Kashmir | News & Discussions.

[Bull]

if he had any self respect he wouldnt have tried to rape the girl in first place

Whats the pt of a mod coming and trying to ignite a thread.

 

[A.Rahman]

Whats the pt of a mod coming and trying to ignite a thread.

how am I igniting thread? Its a saying that If you cant face the consequences then don't do the act.

 

[Neo]

They can delete it but cannot deny it.

Bull you're out of line here!
You're challenging the integrity of the forum here and I take it as an insult!

 

[Adux]

Bull you're out of line here!
You're challenging the integrity of the forum here and I take it as an insult!

Neo,

Who said that you are part of that "they"... You are never part of that group, never has been in my view. But that doesnt mean, there arent others.

 

[A.Rahman]

Neo,

Who said that you are part of that "they"... You are never part of that group, never has been in my view. But that doesnt mean, there arent others.

Dont act smart; read the post again. It says "They" and Neo is in Moderators team; therefore he is included too

 

[Adux]

Dont act smart; read the post again. It says "They" and Neo is in Moderators team; therefore he is included too

Dont put yourself in Neo's shoes, i dont think you are worthy of it

 

[akzaman]

DENIAL OF FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS:A REVIEW OF INDIAN REPRESSION
IN KASHMIR

AN OVERVIEW

India’s unabated repression of the Kashmiri freedom struggle has entered its seventh year. For the past six ears, Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) has been one of the most troubled areas of the world. Life in this land, once widely regarded as an earthly paradise because of its unsurpassed natural beauty and the peacefulness of its mild mannered people, has been a nightmare since India unleashed its repressive machinery in 1989 when the Kashmiris, asserting their internationally-recognised right of self-determination, stepped up their demand for freedom from nearly 50 years of Indian colonial rule.

The suffering of the Kashmiri people has been traumatic. Many thousands of them have been killed, wounded and permanently disabled by the Indian security forces over the past six years. Hundreds of school children and others have been burnt alive, while thousands of women and young girls have been raped, and a greater number of men have been sexually incapacitated through torture. Well over 100,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been forced to flee their homes or have gone into hiding. Similarly, thousands of houses and shops have been either demolished or destroyed by fire, while hundreds of schools and hospitals have been burnt. Food stocks, crops and forestry worth several billion rupees have been burnt or destroyed.

The grave human rights situation in IHK has been documented and commented upon by numerous human rights groups and organisations. Such regional bodies include the Committee for Initiative on Kashmir (New Delhi); the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (New Delhi); the Human Rights Commission (Srinagar, IHK); the International Human Rights Organization (Ludhiana, India); and the Institute of Kashmir Studies (Srinagar).1

International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch/Asia. Federation Lnternationale Des Ligues Des Droits Del’Home, Physicians for Human Rights have also issued alarming reports concerning the happenings in IHK, despite the difficulties these organizations have faced in monitoring the situation because the Indian government has denied them access to IHK.2

Back in 1990, the Committee for Initiative on Kashmir, an Indian human rights organization, found during their visit to IHK that "indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests, unlawful searches, unprovoked assaults on peaceful demonstrators and the complete dislocation of normal life due to the imposition of prolonged curfews and the blatant violations of human rights were not isolated instances but operative extensions of an official policy which was evident to the team members when they met senior administrators".3

A year later, Bahauddin Farooqi, former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, put it succinctly, by saying: ‘The abuse of human rights here is unprecedented... We have dealt with only the tip of the iceberg... In theory we are governed by the constitution, but in practice we are governed by methods unknown to law, unknown to any civilized society".4

More recently, alarmed by the "huge" scale of human rights violations in IHK, Amnesty International decided to publish its human rights reports on that disputed territory separately from the rest of India. By the end of December 1995, the Human Rights Watch/Asia catagorised IHK as among five territories with the worst human rights situation in the world.

Although the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir is among the earliest international problems to be introduced into the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, it is now the only major dispute that remains unresolved and unaddressed. While other significant issues (Palestine, Bosnia. Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Angola, Korea), have been resolved or are being resolved through sustained international efforts, Kashmir continues to burn against a background of international neglect.

Thousands of men, women and children continue to perish every year, while there seems to be no end in sight to India’s inflexible policy of subjugation which are in open defiance of several UN Security Council resolutions that stipulate a UN-supervised plebiscite to determine Kashmir’s future. India has also reneged on its earlier commitments to seek a plebiscite to resolve its dispute with Pakistan peacefully.

The intensity of Indian repression of the Kashmiri freedom struggle and the scale of its military presence itself belie India’s claim of legitimacy in IHK. The methods employed by India to perpetuate its colonial rule and the magnitude of human rights violations that continue to be committed there are more gruesome than can be witnessed today in any other region of the world.

India’s policy of virtually cutting off the outside world from the happenings in IHK, the methods used by its security forces and the virtual collapse of the local administrative machinery, make it exceedingly difficult to gauge the full extent of the atrocities being committed there and the brutalities that have already taken place over the past six years.

Nevertheless, it is amply clear from the information painstakingly gathered by various human rights groups and international organisations, as well as from the limited information available from the Indian electronic and print media, that India is engaged in a repression of terrifying proportions in IHK and that, for humanitarian reasons alone, the world community should urgently undertake efforts to defuse the Kashmir crisis, just as it is engaged in defusing other major trouble-spots of the world.

