious Freedom
Report in Washington, DC. The report, mandated by the US Congress, documents
major instances of violations of religious freedom across the world. Referring
to India, the report highlighted the revocation of Indian-administered
Kashmir's autonomy by the Modi government in August, the passage of the CAA in
December, and attacks by Hindu vigilante groups on Muslims and Dalits
(community once referred to as "untouchables") over the cow, an
animal considered sacred by Hindus."Mob attacks by violent Hindu groups
against minority communities, including Muslims, continued throughout the year
amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef," said the
report, adding that charges were often filed by the police against the victims
of mob violence. Hours after the release, Samuel
Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the
Trump administration, said the "trend lines [on religious freedom] have
been troubling" in India, according to a report by the Press Trust of
India on Wednesday."We do remain very concerned about what's taking place
in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions,
of all religions," Brownback said during a phone call with journalists on
Wednesday."It really needs a lot more effort on this topic in India, and
my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward, you're going to
see a growth in violence and increased difficulty within the society writ
large." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/india-denies-visas-panel-religious-freedom-200611070153569.html
Kashmir Update 77:
Week May,25, 2020 to May, 31, 2020
1.
Fatalities: May,
25, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, two more civilians wounded at Nawakadal
encounter site in Srinagar last week succumbed to their injuries, today. With
these two deaths the toll of civilians who died of the injuries suffered at the
site has mounted to three. The Indian troops had killed top mujahid commander
Junaid Sehrai and his associate in Nawa Kadal area of Srinagar on Tuesday (May
19). The troops later blasted many houses at the encounter site resulting in a
fire that also damaged scores of surrounding homes. Several people were injured
when a partially damaged house collapsed after the encounter ended. First a 55
year old man identified as Manzoor Ahmad Khan a resident
of Hawal, Srinagar, who was injured in the house collapse at the encounter
site, succumbed at SMHS Hospital on Sunday morning, the health officials said.
Barely a few hours later, one more injured youth identified as Fayaz
Ahmad Bhat, 35, of Jamalatta, Nawa Kadal, also breathed his last at
the same hospital. Earlier, a 12-year-old boy, Basim Aijaz, who
was also injured at the same spot on Tuesday, succumbed to his injuries at the
same hospital on Wednesday. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/24/2-more-hurt-at-nawakadal-encounter-site-succumb-toll-reaches-3/
2.
Youth arrested: May,25, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops arrested at least four youth
in Badgam district, today.The troops arrested the youth identified as Wasim
Ganai, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Muhammad Yasin and Azharudin Mir during a
cordon and search operation in Beerwah area of the district https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/24/indian-troops-arrest-four-kashmiri-youth-during-caso-in-budgam-2/
Kashmir Update 76:
Week May,18, 2020 to May, 24, 2020
1.
Youth
martyred: May, 18, 2020:In occupied
Kashmir, Indian troops martyred two
Kashmiri youth during a cordon and search operation in Doda district of Jammu
region, today. Indian Army claimed that the youth were killed during an
encounter with the troops in Gundana area of Doda town. An Indian soldier was
also killed in an attack during the operation in the same area. In another
incident, an Indian policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Yaripora
area of Kulgam district. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/17/two-youth-martyred-indian-soldier-killed-in-iok/
6. Indian troops killed: May, 21, 2020: In occupied
Kashmir, two Indian paramilitary troops were killed in an audacious attack in
Ganderbal district, today.The attackers fired indiscriminately at a party of 37
battalion of Border Security Force near Pandach area in the district this
evening, resulting in injuries to two troops.The injured troops were rushed to
Soura Institute of Medical Sciences where the both were declared as brought
dead on arrival by the doctors who attended them. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/20/two-indian-troops-killed-in-iok-attack/
7.
OIC: May, 21, 2020: The
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has denounced India’s new domicile
law for occupied Kashmir, calling it a violation of UN Security Council
resolutions.The OIC in a statement said, “The General Secretariat of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has been following with deep concern the
unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 and subsequent measures to alter the
demographics of and undermine the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. Reaffirming
the importance of complying with international law and UNSC resolutions, the
OIC termed the Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules 2020’ as baseless,
running counter to international laws.The Islamic organization also urged the
international community to gear up its efforts to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir
dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as
per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/05/20/oic-condemns-new-domicile-law-in-iok/
Kashmir Update 75: Week May,11, 2020 to May, 17, 2020
(From Jan 1989 till Apr 30,2020)
|
|
Total Killings *
|
95,548
|
Custodial Killings
|
7,139
|
Civilian arrested
|
159,602
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
|
109,506
|
Women Widowed
|
22,913
|
Children Orphaned
|
107,786
|
Women gang-raped / Molested
|
11,179
|
(Apr 2020)
|
|
Total Killings *
|
33
|
Custodial Killings
|
0
|
Tortured/Injured
|
152
|
Civilian arrested
|
845
|
Structures Arsoned/Destroyed
|
44
|
Women Widowed
|
1
|
Children Orphaned
|
2
|
Women gang-raped / Molested
|
0
|
(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 Service
|
|
Kashmir Update 70: Week Apr.,6, 2020 to Mar., 12, 2020
Six international human rights organizations in a recent joint statement in Geneva have already said, the fate of hundreds of arbitrarily detained Kashmiri prisoners hangs in the balance as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in India passes the 4,000 mark. These organizations include Amnesty International, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, International Commissions of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights and World Organization Against Torture. They stressed that under international law, India had an obligation to ensure the physical and mental health and well-being of inmates. The global human rights watchdogs expressed the apprehension that various state governments in India had begun releasing detainees, but there was a concern that hundreds of Kashmiri youth, journalists, political leaders, human right defenders and others arbitrarily arrested would not be among those benefiting from the measure. The statement said, as entire India is in a lockdown and a ban on prison visits for the duration of the outbreak imposed, inmates are more isolated from the outside world than ever. They added that the phenomenon was even more alarming in view of the huge number of custodial deaths due to torture and ill-treatment in Indian prisons. . https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/04/07/un-rights-bodies-show-concern-about-iok-detainees/
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