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Thursday 9 December 2021
A poignant reminder about Kashmir on the World Human Rights Day:

A poignant reminder about Kashmir on the World Human Rights Day:

A poignant reminder about Kashmir on the World Human Rights Day:

While oppression, incarcerations, fake encounters, custodial killings & siege in Kashmir by India continues!

 

Respected UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,

Excellency tenth of December every year as Human Rights Day has not been a day of rejoicing for the people of the internationally disputed Jammu and Kashmir (commonly referred to as Kashmir) which comprises of the greater valley of Kashmir, Jammu, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir.

The first three regions of the divided State are under Indian occupation, while the latter two are in Pakistan’s direct and indirect control. The theme of the Human Rights Day for 2021 is ‘equality’ in accordance with Article 1 of the1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights- UDHR- which states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

For the people of Kashmir the text of the UDHR’s article1 and indeed that of article 1 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights- ICCPR- are clearly empty and hollow. For the record article 1 of the ICCPR enunciates more specifically the spirit of the UDHR’s article1 by stating that “all peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

Lamentably however, despite numerous UNSC and UNCIP resolutions since 1948 on the issue of Kashmir’s political status through a UN supervised Plebiscite, Kashmiris are still deprived of exercising their inherent, inalienable, and unfeterred sovereign right to be the sole arbiters of their political destiny. For more than seven decades now 22 million Kashmiris, forcibly divided between India and Pakistan, across the 1949 ceasefire line-CfL- have  experienced none of the spirit of brotherhood or equality in dignity in their occupied homeland.

Excellency it is pertinent to remind you that people are not only divided by the CfL between the hostile nuclear neighbours, those in Indian occupied Kashmir, are under a siege especially since India illegally annexed Ladakh, the greater valley of Kashmir, and Jammu on 5 August 2019  in blatant defiance of the UNSC and UNCIP  resolutions mentioned above. These three regions, with the illegal revocation of articles 370 and 35A, coupled with the illegal dissolution of Kashmir’s legislative assembly in 2018, are now bifurcated, and  ruled by the Indian Government, as two union territories of Jammu Kashmir, and Ladakh, taking away peoples’ long standing pre 1947 fundamental  legal rights.

BJP/RSS Government of India as part of its nefarious Hindutva project, has connived to settle non Kashmiris in the State. Since August 2019 up to 4 million domicile certificates under the new illegal rules, have been issued to non-Kashmiri settlers with tenuous links and pretext of service and study with Kashmir as the basis of settlement. At the heart of the Kashmir issue therefore, lies the fundamental principle and the inalienable sovereign human right of Kashmiris to self-determination.

Excellency under the pretext of anti-terrorism operations India’s occupation forces terrorise the civilian population with violent and repressive actions that include Cordon and Search Operations (CASO), arrests, fake encounters, orchestrated destruction and death. India’s huge number of military and paramilitary ‘security’ forces operate in Kashmir with impunity of action and immunity from prosecution.

A most repressive structure and regime of laws provides these forces with the impunity to oppress a population under siege since 5 August 2019.  Hence India’s ‘all out’ policy of militarised and political oppression to completely suppress the voice of Kashmiri people with use of unprecedented naked force, and repressive laws such as the AFSPA- the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, UAPA the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and the PSA, the Public Safety Act.

Excellency killing of civilians in fake encounters, arrests and incarceration of pro freedom political leaders including Mr Muhammad Yasin Malik, Mr Shabir Ahmed Shah, Ms Aasiya Andrabi and hundreds of political activists, defenders of human rights and civil liberties, and journalists, takes place  with alarming frequency especially since 2018.

Latest examples of such outrages perpetrated by India’s security forces include the killings in Haiderpura on 15 November 2021, and in Rambagh on 24 November 2021, as well as the arrest of internationally acknowledged Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez on 22 November 2021.

The three civilians killed at the Haiderpura fake encounter had no connections with either the militancy or with any political organisation. The much talked about fourth person seems to have vanished into the  thin air, which appears to be nothing but an imaginary story concocted by the security forces to provide them with the cover, for their ghastly and heinous act of killing the three men, in cold blood.

