His Excellency Dr Volker Türk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Date 22 June 2023

Dear High Commissioner,

Re: Save Yasin Malik: Indian PM Modi seeks death penalty for the pro peace Kashmiri leader.

Excellency I take this opportunity to make a fervent appeal and seek your urgent intervention to save Mr Muhammed Yasin Malik's life as India’s BJP Modi Government seeks death penalty for the pro peace Kashmiri leader. Mr Malik was given a double life sentence in a politically motivated trial on 25 May 2022 by a security court of India’s National Security Agency (NIA) with false charges on terror funding.

The NIA was specifically tasked to orchestrate these charges against the most prominent opponent of Modi Government’s oppression in Kashmir (also called Jammu and Kashmir-J&K).  On 29 May 2023 the appeal of the NIA to convert Mr Malik's life sentence to death was heard by the Delhi High Court, which ordered Mr Malik to respond by 9 August 2023.

 Excellency millions of   Kashmiris across the ceasefire line CfL in Kashmir and in the diaspora, are deeply shocked and seriously aggrieved at Mr Modi’s decision to seek their leader’s death sentence.

The decision is seen by the Kashmiris as a deviously cruel ploy by the Modi Government, to eliminate their defenceless political opponent for electoral gains in the 2024 Indian general election. It is vitally important therefore, that the Indian Prime Minister is firmly told to withdraw the appeal for death penalty, and strongly dissuaded from committing a grave injustice against the pro peace Kashmiri leader.

Mr Malik is the most prominent and revered Kashmir leader. As such he is an indispensable part of a political solution on the status of his internationally disputed homeland. People of Kashmir therefore, expect that the OHCHR will call out India’s Modi Government for its spiteful, malicious and politically motivated vindictive persecution and prosecution of Mr Malik. And for acting with total impunity in Kashmir, the political status which, is yet to be determined under UN auspices through a democratic and transparent plebiscite.

Instead of engaging in dialogue with Mr Malik and the Kashmiri leadership on the Kashmir issue, Modi Government annexed the internationally disputed region on 5 August 2019, and began arrests and prosecution of Kashmiri leaders under laws which OHCHR reports of June 2018 and July 2019, quite rightly describe as India’s “lawless laws.”

Excellency Mr Modi’s Government is extremely intolerant of political dissent in Kashmir. Even   human rights defenders like Khurram Parvez, as well as many Kashmiri journalists, are held under laws such as the Public Safety Act PSA and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA, the laws that are inconsistent with international law.  These lawless laws especially UAPA, allow the authorities to declare individuals as terrorists without producing incriminating evidence against them.

Mr Malik is the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front-JKLF, a political movement committed for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. He was arrested on 19 February 2019 under the notorious and draconian PSA in Srinagar. He is imprisoned at the Tihar Jail in Delhi in solitary confinement. Mr Malik, and other Kashmiri leaders including Mr Shabir Shah, Ms Aasiya Andrabi, Ms Nahida Nasreen, and Masarat Alam are all part of the solution in the Kashmir issue. The UN has a responsibility to ensure that their right to free speech and freedom of movement is guaranteed and protected under UN Charter and UN resolutions on the Kashmir issue/dispute. India is duty bound to ensure as a trustee and proxy of the UN in Kashmir, to ensure that the fundamental rights, including the inalienable and the inherent right to self-determination, and the territorial integrity of Jammu and Kashmir State, is not subverted or vitiated.

Excellency Mr Malik renounced armed resistance in 1994 and embarked on a peaceful movement for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He met many Indian leaders including Prime Ministers Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr IK Gujral, and the highly respected Mr Atul Bihari Vajpayee, politicians including ministers, senior officials and civil society figures who supported his decision for a peaceful political movement to achieve Kashmiris’ fundamental sovereign rights. He was assured of “genuine political space,” and   undertakings were given to him by Indian leadership that the Kashmir issue will be resolved through meaningful dialogue with the relevant parties.

The respected first BJP Prime Minister of India late Atul Bihari Vajpayee, promised the Kashmiris "the sky is the limit."  Mr Modi his successor, has completely reneged on the Vajpayee principles, and has adopted an ‘all-out muscular Kashmir policy’ in which there is no space for dialogue on the Kashmir issue!

