Minor Children and the Struggle for Freedom of Kashmir (JR 224)

Minor Children and the Struggle for Freedom of Kashmir (JR 224)

Introduction

Children are the worst sufferers in a war zone. They are deprived of a normal childhood and are most times afraid and under stress. The children of Indian Occupied Kashmir, had to suffer even more as the Indians were and are aping Israeli policies and procedures, these allow imprisonment of children and use of brutal police force against children. The use of pellet guns by Indian Occupation forces has resulted in loss of eyesight and serious damages to the eyes to numerous children. 107,775 have been orphaned since 1989

The children of Kashmir are facing violence and armed conflicts. In this light it is important to remember the Optional Protocol to the Convention relating to the Rights of the Child, regarding the involvement of children in armed conflicts of 2000, in order to gain an understanding of the difficult problems that children growing up in violence are facing. Although this refers to child soldiers, it also concerns ongoing state violence, which children are undeniably facing every day if their region is at war.

The main issues children are facing in the region currently are violence and lack of education. As stated by a report created by Indian economists and activists, boys have been abducted during midnight raids by the security forces, and girls and women have been molested during nighttime raids by officers  Although thorough, the report does not include any video interview evidence from ordinary people that the Indian researchers encountered. However, there is a reason for this: parents fear speaking about it in the event that the raids are filed in the Public Security Act cases. The parents’ statement of their boys’ disappearance could lead to their arrest due to interference with state security. Indeed, the raids have installed fear on Kashmiris.

Malnutrition

Furthermore, Indian researchers report on lack of food, milk and basic needs throughout the population. This has quite negative effects on children, who are still growing, in need of proper resources for their growth. In regards to health, people have been prevented from travelling to the hospitals, too unsafe considering the current situation.  The report has been a useful source of information in a country which is currently facing a media blackout, with journalists unable to travel within the region.

Education

The second main issue that children have been facing is lack of education. Around mid-August 2019, Indian authorities ordered the primary schools to reopen, after having closed them on August 5. They are still opening schools, where restrictions no longer apply. Due to the ongoing conflict, which in practice translates itself to conflicts in the streets and clashes with security forces, parents have been reluctant to bring their children to school. In fact, the lack of safety has lead some parents to state that education is less important than the safety of their children. Children need a safe environment in which they feel comfortable in order to attend school and be in a working environment.

Besides human and economic losses, education has taken a major hit in Indian-administered Kashmir due to conflict and clampdowns. On Feb. 24, nearly 1.2 million students attended classes for the first time in almost seven months, since India revoked limited autonomy and divided the region into two centrally administered units. But analysts say, in an unpredictable situation, there was no guarantee of their proper functioning. Since the 2008 civilian uprising, the schools and business establishment have seen many shutdowns in the region. Mohammad Hamza, 12, a student of standard 6 class, said he was preparing for a class test scheduled last year Aug. 5, when the government ordered the closure of all educational institutions. No reason was given. Young Hamza least understood what was happening around as he was grappling with a mathematical problem.“The chaos and uncertainty soon gripped me. I saw for the first time my mother was not interested in my class tests, but my safety,” he told Anadolu Agency. Following the controversial move, authorities on two occasions announced the reopening of schools. But students stayed away amid the ongoing restrictions and concerns among parents about the children's safety.“I thought bombs are being dropped and my school will be in rubbles. I remember helicopters and fighters zooming on skies during the whole night. I was unable to sleep,” said Hamza. Since Aug.5 last year, Hamza said he has remained confined to his home only.“There was no communication with the friends or with any of relatives due to commination clampdown. The only shelter was to sit in a corner of a room," he added.

For the child every single day was boring, with no activity, just staring from windows to find someone to talk with. Last time in 2016, soon after the killing of a militant commander Burhan Wani, educational institutions remained closed for eight months as unrest plagued the region. While at that time, schools in South Kashmir bore the maximum brunt, during the last seven months, the whole Kashmir Valley has witnessed continuous closure of schools.

Due to uncertainty looming large, parents refused to send children to schools, even though the government tried to open schools. “The day used, to begin with, uncertainty and end with uncertainty. Which parent in the world would send children to school in such a situation?” asked Shaheena Akhter, a mother. 