According to eye witness accounts, the owner of the building Altaf Ahmed Bhatt was taken into the building twice by the security forces.  When Altaf Bhat was taken into the building on the third occasion he was shot by them. Amar Magray who served tea in the building, was allowed to go and bring his cell phone from his home, which he did. Would Magray have returned with his cell phone had he been a militant?  The security forces however claim that Magray was killed in the encounter.

Dr Mudassar Gul, the third person killed at the Haiderpura fake encounter had an office in the building. The building is said to be equipped with CCTV cameras that would undoubtedly throw light on the pack of outright grisly lies advanced by the security forces to cover up the planed and wanton killings in the fake encounter: an encounter in which Dr Mudassar Gul, Altaf Ahmed Bhatt and Amar Magray became an addition to the tally of thousands of  Kashmiris who have become victims of India’s security apparatus which the Indian military incentivises for such tallies with promotions and other rewards.

As for the Rambagh fake encounter three young men were pulled out of a vehicle and shot dead, while one of them with injuries tried to save himself by running away, was caught and shot by the security personnel. All three young men were unarmed. Thus like the three victims of the Haiderpura fake encounter, the three young men  killed at  Rambagh in cold blood, also became an addition to the tally of  Kashmiris who have fallen victim to India’s security apparatus that shows no compunctions in killing of civilians by such staged encounters.

Excellency, the Haiderpura and Rambagh killings are a pattern that can be nothing other than a deliberate and wanton policy of the incumbent Government in Delhi, to instil fear and awe of India’s absolute power over life and death in Kashmir. Even if apprehended individuals were militants, which they were not in this case, there is no justification for the Indian security forces to execute individuals on the spot in their custody- clearly a method of custodial killing perfected by India’s occupation forces in Kashmir.

Dr Nazir Gilani an expert on rights and President of the UN affiliated Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights-JKCHR, points out that the “Government of India has accepted a regime of Human Rights under the UN Charter and under Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The ceiling of responsibilities is raised in accepting the terms and conditions for the temporary admission of its army into Kashmir.”

 

Excellency the responsibility must be established in the conduct of the Indian state and its armed forces in Kashmir. We demand that the OHCHR orders an independent inquiry headed by UN experts to ascertain the full facts concerning the deaths at Haiderpura and Rambagh as well as killings by India’s security forces in similar fake encounters over the recent years, and in particular since the 2016 sinister ‘all out’ Kashmir policy of the BJP/RSS Government of India.

Since August 2019 in particular, India has created a climate of total repression and political suffocation in Indian occupied Kashmir State. There is absolutely no space for legitimate free and democratic public discourse and dissent. Kashmir’s all manner of media including social media is muzzled to the extent that journalists who dare to write on India’s policy of impunity are sent to prison under a plethora of security laws. International media is not allowed to report from any part of the annexed region, and rely on Kashmiri journalists who are heavily constrained with threats of arrests and prosecution.

Offices of leading newspapers based both in Srinagar and Jammu are sealed by Indian Government. Kashmir Times, one of the oldest and respected English daily in Kashmir, and the Greater Kashmir one of the largest circulated English dailies have had their Srinagar offices at the  Press Colony shut in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In its 6 December online edition, the ‘Quint’ reported with the headline, “Evictions, Notices: How Kashmir Press Colony is Slowly Crumbling”   that the Greater Kashmir’s Editor-in chief was served with an eviction order “only a day after the  families of two persons killed in [Hyderpora encounter] staged a sit-in protest in the Press Enclave.”

Defenders of human rights like Khurram Parvez of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society-JKCCS- are also constrained in exposing the oppressive and anti-people policies of the Indian Government. Khurram Parvez according to the online Wire, “was arrested on November 22 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPL) and the above mentioned UAPA.

In other words Khurram Parvez, a respected human rights defender, whose organisation has consistently and objectively exposed India’s appallingly grotesque human rights record in Kashmir, is being silenced by the BJP/RSS led Government of India with the inhuman UAPA as a ‘legal’ weapon!