Excellency under Mr Modi’s doctrine, Kashmiris and their leadership has a stark choice, either accept Modi’s Kashmir policy, meaning status quo, or face India’s fury and wrath. Consequently Mr Malik’s prosecution is politically motivated as Modi doctrine does not recognise fundamental, inherent and inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination, even though the UNSC resolutions call on India, and also Pakistan, to respect the will of the people in Kashmir through a UN supervised Plebiscite

To further his cause Mr Malik visited the US and Britain where he met with officials, political figures, members of the civil society, and human rights organisations. British and the US officials, the Indian Home Ministry’s Minister of State late Rajesh Pilot, senior officials, prominent civil society members, ex diplomats, judges and academics, supported and encouraged Mr Malik in his peaceful resistance with which, he has kept firm faith. Mr Modi however, has completely reneged on the commitments for political space and dialogue. India’s current National Security Adviser, Mr Ajit Doval had also acted as a go between during negotiations with the Indian authorities and Mr Malik.

Not being content with his oppressive policies in Kashmir the Modi Government annexed the disputed State on 5 August 2019 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories to be ruled directly from Delhi. By annexing and breaking up Kashmir into union territories, Mr Modi’s Government completely disregarded India’s solemn commitments at the UN and bilateral agreements, both with Pakistan, and the Srinagar based Government of Indian administered Kashmir.

Excellency, it is important to remember that Kashmir’s provisional and conditional constitutional relationship with India, was based on defined spheres of responsibilities, linked specifically with the 26 October 1947 conditional agreement, which was underpinned by the subsequent article 370 of the Indian constitution. As a consequence of unilateral abrogation by India of article 370 on 5 August 2019, the constitutional bridge between India and Kashmir no longer exists. Therefore, India rules Kashmir today as a colonial occupier with the enormous presence of over 900,000 troops backed up by a plethora of oppressive and draconian laws, two of these lawless laws, PSA and UAPA, are mentioned above.

Mr Malik is a frail 57 year old dignified, God fearing, brave and proud man with integrity. He has many medical ailments and health issues. He has been shut away, and has no idea about the outside situation. His only contact is with his ailing elderly mother who is assisted by his sister in Kashmir. He has not seen his Pakistani wife since his only child, a ten year old daughter, was a toddler.

In protest he went on hunger strike twice at the manner in which India’s politicised judiciary conducted, and continues to conduct his trials. He has not been heard by the Indian judicial system.

Instead Mr Malik has been prosecuted over the past four years under false and fabricated cases. Despite undertakings given and kept by all, except by the Modi Government, thirty year old militancy related cases were re-opened as part of the politically motivated vendetta against the pro peace leader.

Excellency, Mr Malik is an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. India’s Modi led BJP Government however, derives its ideological inspiration not from Gandhi but from the RSS, which is the antithesis of the Gandhian political and religious philosophy, and the world view of India. Mr Modi believes in the total, political, social and cultural conquest of Kashmir, and an unquestioned submission of Kashmiri peoples’ will. Mr Malik however, is not prepared to surrender and capitulate his peoples’ free will to Mr Modi's, political, judicial, communal, and militarised aggression.

Mr Modi’s ultra-(religious) nationalist BJP is in an election mode to enthuse its majoritarian electoral base. Through India’s pliant media, the BJP vilifies and portrays Mr Malik as Kashmir’s Osama Bin Laden to justify his judicial murder. Mr Malik however, wants to see Kashmir as a bridge of peace, amity and prosperity in South Asia rather than a perpetual bone of contention.

To Kashmiris the OHCHR as the apex human rights institution of the UN, is morally and legally well placed, to avert the vindictively malicious judicial oppression, and the intended murder of a man, who is genuinely committed to Kashmir’s peaceful political transition, and quite clearly therefore, he is the voice of peace in Kashmir.

By seeking the death penalty to eliminate a Kashmiri political opponent, Mr Modi portrays himself as the region’s hegemon against a defenceless man of peace, who has the right and the truth on his side.