"We want to secure the future of children. We cannot afford more loss to their education," he said. Io compensate for the loss, the number of academic days has been increased from 180 to 200 for primary and 210 days for middle classes for the year 2020.For now, Hamza is back to school, studying and playing with his friends. But in current times ravaged with uncertainty and marked by clampdowns, nobody knows how long the optimism lasts.

Schools: Aug., 19, 2019:  The main government offices and some schools in Indian-administered Kashmir have reopened after a two-week shutdown amid fear and tension over the government's decision to revoke the region's autonomy. Government employees on Monday resumed their duties at the Civil Secretariat, the headquarters of the Indian administration, following directions issued last week. The directions also included the reopening of nearly 200 primary schools in selected areas of the disputed region. Most schools, however, were empty as wary parents refused to send their children to school while the situation remains tense amid low-intensity and sporadic protests. .  The government was trying to "manufacture normalcy" by risking the lives of younger children amid the worst crisis Kashmir Valley had witnessed in decades. Nasir Mir, an engineer in Srinagar, told Al Jazeera that the situation was not ready for schools to open. "The government wants children in uniforms to be video graphed for the media and sell it as normalcy in Kashmir," he said

Students: Nov., 30, 2019: Access to mobile, landline and internet networks were suspended along with a complete lockdown in the Indian administered Kashmir region on August 5, 2019  After more than two months, the government partially restored the communication blockade. Internet access has been restored in some institutions and new rules force companies to give up their privacy and refrain from the use of social networks if they want to use the Internet. However, regular citizens still have no access to Internet. The Internet ban is taking a toll on the 48,000 Kashmiri students who are appearing at different public examinations. Many students were in the dark regarding their examination dates. Because of the “Security Measures” taken after the abrogation of Special Status of Jammu and Kashmir allotted under Article 370 of Indian Constitution, schools were closed and students could not prepare fully for examinations. They worry about qualifying for the upcoming examination.  https://globalvoices.org/2019/11/29/inside-kashmirs-internet-blockade-video-report-with-kashmiri-students-affected-by-the-crisis/

Education and Kashmir: Dec., 2. 2019: Already delayed by four months, the end of semester examination is yet to take place in most of the graduate courses in Kashmir. “For now there is no formal date sheet for the examination. Our exams were to be completed in late August of this year and so our graduation but still we are waiting for the exams to take place,” another student media student Zulkilfah Shakeel told Anadolu Agency.The delay in examinations has cost students in different ways, some are not able to prepare for entrance examinations. Some are not able to go for internships and some are not able to go abroad for higher studies because of their pending degrees. The students, particularly from rural areas, received a setback in their prospectus of educational career when administrative orders were issued to close hostels of the varsities across Kashmir Aug. 4. The hostels of Kashmir are still closed for rural students who are facing immense hardships in postgraduate exams which were notified recently. For now the students find it hard to appear for exams although the administration at the varsity level asked students to appear for exams in satellite campuses but students from South Kashmir told Anadolu Agency it does not make any difference. They have to travel the same distance to the satellite campus or the main campus of Kashmir University. He also said because of no transportation, students are suffering badly. “I had to travel for four hours to reach to Kashmir University to appear in my first paper. It is very difficult situation,” the student said. The classwork at schools, colleges and universities of Kashmir has remained suspended after the Aug. 5 lockdown which severely affected the education sector of the region. “These four months have been hard. We couldn’t read anything at our homes. The mind was already occupied with external disturbances and volatile situations,” Sanam Mukhtar, a high school student told Anadolu Agency. As the condition of businesses, trade, health care and livelihood remains dismal in the region but the future of education of children stare cluelessly at a blank with dejection and helplessness among them. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/lockdown-puts-education-in-kashmir-on-back-burner/1660514