Continued international neglect will only encourage India to persist with its policy of subjugation, in utter disregard of the human rights of millions of Kashmiri people and in contravention of its obligations under international conventions, just as it has done over the past six years.

INDIAN MILITARY PRESENCE IN IHK

IHK is the most militarised area in the world. Kashmir is also among the oldest disputed territories in the post-Second World War period. It is even older than the Arab-Israeli dispute over Palestine. As in the case of Palestine, Kashmir has been the cause of two wars between India and Pakistan in 1948 and 1965 as well as the scene of another armed conflict in 1971.

Grim resistance to Indian repression extends beyond the Vale of Kashmir into Jammu, especially its districts of Doda, Rajauni and Udhampur. The epicentre of the freedom struggle, however, Is the Valley which lies In the heart of Kashmir and which is historically the political and cultural centre of Kashmir.

Approximately 600,000 Indian security forces (both regular army soldiers and paramilitary personnel) have been deployed in IHK which covers an area of about 54,000 square miles and contains a population of around 7 million. An overwhelming majority of them are settled in the Valley which is predominantly Muslim, as well as in Jammu where Muslims are also in an overall majority.

Nowhere in the world are force concentrations in a disputed territory as high as they are in IHK. There is one Indian soldier for every 11 Kashmiris if an average is taken out for IHK’s entire territory. Similarly, there are 11 soldiers for every one square mile of IHK. But such averages conceal the actual concentration of forces. The Ladakh region in IHK bordering China and Himachal Pradesh is virtually uninhabited for the most part, while more than half of IHK’s population Is settled in the Valley which is merely 84 miles long and less than 25 miles wide, roughly totalling 1,900 square miles.

In Srinagar itself, approximately 77,000 security forces are deployed, while in the Valley as a whole there are over 100,000 army soldiers and about 138,000 paramilitaries, making an overall total of more than 2,40,000 security forces. Thus, in the Valley, there are more than 100 security personnel for every one square mile of territory. The deployment in Jammu exceeds 225.000 security personnel, consisting of more than 160,000 paramilitary forces and over 62,000 regular army soldiers.

New Delhi unconvincingly rejects lslamabad’s claim regarding the size of the Indian military presence in IHK even though this has been substantiated in detail by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Sardar Assef Ahmed Mi, at a press conference on July 14, 1995. He identified the various army and paramilitary formations as well as their manpower strength and deployment sites. (See, Annextures-A, B & C). He put the figure of regular army troops deployed in IHK at 3,22,510. This represents more than 25% of the total strength of the Indian army which is the fourth largest in the world (after China, Russia and the United States).

The combined strength of the more than six different paramilitary forces that have been deployed in IHK has been estimated at 2,40,950. This means that more than 50% of India’s total paramilitary force is engaged in LHK. In addition, there are approximately 40,000 personnel belonging to the IHK police force.

As disclosed by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, India also inducted an additional force of about 43,000 security personnel in June-July 1995, consisting of about 5,000 regular army soldiers and some 38,000 paramilitaries. (See, Annex-D).

In denying the Pakistani estimate, India also overlooks the statement by one of its former Intelligence Chiefs, M.K. Narayanan, who reportedly said that the level of Indian security forces in IHK had skyrocketed to anywhere between 500,000 to 700,000 in 1994.5 Similarly, Voice of America has recently mentioned that India has deployed more than 500,000 security forces in IHK.6

CASUALTIES IN IHK

The full magnitude of casualties in IHK is difficult to determine. A major impediment are restrictions on the freedom of the press, especially denial of access to areas of military activity and civil disturbance, as well as continuing abuse of journalists by the security forces. As observed by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based organisation, in its report of July 1995: "Put simply, there is no freedom of press in Kashmir".7 As a consequence, newspapers reporting on IHK rely mainly on official press releases and coverage by state-sponsored news agencies.

There are various estimates of casualties in IHK, some more varied than others. For example, according to Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, 6,000 people were killed in IHK during the initial 1990-92 period, while the report of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group puts the casualties during that period roughly at somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000.8

In any case, such figures do not provide a complete picture because of the difficulties of monitoring all the casualty-causing activities of the Indian security forces. An obvious problem, for example, is that killings in remote border areas go almost completely unnoticed or they are not fully disclosed.

As reported by the Srinagar-based Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, many innocent people are taken to border areas where they are shot dead in alleged encounters. To cover up such acts, it is then reported that some people were killed while attempting to cross the border to the Pakistani side to allegedly obtain training or to the other side as trained militants seeking to infiltrate IHK.

The full extent of custodial killings are also not known. For example, Ashok Jaitly, advisor to IHK Governor Gen. (Retd) Krishna Rao, admitted in an interview that he could not trace 81 Kashmiri youths who had disappeared after being arrested because the Indian security forces were not prepared to help him.9

Similarly, it is not known how many Kashmiris listed as "missing" have actually succumbed to so-called encounters with the security forces. Nor is it easy to separate the "missing" from those who are in hiding to save their lives and families. The total number of people reported as "missing or gone into hiding" exceeds 90,000, according to a pamphlet released by the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), which represents the Kashmiri freedom struggle).10

Of the various estimates of casualties, the lowest has been given by AFP which says that more than 12,000 people have died in IHK since 1989.11 Despite the continuing conflict in IHK, AFP’s figure has remained somewhat static. VOA has mentioned a slightly higher figure of about 15,000 fatalities.12 Reuter’s estimate however differs greatly from both AFP’s and VOA’s. Citing local police and hospital sources, it says that over 20,000 people have perished in IHK over the past six years.13

Reuter’s estimate, too, can be considered to be on the low side partly because it relies on local police and hospital sources. While the local police, which has been sidelined by the security forces, would not be privy to all the killings, the local hospitals would only be able to count those who were brought to their premises. The functioning of hospitals has also been adversely affected by the conduct of Indian security forces who have shown little regard for the medical profession.

