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:
