2001

January 05: Head of visiting UK Parliamentary delegation to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Phil Woolis voices concern over Indian atrocities and calls for granting Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
January 12: Member of the British Parliament Phil Woolis calls upon India to facilitate the All Parties Hurriyet Conference leaders intending to visit Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to hold talks with Pakistani and Kashmiri authorities.
January 15: Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Defense Minister George Fernandes favor smooth passage of All Parties Hurriyet Conference leaders to Pakistan for talks on holding peace process.
January 16: Indian government decides to deny passport to former All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman, Syed Ali Gillani for visiting Pakistan.
January 18: Indian Home Minister L K Advani gives consent to the All Parties Hurriyet Conference team that passports will be issued to the Kashmiris' team, however, “not all the APHC leaders will be allowed to go to Pakistan”.
January 23: Indian government extends unilateral ceasefire in occupied Kashmir for one month.
Pakistan's Ambassador to Russia Iftikhar Murshid says, “Russia recognizes Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory and it would support peaceful settlement of the core issue”.
January 25: Indian government okays plan for phased withdrawal of its army from J&K in next five years.
February 17: The Organization of the Islamic Conference urges New Delhi to take immediate steps to ensure protection of mosques in India and occupied Kashmir. The OIC also calls upon its member states to extend humanitarian assistance to the people of occupied Kashmir.
February 19: The US chapter of Britain based Amnesty International demands an immediate and impartial inquiry into the custodial death of Jalil Ahmad Shah in Haigam in Jammu and Kashmir and the police firing on demonstrators protesting his death.
February 22: US Congressmen Joseph Pitts and Jim McDermott ask India to issue travel documents to All Parties Hurriyet Conference leadership to enable them to visit Pakistan to bolster peace process. Joseph Pitts in his meeting with Atal Bihari Vajpayee urges Indian Prime Minister to facilitate Hurriyet leadership by granting them of travel documents to visit Pakistan to create an atmosphere leading towards peace process.
February 23: San Francisco based Asia Foundation urges US government to play its vigorous diplomatic role on Kashmir in sharp contrast to India's known stand of settling all its disputes with Pakistan bilaterally, free from any kind of foreign intervention.
February 26: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee finally prevails upon his hawkish colleagues in the central cabinet and decides that a team of all the seven members of All Parties Hurriyet Conference executive committee be allowed to go to Pakistan.
Peter Pike, member of British Parliament, underlines the need for peaceful negotiated settlement of long-standing Kashmir dispute. Addressing Kashmiri refugees at Amber Camp, the British MP says it is obligatory on British government to play its pivotal role in resolving Kashmir dispute.
February 27: British Prime Minister Tony Blair expresses concern over the defiant attitude of India regarding brutal occupation of Kashmir and wants the Indian forces to withdraw from the territory to pave way for an early peaceful resolution of the dispute.
British parliamentarian Peter Pike states this in a meeting with Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary at the Kashmir House. He says the British Prime Minister is deeply perturbed by the continuous bloodshed in Kashmir and is ready to play a role for solution of the issue.
The Chief Executive of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf while talking to the members of an Indian delegation who call on him at Army House, Rawalpindi says we are willing to meet India more than halfway but will also like to guard our honor and dignity.
February 28: Henry J. Hyde, the new chairman of the House International Relations Committee expresses willingness to mediate between Pakistan and India to resolve Kashmir dispute.
March 11: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says UN is always available for the solution of Kashmir dispute, but clarifies this could be possible only if both Pakistan and India agree to it.
March 19: The former puppet Chief Minister of occupied Kashmir and Awami National Conference President Ghulam Muhammad Shah says Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and not an integral part of India.
March 25: The President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade while talking to newsmen at Chaklala Airbase before his departure for home at the end of his three-day visit to Pakistan calls for resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India for the solution of Kashmir dispute.
March 27: Protest strike and demonstrations continue in occupied Kashmir on the fourth consecutive day against the desecration of the Holy Quran by Hindu zealots in Indian Punjab and New Delhi.
March 28: The British Lord Mayor Muhammad Nasim Khan says Britain fully supports the right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir.
March 30: Addressing the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the APHC leaders call for world community's support in stopping the Indian carnage and repression in occupied Kashmir.