The Physicians for Human Rights, for example, reported that the security forces frequently force themselves into hospitals, beating patients and doctors, and preventing ambulance drivers from carrying the injured or dead. The patients are dragged from hospital beds while the medical staff are detained and assaulted during raids. Doctors and other human-rights activists who had kept record of such violations have been shot to death.

For example, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru, a leading heart surgeon at the Sher-Kashmir Medical Institute who had kept record of thousands of victims was shot dead in April 1993. Similarly, Harde Nath Wanchu, a human right activist who claimed to have proof of at least 150 killings by the Indian security forces in detention centres, was also shot dead in December 1992.14

Any estimate of killings must also take into account the admission by India’s former Chief of Intelligence. M.K. Narayanan, that 70% of the Kashmiri youth (or 35-40.000 young men) who allegedly sought training in Pakistan had been "neutralised".15

The figures mentioned by AFP, VOA and Reuter are also significantly lower than the ones given by some Indian journalists who claim a figure of 30,000 deaths or more.16 Over 30,000 deaths could mean any level above a minimum of 30,000 but less than 40,000. Indeed, even figures of more than 50,000 deaths have been mentioned. For example, Dr Farooq Abdullah, leader of the pro-India National Conference, has been quoted in an interview with BBC on November 4, 1995, as saying that 50,000 Kashmiri have been killed.17 This excludes casualties among the Indian security personnel.

The APHC’s estimate of over 40,000 fatalities provides a more appropriate scale of killings in IHK since 1989. This also corresponds more closely with the estimates cited in the local IHK media.18 The estimate by Masood Hussain, an Indian specialist on human rights violations in IHK, lends further credence to this figure.19

As far as injuries are concerned, more than 20,000 Kashmiris have been wounded over the past six years on an average of over 3,500 injuries each year. A particularly disturbing feature of such casualties in the Kashmir conflict has been the injuries sustained by the civilian population. For example, according to the data compiled by the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights, more than 1,600 civilians were wounded in 1992 which is higher than the known incidence of injuries suffered by the Indian security forces or the freedom fighters in that year. This pattern has been fairly consistent over the past six years.

More disturbing is the number of people who have been disabled by injuries sustained by Kashmiris during torture at the detention centres or by indiscriminate firing by Indian security forces. According to the All-Parties Hurriyal. Conference, the number of disabled people totals more than 30,000.20 This is in addition to many Kashmiris who have been sexually incapacitated by torture, which APHC says exceeds 6,000 people.

A major cause of sexual impotence among the tortured Kashmiri youths is the use of electric shock on detainees for extracting information during interrogation. According to Masood Hussain, an Indian human rights specialist, at least 50 percent of those detained have been subjected to this inhuman treatment.21

ARRESTED AND DISPLACED

Over 25,000 Kashmiris have been arrested over the past six years, at an average rate ranging from 10 to 15 a day.22 Most of them have been civilians who have been predominantly young people. Masood Hussain, citing a survey, says that those in the age group of 10-35 years form nearly 80% of all the Kashmiris who have been detained. Many of them have been lodged in jails outside IHK.

At a press conference on January 8, 1992, the IHK Governor G.C. Saxena disclosed that about 10,000 people had been arrested by the security forces.23 According to the Executive Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, based in Srinagar, the number of arrests averaged at over 5,000 a year during the period 1990 to 1993.24

According to the Islamabad-based Institute of Policy Studies, over 2,000 Kashmiris, mainly civilians, were arrested during the course of 1994.25 An Indian daily has, however, reported a higher estimate of 2,270 arrests of only freedom fighters in 1994.26 Even this figure presents an incomplete picture as it does not cover the large numbers of people arrested arbitrarily and kept in illegal detention. For example, according to Sunjay Gupta’s investigative reports, there were more than 500 cases of i1legal detention in 1994 in Jammu’s Kot Balwal Jail alone, where there were 28 such detentions in 1992.27

While a spokesman of the Indian Ministry of Defence has given a figure of over 5,000 Kashmiris being held in pointed out that "some civil liberties groups have estimated that four times that number were being held without trial", some of them for "many months or years".28

The number of people who have been forced to leave their homes or those who have gone into hiding out of fear for their lives, as well as those who have been reported missing, exceeds 100,000. According to APHC, the figure totals 1.35.000 Kashmiri Muslims.

TORTURE AND CUSTODIAL KILLINGS

Torture

One of the most appalling features of Indian repression is the high incidence of custodial deaths resulting from torture. As stated by Amnesty International in its 1995 report, thousands of allegations of torture and deaths in custody have been reported in Jammu and Kashmir since early 1990.

In areas where the security forces are engaged in counter-insurgency operations, the entire civilian population is at risk of brutal torture. "Women, middle-aged men, elderly people and children have all suffered torture and ill-treatment at the hands of Indian soldiers and members of the BSF and CRPF", says Amnesty International.

