No end to human rights violations by Indian troops

There seems to be no end to the reckless killings of innocent people and deliberate human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. The size and enormity of this grave problem has evoked attention of Human Rights organisations the world over who in their reports have dealt with the issue and asked India for redressal. But surprisingly enough New Delhi has taken no notice of their pleadings.

The US State Department in its 2009 Human Rights report specifically highlighted the widespread human rights violations in occupied Kashmir at the hands of Indian army. These include extra judicial killings, disappearances, arrests and desecration of women. The report quoted specific incidents of such violations. The report referred to the gruesome murder by the army personnel of a deaf and dumb man in Veer Saran Pahalgam on January 7.

On March 7personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force killed Shabbir Ahmad in Nowhatta. A number of other similar cases involving the cruel murder of Kashmiri youth by the rapacious army troops have also been mentioned in the report. Yet another heart-rending incident of the killing of two Kashmiri women took place in May, which shook the whole valley triggering wide spread angry demonstrations. The bodies of the murdered women were discovered from a stream in Shopian who were gang raped by troops before being murdered to cover up the crime. Indian investigation agency termed the murder as a case of drowning to give a clean chit to the troops. The state department report also took note of the illegal incarceration of Kashmiri liberation leaders to prevent them from leading the protest demonstrations. Many leaders were put under house arrest to frustrate their travelling to other cities where anti-India demonstrations had been scheduled.

Senior Hurriyet Conference leader, Shabbir Ahmed Shah is under detention in Kathua jail despite his health having deteriorated to an alarming stage. He is suffering from a number of diseases but no medical treatment is being provided to him. Shabbir Shah has spent more than 25 years in jail. The civil society of Kashmir has issued a statement asking the puppet administration for hospitalization of the sick leader. The notorious Public Safety Act is being used by authorities to subdue the liberation movement and to silence opposition.

Since the liberation movement started in 1989 as many as ten thousand Kashmiri youth have been forcibly disappeared while under custody of the Indian army. Their whereabouts are unknown. Others detained by the army were denied access to legal counsel. Not only that, the family members of the detainees are being disallowed to meet them who come from far off places to see them in different jails across occupied Kashmir and India. Human rights violations in occupied Kashmir have been also pointed out by rights organisations like Amnesty International and Asia Watch in their reports but they failed to evoke any response from the stubborn Indian government. Meanwhile, the scale of human rights violations in occupied Kashmir by Indian army is mounting day by day. It is the moral duty of the international community to rise to the occasion and come to the aid of suffering Kashmiri people who have been demanding their birth right, the right to self-determination, which has been denied to them by the Indian leadership despite the fact that India is a signatory to the UN resolutions pledging their right to them. By securing the right of self-determination for Kashmiris they can hope to look forward to an end to the violations of human rights in Kashmir. The Kashmiris dream of liberation from foreign domination will remain in doldrums unless the right of self-determination was given to them, which is their legitimate due enabling them to decide their own destiny.