Cost of struggle to children

Children orphaned: Jan., 4, 2019: As per the reports, over 31 children have been killed in 2018, while many human rights organizations have put the number of orphans in Kashmir as more than 30,000 in last three decades. The year 2018 has been the deadliest in last one decade, with highest number of killings and increased number of incidents of violence. In absence of the political initiatives on the disputed nature of the region, it has only been the violence that has grown over the years, and it has left countless orphans dotting the bloodied political canvas of Kashmir’s tragic history. December 2018 has been the deadliest year in Indian Occupied Kashmir

violation of child rights by India in Kashmir Feb., 4, 2019::  also needs to be specifically highlighted at different forums attaching great significance to this issue. According to a report by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), children in the occupied valley are the direct target of Indian forces who, with complete impunity, have exterminated 318 of them in the last 15 years. One could hardly disagree that ghastly incidents such as abduction, rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa Bano and blinding of 18-month-old Hiba Nisar through pellet guns by Indian troops could not have gone almost unnoticed, were they highlighted effectively under various international child rights conventions and protocols.  

2019 killings: July, 4, 2019: The first six months of 2019 recorded 271 killings in Jammu and Kashmir in various incidents of violence, which include 43 civilians, 120 militants and 108 Indian armed forces personnel, a human rights group Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society said on Wednesday. JKCCS said that among the 43 civilians killed in the first half of 2019, 14 were killed by Indian armed forces and police, 12 were killed by unidentified gunmen, 8 civilians died after falling victim of cross LOC shelling in the border areas of J&K, 5 civilians were killed by suspected militants, 3 died due to an explosion while the agency responsible for the killing of 2 civilians remains unknown – as both police and militants blamed each other for these two killings.“Among the 43 civilians killed, 9 were minors

July cost: Aug., 1, 2019: In occupied Kashmir, Indian  martyred 11 Kashmiris including a minor girl and a woman during the last month of July. According to the data issued by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, during the month, 80 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force and firing of pallets, bullets and teargas shells by Indian police and paramilitary personnel against peaceful protesters in the territory.  

Minor arrests after Aug 5

Farhan Farooq, a skinny 13-year-old with a tuft of black hair, was the youngest. Suddenly, a police vehicle came to a stop next to them and armed officers jumped out in the August twilight. They bundled the three friends into the car, one of the other boys recalled later. Farhan began to cry. For the next week, Farhan’s family said, he was held in a jail cell at the local police station in this Kashmiri town 10 miles outside of Srinagar, part of a sweeping crackdown by Indian authorities in the wake of the government’s decision to strip Kashmir of its autonomy and statehood.

Farhan is among some 3,000 people detained in Kashmir since Aug. 5, according to an estimate from a senior local government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. It is unclear how many of the detainees were minors, but The Washington Post has confirmed that at least five Kashmiris younger than 18 have been taken into detention since the start of the crackdown.

“There is an atmosphere of fear in every house,” said Farhan’s mother, Nazia, adding that she did not know why her son was detained. “If they can pick up children, they can do anything.”   

Farhan and his friend Junaid Shafi Mir, 17, picked up on Aug. 5, were held in a cell with four others, with new detainees arriving and leaving each day, Junaid said. On the second day of their detention, he said, the two boys were asked to tell the police the whereabouts of another boy. When Junaid said he didn’t know the boy, an officer hit him with a wooden baton five times on his knuckles and palms, he recalled.

Nazia, Farhan’s \ mother, said that she came to see her son every day and that officers sometimes let her speak to him. “He would cry and ask me to take him home,” she said. “It was very difficult to see him like that.” 

Raids and detentions were still underway in recent days. About 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, Nisar Ahmad Mir, who is not related to Junaid, was awakened by a voice claiming to be a local cleric, asking him to open the gate to his home. Half a dozen armed policemen jumped over the wall and said they were looking for his youngest son, 17-year-old Danish, he said. They whisked the boy away.Two days later Danish had still not returned.

The Post confirmed two more cases in Srinagar in which police detained minors. 

Nowsheena Sheikh, 17, said her husband, Aquib, also 17, was detained on Aug. 22 when he left home to buy milk. The following day police told her he was being held at Srinagar’s central jail but did not give details of any charges against him. “I’m scared that they may transfer him out of the state,” said Sheikh, one of dozens of people who gathered at the city’s main prison complex on a recent morning searching for information about their relatives. “How will I ever find him then?”Her fears are not unfounded. One woman began sobbing after a guard handed her a note indicating that her relative had been moved to a jail in Uttar Pradesh, more than 600 miles away. She left immediately, clutching her 4-year-old daughter.