Excellency as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights you are well placed to exercise the moral and legal powers vested in you by the world conscience. I urge your Excellency to uphold international legality and morality, to save the life of the pro peace Kashmiri leader Mr Muhammad Yasin Malik.

Yours

Sincerely

Zafar Khan-

Head of Diplomatic Bureau Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front

International Secretariat 119-123 Cannon Street Rd London E1 2LX

Email: jklfdiplomaticbureau@gmail.com

Copied:  Maria Arena MEP head of European Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights

Johana Cherry KC MP Chair Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch.  Reprieve

 London (24 May 2023)

Statement issued by the Diplomatic Bureau of JKLF, London has called upon the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London for an urgent meeting on the deteriorating health of JKLF Chairman Mr Yasin Malik, who has been held in Tihar prison since May 2019, now moved into Solitary Confinement.

Members of the Diplomatic bureau will also take up the issue of India’s ongoing grave human rights abuses  and its open and blatant violations of the UN resolutions on the status of the Jammu Kashmir state.

The Foreign Office has responded by agreeing to host the delegation of the JKLF Diplomatic bureau in mid July.

JKLF Diplomatic Bureau
JKLF International Secretariat,
119-123 Camnon Street Road
London E1 2LX

 JKLF Diplomatic Bureau London - has called upon the world’s top Human Rights organisations including, International federation for Human Rights ( FIDH), offices of UN high Commissioner (OHCHR), Human Rights Watch ( HRW ), Amnesty International, International committee of Red Cross, Asia Watch and Secretary of Head of Commonwealth expressing deep concerns on the deteriorating health condition of Yasin Malik, who is languishing in Tihar prison, (in solitary confinement) on fabricated and politically motivated charges. 

In a statement issued on 22nd May 2023, Jklf Diplomatic Bureau has urged the heads of these organisations to use their good offices and  intervene in providing a medical board in assessing  Yasin Malik ‘s health, and  take steps towards his release from his illegitimate imprisonment.

London 20th May 2023.

JKLF Diplomatic bureau has written to  the Chinese Ambassador HE Ambassador Zheng  Zeyuang, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ambassador HRH Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Sultan and Turkiye Ambassador HE  Osman Koray Ertas, thanking their respective governments for withdrawing and boycotting the G20 group working meeting in Srinagar, ( Indian Occupied Kashmir). The letter said the decisions by the friendly countries are in accordance with the UN charter  and UNCIP Resolutions on Jammu Kashmir. The Kashmiri people are eternally grateful and appreciative of your stand for a just and a peaceful solution of this 75 year longstanding international issue. The Statement also urged all other G20 Member state NOT to attend the meetings in the internationally recognised disputed territory, and reminded them of their legal obligations and commitments to the UN Resolutions on the State of Jammu Kashmir.                               

Jklf Diplomatic Bureau,
JKLF International Secretariat,             
119-123 Cannon st Road,                   
London E1 2LX.

An open letter by the JKLF to the Foreign Ministers of OIC States, meeting in Islamabad on 22 March 2022.

Excellencies

RE: Indian Gov’t’s nefarious and pernicious Jammu & Kashmir -J&K- Policy: decimation and re-writing of history.

Excellencies, India’s right wing Hindu ultra-nationalist BJP/RSS Government’s decision to abrogate articles 370, and 35A on 5 August 2019 to annex, and bifurcate Kashmir, is illegal, her decision to do so however, is designed to obliterate Kashmir’s heritage, destroy its religious and cultural identity, turn the majority Muslim population into an inconsequential minority, and to communalise the centuries’ old harmony and tolerance in Indian occupied Kashmir to further its nefariously pernicious objective, of the  BJP/RSS Government’s flagship Hindutva project. Primarily, India’s policy is designed to bring about demographic change. This is intended to be achieved with new domicile rules which replaced article 35A. Through these illegal rules, Indian occupied Kashmir has literally been opened up to 1.3 billion people of India. It is pertinent to remind your Excellencies that by revoking article 370 on 5 August 2019 India no longer has a conditional arrangement to be in J&K, and therefore, India’s   presence in Kashmir is that of an occupier.