April 19: Military attachés from 23 countries including US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and Japan during their visit to Azad Kashmir and the Line of Control express concern over the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan at the LoC urging both the countries to restart peaceful dialogue process.
April 20: Senior All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz addressing Juma congregation at Faisal Mosque Islamabad urges world community to pressurize India to concede Kashmiris' rights in accordance with the UN resolutions.
April 21: US Congresswoman Ms Cynthia McKinney arrives in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on a one-day visit to see the plight of Kashmiri refugees sheltered in the refugee camps.
April 24: Indian agents attack the All Parties Hurriyet Conference's Headquarter in Srinagar.
April 29: Canada supports trilateral negotiations between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives to find a peaceful and negotiated settlement of Kashmir dispute, says Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs, John Manley, in a letter to Mushtaq A Jeelani, Executive Director of the Kashmiri-Canadian Council.
May 07: UK Conservative Party will priorities Kashmir problem after assuming power, says William Haig MP, leader of British Conservative Party. He hails British Kashmiris for pleading the case of suppressed Kashmiri brethren in an amicable way and condemns the weakness of the UK government in resolving this issue.
May 10: Politicians, celebrities and members of different ethnic communities take part in a demonstration in the heart of London to protest against the Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiris and the recently passed Terrorism Act 2000.
May 22: A four-member All Parties Hurriyet Conference delegation led by Mirwaiz Omer Farooq arrives in New Delhi to meet diplomatic missions, explaining them reasons behind their rejection of India's talks offer.
June 02: India's National Human Rights Commission asks puppet regime in Jammu and Kashmir and the federal defense and home ministries to explain the rise in custodial deaths in held territory.
It asks the two federal ministries, the occupied Kashmir's chief secretary and its police chief to send their detailed investigation reports within two months on the reported killings.
June 03: An 11-member fact-finding Human Rights team releases its report after a 10-day tour of occupied Kashmir and asks for an end to rampant custodial killings, rapes and torture by the Indian Army. The team led by Dr K. Bala Gopal of Human Rights Forum of Andhra Pradesh addressing a news conference says ceasefire in occupied Kashmir has brought no respite for general public.
June 09: Four women devotees are killed and over 110 people injured in a grenade attack targeting congregation inside the famous shrine of revered Kashmiri saint Sheikh Nooruddin Wali at Charar-e-Sharif, 28-kms southwest of Srinagar city.
An eleven-member delegation of five Indian Human Rights Organizations led by Dr K. Bala Gopal strongly criticizes Indian Army for excesses in occupied Kashmir. After completion of ten days visit to occupied Kashmir Dr K. Bala Gopal in a report says the Indian Army's atrocities are going on unabated against the innocent civilians.
June 10: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference announces a temporary suspension of all strikes and rallies until conclusion of a key summit between Pakistani and Indian leaders. The APHC says it does not wish the forthcoming India-Pakistan summit talks on Kashmir should be disturbed or derailed by any means.
June 20: Human Rights Watchdog, Amnesty International expresses serious concern over gross human rights violations in Indian held Kashmir. The AI in a report mentions arbitrary arrests, detentions and excessive force are increasingly being used to silence critics of the government in strife torn occupied Kashmir. Amnesty's report lists numerous cases, which amount to abuse of Public Safety Act in Kashmir by the puppet regime.
The puppet regime in Indian Held Kashmir suffers yet another setback as it fails to hold the Panchayat elections in Pulwama district like other places in the held valley due to public boycott.
June 25: Senior All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq leaves for Mali to attend the OIC Conference of Foreign Ministers at Bamako.
June 28: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference demands withdrawal of Indian troops from occupied Kashmir and holding of plebiscite under UN auspices. The demand is made in a memorandum presented to the OIC Foreign Ministers Conference at Bamako in Mali. The memorandum lists UN Security Council resolutions, mandating holding of plebiscite in occupied Kashmir as per Kashmiris' aspirations. The memorandum urges the Indian government to end state terrorism, military repression and crackdowns in occupied Kashmir.
June 29: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq urges the Islamic Ummah in particular and world in general to help and support the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle for self-determination as promised by the United Nations. While presenting the memorandum to the OIC Contact group on Jammu and Kashmir, Omar says Kashmiris would continue their just and historic struggle for the realization of their right to self-determination.