Some of the detentions are taking place under Kashmir’s controversial Public Safety Act, a state law that allows local officials to order that people be held for up to two years without charges or judicial review for reasons of national security.

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

Children detained : Sep.,24,2019: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-49772269/the-detained-children-of-kashmir video of children being detained by Indian Occupation Forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir  #FreeKashmir #SaveKashmir. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2063006/3-helpless-kashmiri-families-fear-children-occupied-valley-report/ , Thousands of Kashmiri men – including minors – have been arrested in the name of maintaining order during nocturnal raids by Indian occupying forces. The BBC spoke to 17 Kashmiri families who said many children were illegally detained in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) by Indian forces. The British broadcaster interviewed some of the victims – with their faces hidden as they fear reprisals from Indian forces – who were still trying to forget the ordeal they went through. “We were beaten up at the camp and told, ‘you throw stones (at us), you seek freedom, what kind of freedom do you seek?’ I wished for death, so I didn’t have to watch the children being tortured,” said a Kashmiri man who was detained along with his 16-year-old son. He said they were picked up by the Indian army and then locked up at a police station for six days. “What could I do? I was powerless.” His son was badly affected by what happened to him and his father.“I feel very scared when it gets dark. I stay indoors. I can’t eat food or sleep at night. I am scared they will come back again,” said the boy. Lawyer Mir Urfi told the BBC how basic human rights were being “totally” neglected in the valley. “People are arrested, they are kept in custody, be it juveniles or be it majors, without legal justification, without being given access to their families, without being given access to legal aid. That is a basic human right that is available to every human being on this planet. And that is being totally denied to the Kashmiris,” she said. Another Kashmiri woman told the story of her 14-year-old son who was picked up by the Indian police in the dark. “They (Indian police) came around midnight. They took my husband away. Then they asked us to produce our son in exchange for my husband’s release,” said the woman. With weeks into the crackdown, the report continued, many Kashmiri families feared that their children might be next.

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

Afaan: Oct., 15, 2019:  Afaan, spent a fortnight in a prison in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK), after police booked him under a stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). He was charged of protesting against Indian decision of revoking the special status to the region. A fortnight in a prison cell has completely changed Afaan, says his father Manzoor Ahmed Ganai. The Juvenile Justice Committee of the State High Court has confirmed the arrest of 144 juveniles. “He (Afaan) is very depressed and frightened. His whole body aches and there are visible scars on his back,” Ganai, told Anadolu Agency. A report prepared by the IOK Coalition of Civil society (JKCCS) and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), mentions how the detention of children was adding to the chaos. .https://tribune.com.pk/story/2080010/torture-detention-children-adds-rage-kashmir/ 

Children: Oct., 19, 2019: Children in Kashmir are prevented from accessing urgent medical care. Basic necessities — including baby food, milk and medicines are in short supply. Parents are not sending their children to school for fear they will be injured, detained or killed and have no way of communicating with them. Armed forces have illegally detained Kashmiri children and abused them, physically and sexually. Children have been shot in the eye by soldiers firing pellet guns and even marble slingshots. A 17-year-old boy recently died of tear gas and pellet gun injuries. Women in labor cannot access obstetric care for safe delivery, putting their newborns at risk. Fathers are randomly detained by the military; many disappear, leaving children behind. Local children’s organizations are being paralyzed by the blackout and lockdown while international organizations tasked with promoting children’s well-being, like UNICEF and Save the Children, have yet to initiate meaningful programs to address this crisis   https://www.insidesources.com/children-are-the-largest-casualty-of-the-kashmir-crisis/