The Amnesty International also says that "torture is a daily routine for the vast majority of thousands of men and women who have been arrested In connection with the campaign for Kashmir’s independence or for the state to join Pakistan". The torture meted out to detained Kashmiris "defies belief", says Amnesty International. It leaves them "mutilated and disabled for life".

The Paris-based Federation International Des Ligues Des Droits Del’Home, which conducted investigations of torture and ill-treatment in 1993, also discovered that "the Indian security forces commonly use torture and other cruel and degrading practices In their interrogation centres on all those whom they suspect of terrorism or of collaboration with terrorists".29 Such violent repressive measures have the clear purpose of terrorising the population, it added, sparing "neither women nor children". This was in flagrant breach of international commitments to which India is bound, the report said.

A report in the Far Eastern Economic Review says that there are 50 or more detention centres run by Indian security forces in Kashmir.30 (Also see Annexures E & F). In October 1994, Human Rights Watch/Asia published a list showing 63 centres in IHK. Two of the most notorious detention centres in Srinagar are a former palace known as Hariniwas, which is run by the Central Reserve Police Force, and a camp called Papa 2, which Is run by the Border Security Force. As noted by FIDH, the methods employed by the Indian security forces at these centres are barbaric, inhuman and imaginatively vicious."31

The report elaborates:

Detainees are beaten with rods or lathis. They are whipped with flexible cable; they are subjected to electric shock treatment, often to the testicles and ######, rods are thrust violently into the anus; hot iron rods are applied to the flesh, in a manner similar to the branding of animals; irons are used on the backs and legs of men strapped to tables, sharp needles are inserted into eardrums and ######; the ‘ruler treatment’ is administered, whereby a man astride two iron bars rolls the bars back and forth over the legs of a recumbent man; cigarettes and bidis (local cigarette) are stubbed into their flesh; heads are submerged urinate into buckets of ****** water, repeatedly over long periods of time; detainees are compelled to drink quantities of muddy water till they vomit, the process being repeated ad nauseam, as it were; soldiers urinate into the mouths of bound suspects; and men are slashed with razor blades or knives, chili powder then being rubbed into the wounds. Mental torture is frequent, and meted out in the form of abuse, verbal humiliation and remarks offensive to religious sentiments....

As a result of sustained international pressure. India agreed last June to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to have access to detention centres in IHK. But the ICRC, which wanted to station its monitors in Srinagar and be able to carry out medical relief efforts based in IHK, has only been allowed an office in New Delhi. More importantly, ICRC cannot make public the reports of its monitors or its findings, which will be sent only to the Indian authorities concerned. By its conduct, the National Human Rights Commission of India has already shown itself to be more of an appendage of the Indian government than an independent human rights watchdog, at least as far as IHK is concerned.

If New Delhi has grudgingly allowed a limited role to ICRC, it has not yielded to external pressure for permitting international human rights groups to investiage the situation in IHK, as urged by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. New Delhi has only gone as far as granting visa to the Executive Director of the Human Rights Watch/Asia to visit India while keeping IHK out of bounds.

Besides severely restricting international access to 11-1K, the Indian government has also pursued with vigour its parallel strategy of deterring locally-based civil liberties groups from documenting human rights abuses. This it has done by arresting or even attempting to kill those considered as posing a serious threat to its objective of maintaining an "iron curtain" on happenings in that disputed territory.

Some of these acts have been mentioned by Human Rights Watch/Asia in its 1995 report. Notably, such acts include the attempt on the life of Mian Abdul Qayoom, President of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association in April 1995 which caused him serious injury, and the arrest in June of Sheikh Mohammad Ashraf, Baramulla district head of the Bar Association.

Custodial Killings

Of the numerous people arrested every day, a large proportion succumb to torture at the various interrogation centres set up in every locality. Because of the high incidence of fatal torture at the detention centres, they are commonly known as ‘death cells’. It is the severity of torture that accounts for the "appalling" number of custodial deaths, according to Amnesty International.

While the full extent of custodial killings remains a mystery. Human Rights Watch/Asia estimates that there were 200 such deaths in the first half of 1994 alone.32 More alarming is a recent investigative report by six Indian civil liberties organisations which mentions a rate of 300 killings per month in IHK as a result of ‘encounters’ and custodial deaths.33

In order to avoid custodial death due to torture, the security forces do not produce the arrested person before the magistrate as required by law. If the person arrested is alive after torture, he is handed over to the Joint Interrogation Centre in Srinagar. To conceal the fact of his prolonged arrest, the detainee’s date of arrest is shown to be the day when he was handed over to the JIC. In this way, the actual dale of arrest is covered up in the records. This is done deliberately so that the state can avoid liability for his death in case he dies soon after his transfer to the JIC.

Custodial killings have attracted some attention in the Indian print media. For example, in 1993, the Times of India said that such killings had become a "daily phenomenon" over the past six months,34 while the Kashmir Times cited police records as showing that 132 people had died in custody over the previous one month alone.35

The Indian government has been a party to such killings by the security forces manning the detention centers. Rather than ensuring that independent investigations are carried out and the perpetrators are brought to justice, the government has sought to cover up torture and deaths in custody, says Amnesty International.

While the local governments in other Indian states responded to Amnesty International’s concerns about custodial deaths in their respective territories, the IHK administration simply denied reports of custodial killings and dismissed all allegations of torture.