July 01: Canadian government expresses grave concern over human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and calls upon India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue through tripartite talks.
July 07: Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference Professor Abdul Ghani Butt leaves Srinagar for New Delhi to discuss matters related to Hurriyet leaders' meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
July 14: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf arrives in New Delhi on three day visit to take part in historic Agra Summit primarily dealing with the five decade long Kashmir dispute.
July 15: The Agra Summit the highest-level meet between India and Pakistan since the Lahore Summit in 1999, gets underway. President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hold a long one-to-one talk with a positive start. The key issues of the discussion are bilateral relations, the decade-old dispute over Kashmir and their nuclear rivalry. But initial optimism wanes and the talks end without agreement, with the long-running dispute over Kashmir, as the main reason for the deadlock.
July 16: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf urges India to stop living in a 'make believe' world and wake up to the fact that Kashmir is the core issue preventing an end to more than 50 years of mutual hostility between the two countries. President Musharraf proposes a three-step mechanism-with Kashmir at the core for moving away from acrimony. In an eloquent and passionate speech to Indian news editors, Pakistani leader also urges India to accept the fact that any progress in bilateral ties is conditional on progress in resolving the long-running dispute over Kashmir.
July 20: Indian troops raid Eidgah locality in Srinagar and remove the foundation with the plaque being laid there in memory of missing Kashmiris from Indian troops' custody. Parents of a large number of missing persons and other people attend the foundation laying ceremony of the memorial for the missing Kashmiris. The site of the memorial is being vigilantly guarded by troops to prevent another attempt to lay the foundation. According to Human rights organisations in Srinagar estimates over three thousand people, mostly youth, are missing in military custody in the past 12 years.
July 22: 15 Hindus are massacred in Indian-held Kashmir when unknown gunmen dragged them out of their homes and shot them dead at point blank range. Five others are seriously injured in the attack and are taken to a hospital in the town of Kishtawar in Doda district.
July 23: “The outcome of the Agra Summit once again proves that India and Pakistan are not capable of continuing a sustained dialogue on long-term basis without the help of a third party”, a select group of experts on South Asia asserts during an informal discussion, which is also attended by the new US Ambassador to Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin. Wendy refuses to characterise the summit meeting as a failure saying it is the beginning of a process. She says there could only be very modest expectations. The most important outcome is that both leaders have demonstrated their commitment to continue the process.
July 26: Head of Dukhtaran-i-Millat, Asia Andrabi is arrested, near Panth Chowk of Srinagar while proceeding to Doda.
July 27: Britain-based world human rights organisation Kashmir Watch holds India responsible for the delay in issuance of the joint declaration at the conclusion of the recent Indo-Pak Agra summit. Holding India responsible of the state of affairs the visiting chief of the Kashmir Watch Mir Muhammad Siddique Khawaja calls upon India to brush aside her traditional prejudice and negative behaviour towards Pakistan and deviation from the international norms in respect of the peaceful resolution of the global issue of Kashmir.
July 30: In occupied Kashmir, the Indian forces besiege the shrine of a famous Muslim saint Shah Ahmad Kirmani at Magam in Budgam district. The Border Security Force and Rashtriya Rifles personnel encircle the shrine in the wee hours. The pretext of the siege is as if two or three Mujahideen are holed up in the shrine. The local people believe that those in the shrine are devotees, visiting the holy place for blessing. Tension grips the whole area and the people apprehend that the shrine may be harmed.
August 04: The US reaffirming its commitment to finding peace in South Asia cites Kashmir dispute as the core issue of escalating tensions in the region and says the Bush administration wants durable solution. A senior official of the US State Department talking to a US based news agency says that US largely welcomes the dialogue process between India and Pakistan and the recently concluded Agra Summit is a major step towards restoring peace. According to the official, the US believes that dialogue process is the only means of resolving this issue, which is impeding economic growth of the region.
Nobel laureate and spiritual leader of Tibetans Dalai Lama welcomes the recent dialogue between the leaders of India and Pakistan to resolve the differences, including the Kashmir issue, and says the people of Kashmir should also be involved in the peace process. Inaugurating an inter-faith meet organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Rachanamak Samaj, he calls for shedding violence and wants the two countries to elicit the views of the Kashmiris on the issue.