Blinded children: Oct., 30, 2019:“Watching cartoons on TV, playing with my friends on the street, reading books for hours — this is what I dream of now,” says nine-year-old Asif Ahmad Sheikh, a Class 5 student from Anantnag.“I used to teach sewing and tailoring to girls in my village, but not anymore. Because of the injuries, I could not write my class 10 board exam,” says 17-year-old Ulfat Hameed, a Class 10 student from Baramulla.“When I went to a hospital in Srinagar, there were so many people that the doctors sent me back home as they did not have beds available,” says Bilal Ahmad Bhat, 17, another student from Baramulla. https://www.dawn.com/news/1513749?fbclid=IwAR2UMEnMz84kpK9IbkgtIEyefxDn0cQKR1AdKVReUfVraG8a_96vMZuIt5c

De-radicalization camps for children: Jan., 18, 2020:  Top Indian general had suggested putting young Kashmiri children in “de-radicalization camps”  The statement, which referred to Gen Rawat's remarks at the Raisina Dialogue 2020, added that as a perpetrator of “unabated state-terrorism in the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOK)”, India is in no position to pontificate on the issue of terrorism.    https://www.dawn.com/news/1528918/fo-condemns-indian-generals-remarks-on-sending-kashmiri-children-to-deradicalisation-camps. Concentration camps: Jan., 18, 2020: In occupied Kashmir, India has planned to set up Nazi type concentration camps for the Kashmiri youth to starve, torture and kill them. A clear indication of the plan has been given by warmonger former Indian Army Chief and incumbent Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, while addressing a conference in New Delhi. He said that young Kashmiri children are being radicalized and they need to be identified and put in de-radicalisation camps. Rawat also claimed that Indian forces could not be blamed for injuries caused by pellet guns and that radicalised stone-pelters were “more dangerous” than the pellet guns. By emphasizing the need to deal with heavy hand in occupied Kashmir, General Rawat has pointed towards the Indian design to step up state terrorism in the territory. All Parties Hurriyat Conference and other liberation organizations in their statements have said that in the name of de-radicalization, the Kashmiri youth would be tortured in new camps. They said that General Bipin Rawat’s warning was a depiction of India’s militaristic approach towards the Kashmir dispute and was aimed at making the Kashmiri youth to shun their struggle. The organizations said New Delhi is using all brutal methods including torture to crush the Kashmiris’ liberation movement and bully them into accepting its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. They pointed out that despite killing over 95,000 innocent Kashmiris since 1989, Indian troops have failed to subdue the Kashmiri people’s resolve for securing freedom from the Indian yoke. Meanwhile, as the Juma congregational prayers culminated, people took to the streets in Srinagar, Badgam, Pulwama, Tral, Doda and other areas and held forceful anti-India demonstrations. The protesters raised high-pitched pro-freedom and anti-India slogans https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/01/17/india-plans-nazi-type-concentration-camps-in-iok-2/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXYZPJ03p2U

HRW: Jan., 16,2020: The New York-based Human Rights Watch has criticized the Indian government for gross human rights violations including arrests, torture and communication blackout after abrogation of Kashmir’s special status in August, last year. Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2020 posted on its website said, Indian authorities also failed to protect religious minorities, used draconian sedition and counter-terrorism laws to silence peaceful dissent, and invoked foreign funding regulations and other laws to discredit and muzzle nongovernmental organizations, critical of government actions or policies. “  The report said, “Prior to its actions in Jammu and Kashmir, the government deployed additional troops …, shut down the internet and phones, and arbitrarily detained thousands of Kashmiris, including political leaders, activists, journalists, lawyers, and potential protesters, including children. Hundreds remain in detention without charge or under house arrest to prevent protests.” It said that the Indian government blocked opposition politicians, foreign diplomats, and international journalists from independent visits to occupied Kashmir. “The Indian government’s actions in Kashmir have led to loss of livelihood and access to education. independent recommendations, including by United Nations experts, the India government did not review or repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives soldiers effective immunity from prosecution for serious human rights abuses. The law is in force in occupied Kashmir and in several states in northeast India. The HRW said that in November, following a petition by child rights activists, the Indian Supreme Court sought a detailed report from the juvenile justice committee of occupied Kashmir High Court on the detention of children and other abuses during the lockdown imposed since August. The committee earlier submitted a police list of 144 detained children, the youngest being 9, it added.  https://kmsnews.org/news/2020/01/15/hrw-condemns-indian-government-over-atrocities-in-iok/