CURFEWS AND CRACKDOWNS

For the past six years, curfews have been a daily feature of life in IHK. During most of this period, the Valley has remained under constant curfew at night while curfew has also been imposed during the day. For example, from January 17, 1990, to June 15, 1994, the curfews added up to 19,249 hours out of a total number of 38,624 hours. If account is taken of the fact that people out of fear of harassment by the security forces start their routine business at 7 a.m. and close their business at 10 a.m., then the period effectively under curfew would amount to 24,490 hours out of a total of 38,624 hours.36

Crackdowns have been the order of the day in IHK over the past six years. Typically, when the Indian security forces engage in a crackdown they cordon off an entire village or locality under the pretext of conducting a search operation. This is usually done at night and when the people wake up in the morning they are asked to gather at a particular spot.

The authorities have lost faith in the local police which is suspected of being sympathetic to the Kashmiri freedom struggle. The role of the local police has thus been reduced to the procedural task of registering cases. Likewise, the people have lost almost all faith in the judicial system which has been rendered ineffective as court orders are flouted by the authorities.

Perennial curfews and frequent crackdowns have greatly hampered the timely collection of information regarding human rights violations. According to Amnesty International, "curfews and search operations inhibit the ability of lawyers, civil liberties groups and journalists to follow up reports of human rights violations which often occur in remote villages that are difficult to reach".37

RAPE AS AN INSTRUMENT OF REPRESSION

Bosnia is not the only place where rape been used as an instrument of war by the aggressor against a beleaguered population. Kashmir is another case where this despicable method has been employed on a massive scale.

The rape and sexual abuse of women have been widely reported in IHK since the Indian security forces began counter-insurgency operations in 1990. It should be noted, as pointed out by Amnesty International in its 1995 report, that "the stigma associated with rape and the fact that it often occurs in remote places means that this abuse is under-reported" (emphasis added).

The Report goes on to say:

"Rape has been systematically used as a means of punishing women suspected of being sympathetic or related to alleged militants (as well as) a weapon in the security forces’ efforts to intimidate and humiliate the local population".

According to the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, more than 4,000 women and girls - ranging from the ages of 7 to 70 - have been raped by the Indian security forces. Cases of rape involving women of older age have also been reported.38 The most horrific sexual attacks take place when a family member is believed to belong to an armed militant group. Young, unmarried women are sometimes taken away for days to the military camps. Some of them, after becoming pregnant, have committed suicide, preferring to die rather than dishonour their families.

An example of rape being used as an instrument of repression is an incident that occurred on 23 February 1991 in the mountain village of Kunan Poshpur. As investigated by the Paris-based Federation Intemationale Des Ligues Des Droits Del’Home (FIDH), more that 800 soldiers of the Rajput Regiment surrounded the village and rounded up the men outside before breaking into houses in search of arms. Between 23 and 60 women were raped in the course of that night.

It is certain, says FIDH, that army officers are turning a blind eye to the catalogue of sexual attacks and that the security forces are acting with impunity.

Astounding as it may seem, Bal Thackerey, leader of Shiv Sena, a Hindu fundamentalist party, spoke approvingly of rape of Kashmiri women by the Indian security forces. In response to Amnesty International’s damning reports, he is quoted by AFP to have said: "Amnesty says our forces raped women in Kashmir. They (Security Forces) are right. They should rape (Kashmiri women). What else should be meted out to them? Should we Invite them to a five course meal?"39

LEGALISATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

A major factor behind the daily acts of wanton arrest and torture of Kashmiris by the Indian security forces are the extraordinary repressive laws that have been in force in IHK for the past six years, namely, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Preventive) Act (TADA). Another law which legalises brutality Is the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act of 1990.

According to Amnesty International, many provisions of TADA "contravene important international human rights standards, especially the right to liberty and security, to a fair trial, to freedom of expression, and the right not to be tortured".

All the three dreaded laws render the security forces immune from prosecution for acts committed under them. "Thus", as the Amnesty International points out, "they are encouraged to act with impunity". And to make matters worse, "there appears to be little awareness among the security forces that they should abide by the law or observe human rights standards in Jammu and Kashmir".

Although the original PSA obliged the authorities to inform an arrested person of the grounds for arrest, normally within five days, the Act was amended in 1990 to remove any such obligation. According to Amnesty International, this is clearly incompatible with the requirements of Article 9(2) of the International Convenant of Civil and Political Rights. (See, Annex- G for full text of ICCPR).

Another aspect of the 1990 amendment to the PSA Is the removal of the words "in the State" from Section 10 of the Act, which allows the authorities to detain people in any part of India. As a result, thousands of detainees from IHK have been held in other Indian states.

When areas are declared to be "disturbed", as has been done to a number of areas in IHK, the army and paramilitary forces are granted sweeping powers under Section 4© of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, to:

arrest without warrant, any person who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest.

Under Section 6 of this Act, all arrested persons are required to be handed over to the nearest police station expeditiously, but Amnesty International says that this provision Is "routinely violated by the army and paramilitary forces".40 Section 4 of this Act also permits the security forces to shoot to kill, which gives them virtual immunity from prosecution.

TADA is a tougher version of the May 1985 Act of the same name which it replaced in 1987. Amnesty International says that "wide powers of arrest granted to the police under the Act, combined with the absence of fundamental legal safeguards for detainees, creates a climate which encourages abuse of power and facilitates illegal and secret detention".41 It cites an editorial in The Indian Express of October 13, 1993, which spoke of the "blatant and widespread violation of civil fights that TADA has come to represent".

