Human Rights Violations in Indian Held Kashmir
Recently, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice disclosed that 2,700 unmarked graves with nearly 3,000 bodies across 55 villages in three districts, Bandipore, Baramullah and Kupwara of Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) have been discovered. Some of the mass graves contain 3 to 17 bodies. The Tribunal claimed that the graves could be of those missing from custody of Indian troops. The report is based on research between November 2006 and November 2009 and has been authored by prominent human rights activists of India and occupied Kashmir. Last year too, the group had found 1,000 unmarked graves in the Kashmir valley. Dr. Angana Chatterjee of the Tribunal said, “The graves might be containing the bodies of the 8,000 people who disappeared during 20 years of the armed conflict”. The history of atrocities in Indian held Kashmir is as old as the dispute itself. Similarly, the High Court Bar Association of Occupied Kashmir maintained that more than 100,000 Kashmiris had been killed by Indian troops in the last two decades, while 10,000 persons were disappeared in custody. Similarly, it said that more than 300,000 Kashmiri’s were tortured in jails and interrogation centers.
Ironically, human rights are violated on large scale in the so-called world’s largest democracy. To crush the Kashmiri Liberation movement, India has employed various techniques including black laws. Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act 1990 (TADA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1990, (AFSPA) are enforced in Kashmir despite the fact that they contravenes the Indian Constitution and international law. These laws violate the basic human rights such as right to life, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right to remedy. The Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers enforced on 10 September, 1990 authorized even a non-commissioned officer to search any place, fire at any person (and kill), or arrest on the basis of suspicion. TADA gives security forces and armed forces special powers for unauthorized administrative detention without formal charges or trial for up to one year. Under POTA, any person can be put into prison for not disclosing the information that can prevent an act of terrorism.
The International humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International condemned these draconian laws. According to Amnesty International TADA gives a license to kill. Wide powers of arrest granted under TADA, combined with the absence of fundamental legal safeguards for detainees, create a climate, which encourages abuse of power and facilitates illegal and secret detention. AFSPA violates provisions of International human rights law, including the right to life, the right to remedy and the rights to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberty and from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Amnesty International is of the view that the POTA continue to be used to detain political opponents and members of minority populations.
Currently, 700,000 Indian army troops are deployed in occupied Kashmir to crush the Kashmiri freedom movement. The Indian occupational forces have killed more than 91,168 innocent Kashmiris, 38,450 rendered disable or crippled for life and 30,000 women have been raped and molested. More than 105,238 hoses and shops have been destroyed and 106,755 have become orphaned in Jammu and Kashmir, since 1989. According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons 8,000 to 10,000 Kashmiris disappeared mysteriously in Indian Held Kashmir from 1989-2008 while the Asian Centre for Human Rights put the figure at six thousand. Up till July 2006 number of innocent Kashmiris in Indian custody accounted to 3,735.
The condition of Kashmiris detained in different jails of the occupied Kashmir is worse than that of those in Abu Gharib prison in Iraq. The interrogation methods and manners used in these jails are ghastly. Lord Eric Aveybury, Chairman, British Parliamentary Human Rights Group has described Indian atrocities as, “The atrocities committed by Indian imperialists in occupied Kashmir surpass brutalities of apartheid regime in South Africa or of Nazis 50 years ago”.
Arundhati Roy, a well respected Indian writer, while speaking in New York in May 2006, said: “The biggest myth of all times is that India is a democracy. In reality, it is not. Several states in India are on the verge of civil war…. In the Kashmir valley alone, some 80,000 people have been killed. In Iraq, there are 1, 50,000 military personnel whereas in Kashmir valley there are some 7, 00,000”.
Human rights organizations are routinely denied permission to investigate in a free manner. Media-men are being attacked and arrested. Humanitarian relief is limited as external agencies are not being allowed to provide medical assistance and other relief materials. Recently, the Amnesty International has requested President Barack Obama to help end human rights abuses in IHK. Even a five member European Tribunal recently expressed dissatisfaction about the prevailing human rights situation in IHK and urged India to improve this situation.
Many cases of human rights violation stem from abuse of power under repressive laws and police/army brutality unleashed against the Kashmiri people. They are taken into custody for acts that are legitimized by international human rights standards of free speech, freedom of association and assembly, and freedom of the press. The Indian government’s failure to account for these abuses and to take rigorous action against its forces responsible for murder, rape and torture speaks volumes of its fake posture of secular and democratic state. These atrocities are true reflection of its policy of condoning human rights violations by the Indian security forces in Kashmir that needs to be addressed, the sooner the better.
Human Rights Violations in Indian Held Kashmir