Excellency, India’s entire ‘legal’ edifice of oppressive laws is anti-people and inconsistent with international law. These laws are colonial with the manifest intent to force Kashmiris into complete submission. The incumbent Indian Government applies this panoply of extremely harsh and inhuman laws like UAPA, PSA and the AFSPA with a ferocious criminal haste and enormous political vindictiveness against dissenting voices in Indian occupied Kashmir.

The two reports on human rights situation in Kashmir by the OHCHR published in June 2018 and July 2019, clearly highlight the excessively repressive nature of these laws, and how India’s laws in Kashmir according to these reports “obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardise the right to remedy for the victims of human rights violations.” 

However it is an absolute tragic failure on the part of the OHCHR and UNHRC, and indeed the UN SC, that India has not been forced to repeal parts of these harsh and inhuman laws as recommended in the OHCHR reports. India on the other hand made her colonial laws even harsher after the reports were published.

Excellency, in July 2018 a month after the first OHCHR report was published, India amended section 10 of the PSA removing the prohibition to shift detained Kashmiris from the internationally disputed territory to Indian prisons.

Since Kashmir’s illegal annexation on 5 August 2019, amended section 10 of the PSA fits conveniently well with India’s colonial Kashmir policy. Consequently hundreds of Kashmiri prisoners now languish in India’s squalid prisons hundreds of miles from their homes. The prevailing situation makes it impossible for families of prisoners to visit their loved ones due to enormous financial costs, let alone the ability of the families to mount a legal defence for their loved ones’ release.

In any case, the harsh security laws make it impossible even to imagine that bail or fair trial of Kashmiri prisoners could take place in the Indian judicial system, which has become heavily cowed by the philosophical and ideological policies of the incumbent political order led by the BJP/RSS nexus in India since 2014.

Kashmiri prisoners are kept in harsh and squalid conditions, deprived of many basic amenities and facilities. Many of the prisoners are in jails, not for months but for years either due to mistrials or waiting for trial. We urge the OHCHR to make representations on prisoners’ behalf to the ICRC and ask the humanitarian organisation to meet with the hapless Kashmiri prisoners incarcerated in jails across India.

Excellency among many Kashmiri prisoners incarcerated in Indian jails are political leaders MrYasin Malik, Mr Shabir Shah. Ms Aasiya Andrabi and others. All are held under tramped up and politically motivated charges. These leaders are part of the solution and the BJP/RSS Government is intent upon maligning their legitimate peaceful political struggle. Mr Yasin Malik and other leaders are committed to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue, but the Indian government has thrown them into jails with charges of ‘sedition’ which is not consistent with the historic context of the Kashmir issue.

Kashmiris are ruled without their consent and deprived of their democratic right to dissent.  Kashmir is neither part of India nor of Pakistan. The naked aggression, suppression and militarised violence in Kashmir by India is unprecedented, and a clear negation of India’s obligations and commitments made at the UN and to the people of Kashmir. The oppression by Indian state must stop and Kashmiri leadership must be released from prisons.  We are hopeful and indeed believe that poignancy of the our words will not be lost on your Excellency on this UN Human Rights Day when we have no reason to rejoice, and celebrate in Kashmir as a subjugated, oppressed and forcibly divided people.

Sincerely,

 

Zafar Khan

Chairman- Diplomatic Bureau of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF
International Secretariat
119-123 Cannon Street Road North Basement London E1 2 LX
Email: zafargk@aol.com
Central Information Office-CIO: 
B-144 Satellite Town Murree Road Rawalpindi Pakistan.
Email: jklf1977@gmail.com

 

Copied to: 

Ms Michelle Bachelete UNCHR, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, The UN SG HE: A Guterres.  Rt Hon’able Ms Liz Truss MP UK Foreign Secretary. Hon’able Sec. Antony Blinken. Hon’able Joep Borrell EU’s Foreign Affairs. Rt Hon’able Debbie Abrahams MP Chairperson appg on Kashmir.  OIC. ICRC .Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch




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