In particular, Section 4 (2) of this Act permits people to be arrested on suspicion of having committed ‘disruptive activities" broadly defined as:

… any action taken, whether by act or by speech or through any other media ... which questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt, whether directly or indirectly, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India; or which is intended to bring about or supports any claim... for the cession of any part of India or the secession of any part of India from the Union…

In its 1993 report, Amnesty International dismissed the Indian government’s claim that those in judicial custody under TADA were being held on valid and bonafide order of a competent judicial authority. It said emphatically that this "is not in fact the case".42 Amnesty International also said that it does not know of a single case of ‘disappearance’ in IHK in which the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

In May 1995, TADA ceased to be in force after the Indian government decided not to renew it. According to Human Rights Watch/Asia, this decision was apparently influenced by domestic political considerations linked to the general elections in 1996.43 The objective was to win back the sympathy of India’s large Muslim minority whose support the ruling Congress(I) now badly strapped for votes had lost in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.

The non-renewal of TADA does not mean that New Delhi has given up the idea of substituting it with another criminal law that will retain much of the offensive features of TADA, as reflected in a draft bill that lies with parliament. More importantly, the absence of TADA will not have any significant effect on legalised brutality since other repressive laws remain in place.

Although TADA’s prohibition of any legal action against acts done by officials "in good faith" are spelled out in clearer terms, legal proceedings also cannot be instituted for similar acts under Section 22 of the PSA, as under Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, thus providing virtual immunity from prosecution.

The paramilitary forces themselves tend to regard abuses as inevitable. Amnesty International cites a report in The Pioneer of April 18, 1993, in which a BSF officer was quoted as admitting:

The militants are not easily identifiable which compels us to use a heavy hand ... Frankly, given the situation, wherever forces are deployed excesses are inevitable. Whenever one of our boys gets killed, the others become very difficult to control.

The 1994-95 Annual Report of the National Human Rights Commission of India, established to appease growing international criticism, betrays its designated role as a human rights watchdog. Curiously, the number of cases of human rights violations in IHK registered with the Commission (131), the number of cases considered (117) and the number of cases pending consideration (15), fall far short of the cases entertained by the Commission from most other Indian states.44

Similarly, cases of custodial deaths admitted by the Commission show a marked difference when IHK-related cases are compared to those admitted from a number of other Indian states, despite the much graver human rights situation prevailing in IHK.45

While saying that NHRC has been playing a useful but limited role in investigating charges of custodial killings by police officers, Human Rights Watch/Asia has been less fettered in commenting on the commission’s broader role. Thus, more significantly, it says: "In other cases, however, the commission appeared to accept at face value official accounts of alleged (human rights) abuse (by Indian security forces), despite contradictory reports by local human rights groups".46

ADMINISTRATIVE BREAKDOWN

The appalling state of the human rights situation in IHK is partly a consequence of the collapse of the administrative apparatus in that territory. As observed by Amnesty International, "there is a total breakdown of the law and order machinery (in IHK)". One example of the breakdown is that many detainees continue to languish in jails and sub-jails without any legal authority. The High Court in IHK has been made virtually powerless to redress such a situation. Particularly hit by the anarchical conditions are the poor people for whom the cost of litigation to help their relatives is already too high. The trauma of the common man is even greater for those living in far away districts, who have to travel a distance of more than 500km to Jammu.

SUMMARY

India’s repression of the Kashmiri freedom struggle has been taking place on a staggering scale since 1989. Freedom House has categorised IHK as among the five worst territories in the world in terms of human rights violations. IHK could be better described as being the worst among them (East Timor, Kosovo, West Papua, Tibet) since the situation in none of the other areas can be reasonably compared to that in IHK.

According to Voice of America, Indian military operations against the freedom fighters is costing New Delhi $3 million a day.47 Before 1989, the repression was pursued by political means. This was done from the outset by rigging elections and manipulating the political process in partnership with the pro-India National Conference, an autonomy seeking political party which Increasingly lost Its credibility.

India’s political strategy ended in a debacle when most Kashmiri Muslims boycotted the last Lok Sabha election in 1989 which saw a voter turn out of less than 3% in the Valley, as widely reported by the Indian media. That event, together with the blatant rigging of the last state-assembly in 1987, led Inexorably to a groundswell of anger, triggering an all-out struggle for ‘azadi (freedom).

New Delhi continues to commit all kinds of grave human rights violations in its unmitigated attempt to physically liquidate that struggle and break the will of the Kashmiri people. Despite its implacable efforts, however, India has not succeeded in its aim. As reported by an Indian daily, for example, acts of militancy have been increasing in IHK.48 The repeated postponement of the highly controversial elections which New Delhi has been seeking to hold in IHK since 1994 is another indicator.

Yet, India has shown no sign whatsoever of recognising Kashmir as a disputed territory that can only be resolved through negotiation. Nor does it recognise the Importance of settling this long standing dispute for normalising India-Pakistan relations and strenghtening regional stability and security.