August 06: APHC rules out talks with India's point man on Kashmir KC Pant and makes it clear that any formula for settlement of the Kashmir dispute in the framework of the Indian Constitution would not be acceptable to the people of Kashmir.
The Indian government decides to reinforce its military forces in occupied Kashmir. The Union Home Ministry decides to depute 1000 more Special Police Officers to Doda district and rush more forces to the region.
August 09: Puppet cabinet in occupied Kashmir declares all the six districts of Jammu as disturbed areas, providing sweeping powers to the military forces on the pretext of dealing with mujahideen.
August 11: Tibetan leader Dalai Lama is invited by the APHC for an assessment of the situation prevailing inside occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, leader of the APHC also discloses that formal invitation has been extended to him during his fortnight-long visit to Calcutta and Chennai.
August 20: The All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Farida Behanji, is released on court directions.
August 23: Senior Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Gilani is arrested at Awantipora in Pulwama while on his way to Traal with a delegation where the Indian forces had killed in custody a youth Shabir Ahmad Wani. The APHC in a statement in Srinagar appeals to world organisations to take serious note of India's usurpation of Kashmiri leaders' basic right to free movement
August 29: London based Human Rights Organization Amnesty International expresses grave concern over Indian government's proposal to grant amnesty to Indian forces personnel for crimes involving human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. In an open letter to Indian Home Minister L K Advani, Amnesty International says,” No one should be allowed to operate outside the law.”
Syed Ali Gilani is put under house arrest by Indian police. Police surrounds the home of Gilani in Hyderpora on the outskirts of Srinagar early morning.
A three-member US Congress delegation visits forward positions on the Line of Control in Chakothi sector. The bipartisan delegation led by Senator Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, includes Senator Jon Kyl (Republican Arizona) and house representative Portr Goss (Republican Florida), Chairman of House select committee on intelligence visits Pakistani forward positions on the LoC in Chakothi sector, 58 kilometre southeast along with US diplomats.
August 30: Kashmiris in Britain express grave concern over the arrest of the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement, Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Chief of Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Movement, Saadullah Tantray.
September 06: The United States pledges to expand cooperation with India against terrorism, while urging New Delhi to find a solution over Kashmir with Pakistan taking into account the wishes of the territory's people. “America would like the Kashmir issue to be resolved peacefully”, new Ambassador Robert Black says in a speech in the business hub of Bombay. The Bush administration is willing to be helpful but we are convinced that this is an issue that only India and Pakistan can work out between them, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
September 08: The permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Ambassador Shamshad Ahmad Khan while talking to President of the Security Council for the current month, Ambassador Jean David Levitte of France says Kashmir dispute is at the heart of all problems and conflict in South Asia. Recalling Pakistan's consistent efforts for a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue with India, he emphasizes that a just and honourable settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir would usher in an era of lasting peace and stability in the region.
September 11: Indian troops burn to ashes 30 residential houses and shops in Kupwara town in vindictive oppression.
September 21: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) claims to visit 1,395 detainees, 803 of them for the first time, in 23 places of detention in occupied Kashmir and make arrangements for the exchange of 768 Red Cross messages between them and their families last year.
September 22: “The forces in Indian held Kashmir have directives to kill freedom fighters rather than attempt to capture them alive”, a human rights report issued in the United States said. Statements by senior police and army officials confirm that the Indian forces are under “instructions” to kill these mujahideen rather than attempting to arrest them alive. Report on Human Rights Practices' for the year 2000, released by the Bureau of Labour, USA quotes glaring examples of human rights abuses in the occupied valley.
October 16: US Secretary of State, Colin Powell says the United States will push India and Pakistan to resume their dialogue on Kashmir to relieve tensions over the disputed region, which could lead to conflict and damage the US-led war on terrorism. Secretary of State Colin Powell says he would press the rival nuclear powers to cool their rhetoric over Kashmir, respect a border demarcation line and avoid any military action there.
October 20: The New York-based Human Rights Watch warns that the new anti-terrorism legislation, approved by the Indian cabinet, will give Indian police sweeping powers of arrest and detention. The Human Rights Watch observes that the broadly worded “Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance”, which is likely to be considered by the Indian parliament during its winter session beginning in November, sets forth a broad definition to terrorism that includes act of violence or disruption of essential services carried out with “intent to threaten the unity and integrity of India or to strike terror in any part of the people”.