The Indian government continues to Insist that Kashmir is an integral part of India. In saying this, it continues to ignore its international obligations and the pro-freedom sentiment of the Kashmiri people whose lives it has traumatised. According to a recent public opinion survey conducted by an Indian magazine, the first opinion poll to take place in the Valley, a mere 2% of the respondents believed that the crisis could be resolved within the Indian constitutional framework.49

Yet, the world community’s reaction to the Kashmir crisis has been distinctly milder than it has been to similar repression taking place In other trouble spots of the world as observed by Human Right Watch/Asia In its latest report. In large measure, it is the absence of a strong international concern that has emboldened India to persist with a militaristic approach to the Kashmir crisis.

REFERENCE

See Tapan Bose, Dinesh Mohan, et al, "India’s Kashmir War" Economic and Political Weekly (India), March 31, 1990; Human Rights Situation in the Kashmir Valley, A report of the Kashmir Coordination Committee reproduced by the International Institute of Kashmir Studies, London, May 1992: Kashmir Bleeds, A report by the Human Rights Commission, Srinagar (New Delhi, 1990); Kashmir Imprisoned, An Indian Human Rights Report reproduced in The Nation (Lahore), August 19, 1990.

See, for example, Kashmir under Siege: Human Rights in India, Asia Watch Report, Washington D.C., May 1991; Kashmir 1991, A Report of the Physicians for Human Rights, UK; and Asia Watch 1993 Report, reproduced in Dawn (Karachi), April 10, 1994.

See Tapan Bose, et. a1., "India’s Kashmir War", Economic and Political Weekly, March 31, 1990.

Quoted in Bob Wylie. Khalid Hasan, ed., "Valley on Fire", The Guardian (London), August 3, 1991. Also see, Kashmir Holocaust: The Case Against India, Lahore, 1992.

Gautum Navlakha, "Caught between the Army and ‘Guest’ Militants", Economic and Political Weekly. August 26, 1995, p. 2106.

VOA: "Kashmiris fight against India enters seventh year", Radio Monitoring Report, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, No. 351/95, December 17, 1995, C-20/21.

See The Muslim, January 14, 1996, for excerpts of the CPJ report.

See the reproduced reports of Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights in The Muslim (Islamabad), May 29, 1993. For the report of the British Parliamentary Group, see Tim Gopsill, "Heaven on Fire", The Nation, November 20, 1992.

The News (Islamabad), February 12, 1994.

"We want freedom from India: Appeal by Kashmiris", APHC, Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, 1995. The APHC represents more than 30 political parties and groups engaged In the freedom struggle.

See, for example, AFP report, "Greater Autonomy for IHK Shocking: BJP", Pakistan Times (Islamabad), November 6, 1995.

VOA: ‘Kashmiris fight against India enters seventh year", Radio Monitoring Report, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, No. 351/95, December 17, 1995, C-20/21.

See, for example, Nelson Graves, "Series of blasts leave Kashmiris shaken", Asian Age (India), September 9, 1995.

Tahir Amin, Mass Resistance in Kashmir, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad, p. 116.

The Hindu. November 18, 1994, as reported by Gautum Navlakha, ‘Caught between the Army and ‘Guest’ Militants’, Economic and Political Weekly, August 26, 1995, p. 2105. ‘Neutralised’ is understood to mean either killed or incarcerated.

See, for example, Ajit Bhattacharjea, ‘Tiny window of opportunity in Kashmir", Pioneer (India), April 21, 1995. Bhattacharjea’s figure takes 1990 as the starting point, thereby excluding 1989 when there was already considerable instability in IHK. Also see Prem Shankar Jha. "Ending the paralysis in Kashmir", The Hindu (India), April 22, 1995.

Shabir Shah, a Kashmiri leader, has also been quoted in an interview as saying that more than 30,000 people have died over the past six years. See, Vijaya Pushkarna, "Quest for peace", The Week (India), April 2, 1995.

Dawn, November 6, 1995. However, Dr. Abdullah has not been clear about his reference to 50,000 fatalities. He was later reported to have said that ‘About 50,000 people in Kashmir have been killed in various terrorist attacks". See, Hindustan Times, January 17, 1996.

See for example, Prem Shankar Jha, "Ending the paralysis in Kashmir", The Hindu, April 22, 1995.

Masood Hussain, ‘Torture Causing Sexual Disability", Radiance Viewsweekly (India), December 24, 1995, p. 20.

"Atrocities committed by Indian occupation forces in Indian held Kashmir", APHC, 1995, Muzafarabad, Azad Kashmir.

Masood Hussain, "Torture Causing Sexual Disability", Radiance Viewsweekly (India), December 24, 1995, p. 20.

Shabir Shah, one of the Kashmiri leaders, has been quoted as saying that 15,000 Kashmiris are languishing in Indian jails, in an interview to Vijaya Pushkarna. See, The Week, April 2, 1995. According to South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, a non-governmental body, there are between 10,000 to 20,000 Kashmirs in "administrative detention". See, Hamish McDonald, ‘Open Door. Red Cross allowed to meet Kashmiri detainees", Far Eastern Economic Review (Hongkong), July 6, 1995.

Recorded by the Executive Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, Srinagar.

Data compiled from information collected by the Executive Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association from the Indian electronic and print media. The IHK media had reported about 7,000 arrests from July 19, 1990 to January 1, 1992.

Data compiled from Kashmir Watch, a periodical of the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad. The data collected by Kashmir Watch is derived from various international news agencies, including Reuters, AFP, DPA, BBC and VOA.

The Tribune (India), January 16, 1995.

See The Statesman (Calcutta), January 21-23, 1995.

"Torture and Deaths in Custody in Jammu and Kashmir", Amnesty International, January 1995.

"Violations of human rights committed by Indian security forces In Jammu and Kashmir", Federation International des Ligues des Droits de L’Home (FIDH), Report, Hors N 172 Serie, Paris, May 1993.

Hamish McDonald, "Open Door: Red Cross allowed to meet Kashmir detainees", FEER, July 6, 1995.

See Patanjali Varadarjan, "Kashmir: A People Terrorised", FIDH Report, January 1993.

Cited in Hamish McDonald, "Open Door: Red Cross allowed to meet Kashmiri detainees", FEER, July 6, 1995.

The Statesman, December 31, 1995.

Times of India. March 12, 1993.

Kashmir Times, April 26, 1993.

The data has been collected and compiled by the Executive Committee of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association, Srinagar.

Amnesty International, 1995 Report, p. 18.

See, for example, Ibid., p. 28.

The APP report was not carried by the Indian news media. Shiv Sena governs Maharashatra, India’s biggest Industrial state, where It exploited communalism to dislodge the Congress(I) from power In regional elections last year. Buoyed by its success In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena now aims to become a bigger player in national politics. It also enjoys close links to the Bharatiya Janata Party, another Hindu fundamentalist party, which is a serious contender for power when federal elections are held. Both BJP and Shiv Sena advocate a more militaristic policy than has been adopted so far to crush the freedom struggle and they also want to bring IHK more tightly into the Indian union.

"An Unnatural Fate: Disappearances and Impunity in the Indian States of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab", Amnesty International, December 15, 1993.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Human Rights Watch/Asia, 1995 Report, p. 154.

See, National Human Rights Commission, Annual Report 1994-95, Annexure-IV, (Para. 6.11), p. 60.

Ibid., Annexure-VI, (Para. 9.6), p. 64.

Human Rights Watch/Asia, 1995 Report, p. 155.

"VOA: Kashmiris fight against India enters seventh year", Radio Monitoring Report, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, No. 351/95, December 17, 1995, C-20/21.

The Tribune, January 16, 1995. Militant actions refer to those cases which the administration sends to the Crime Branch for special investigation.

The survey was done by Outlook. For a report of its results, see The News, October 12, 1995.

ANNEX A



FACT SHEET ON INDIAN FORCES IN INDIAN
HELD KASHMIR

STRENGTH OF TROOPS DETAILS AT

1. Army
a. 15 Corps 134800 Annex B
b. 16 Corps 129200 -do-
c. Other Including Command Troops 53800 -do-
d. Total 317800
2. Para Military Forces (165x units) 203000 Annex C
3. Additional Inductions in the garb of electionduties (over two months) Annex D
a. Regular 4710
b. Para Military 37950
c. Total 42660
4. State Police 40000
5. TOTAL FORCES IN IHK 603460


Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad, August 1995.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5517722702246333713&q=India+is:free

 

[A.Rahman]

Dont put yourself in Neo's shoes, i dont think you are worthy of it

you are not worthy of this forum but we are tolerating you.

 

[Adux]

The Admin, the mods are welcome to ban me if they think i am not worthy of this board, that i dont suck up to the views of people like you

 

[A.Rahman]

The Admin, the mods are welcome to ban me if they think i am not worthy of this board, that i dont suck up to the views of people like you

your ranting will be more productive if you write a letter to your PM to provide psychiatrist for Indian soldiers; who abuse civilians in occupied zones.

 

[Bull]

Bull you're out of line here!
You're challenging the integrity of the forum here and I take it as an insult!

Dont act smart; read the post again. It says "They" and Neo is in Moderators team; therefore he is included too:

neo how many times have you deleted any of our posts. I dont remember any case. Now answer how many times have Rahman deleted, ooops.

Neo dont come into this, its a request. It was never meant at you. Its a request.

If you found my words insulting, im sorry, sincerely.

 

[Shabaz Sharif]

Bull,

The bugger doesnt get it that we could actually spit at our people who acts like this idiot above, they are used to have women delievered no justice like muktar mai.
We have army men, court-martiled, jailed and even hung for their crimes committed. While Muktar mai's rapist (A major in PAK army) walks scot free somewhere in pakistan and the president accuses the woman(victim) of cooking up a story, so that she can get a canadian passport.
As usual this msg will get deleted, and this message undelievered. Pakistan as a society has a lot to do. But then again I am an Indian and what do I know

Muktara bibi rapists are hanged unlike many bramins who rape Dalits girls on daily basis and get away with it. Dehli is famous for being rape capital of India.

 

[Adux]

Muktara bibi rapists are hanged unlike many bramins who rape Dalits girls on daily basis and get away with it. Dehli is famous for being rape capital of India.

Please provide me a link, doll..really would like to read it...I am a Bhramin and I take offence at your statement...

 

[Adux]

your ranting will be more productive if you write a letter to your PM to provide psychiatrist for Indian soldiers; who abuse civilians in occupied zones.

Our Army is doing a good job, those who arent getting their punishments handed out to them, unlike in a country where the Army runs the country, rapes of its economic as well as female wealth

 

[A.Rahman]

neo how many times have you deleted any of our posts. I dont remember any case. Now answer how many times have Rahman deleted, ooops.

Neo dont come into this, its a request. It was never meant at you. Its a request.

If you found my words insulting, im sorry, sincerely.

Did Neo ever restored the post that I deleted? ... ooopps...