Excellencies, Political dissent, systematic human rights violations and detentions of civilians, including political leaders are perpetrated under repressive Public Safety Act PSA, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA. Mr Yasin Malik, the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), is held under such punitive laws which are colonial in nature and designed to force him into submission.  Having been arrested on 22 February in 2019 and detained at a local police station in Srinagar, Mr Malik was slapped with the inhuman PSA on 7 March and removed to Kot Balwal jail in Jammu, while on 9 May 2019 he was taken to the Indian capital Delhi where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture by India’s National Investigation Authority (NIA). The NIA is tasked with fabricating evidence against Mr Malik as part of Modi Government’s malicious campaign to malign, stifle and discredit Mr Yasin Malik’s peaceful struggle to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Excellencies, the arrest of Mr Malik and the subsequent banning of his party, the JKLF on 22 March 2019, was in fact, to pave the way for India’s military build-up, and subsequent illegal actions against Kashmir and its people. As the most prominent and internationally acknowledged pro-independent pacifist leader of Kashmir, Mr Malik actively seeks a political resolution of the conflict which remains a constant threat to peace and a danger of nuclear confrontation in the region.

Mr Malik stood up to defy Prime Minister Modi’s ideologically driven policy of Hindutva; the manifest objective of which is to obliterate Kashmir’s history, geography, socio- cultural, and religious harmony and identity, through demographic change. Mr Malik has opposed the Indian Government’s policy to deprive the people of Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh of their fundamental citizenship rights, which had been secured with enormous sacrifices by them during their heroic struggles throughout the twentieth century.

Excellencies, prior to Mr Malik’s arrest, he stood firmly opposed to the anticipated abrogation of articles 370 and 35A.  He led peaceful political dissent. Under Mr Modi’s rule however, right of Mr Yasin Malik, and role of his party the JKLF, to organise peaceful democratic dissent, is called anti-national, even when the dissent is in Kashmir, which since 1947 is under de- facto rather than de jure Indian control. Therefore, India’s, and that of Pakistan’s presence in Kashmir, has always been contingent upon a final settlement of Kashmir’s status.  Mr Malik has engaged with previous leaders of both India and Pakistan including the current Prime Minister Mr Imran Khan when he was an opposition leader. And in the past 28 years Mr Malik has assiduously sought support, both in the sub-continent and across the world, for a peaceful and equitable resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Excellencies, within the first two years of Kashmir’s annexation, around 4 million domicile certificates under the new illegal rules have been issued to non-Kashmiris. At this rate, when Prime Minister Modi’s ultra- Hindu-nationalist BJP goes to the polls in the 2024 general election, a declaration of complete victory over Kashmir, will be proclaimed by the ideological progeny of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh- RSS- to heighten majoritarian extremism in India, at his bid to be re-elected for the third time. Success of the RSS supported BJP and Mr Modi in the 2024 Indian general elections appears assured, not only due to the socio-cultural, religious and political obliteration of the 70% Muslim population of J&K, but also at the expense of more than 225 million Muslims of India itself! Today’s India therefore, is poised to take the next step against its religious minorities, and the brunt of the highly polarised, and politicised extremist Hindutva frenzy, will inevitably be borne by the Indian Muslims.

Excellencies, since coming to power in 2014, the Modi led BJP/RSS India, has used its Kashmir policy to weaponise the majoritarian political fervour in India, to support its Hindu supremacist Hindutva ideology against religious minorities, especially the Indian Muslims. Lynching of Muslims on suspicion of eating beef is a common occurrence, and convicted murderers are garlanded by union ministers in the India of BJP/RSS era. Drastic policies by many State governments, like Karnataka, are introduced against Islamic attire including hijab and meekly upheld by the courts, since the Indian judiciary has simply become a compliant instrument of the BJP/RSS at the centre and the state level. Today’s India is a dark place for the Muslim minority. Influential OIC countries have huge economic leverage in India which does not appear to have helped the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination or eased the impact of hugely discriminatory policies of the BJP/RSS’s political chauvinism against the Indian Muslims.

Excellencies, India’s illegal action on 5 August 2019 not only betrayed people of Kashmir, but defied the UN by showing utter contempt for more than 20 UN-SC and UN-CIP resolutions, and the UN Charter, on the status of J&K and Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. With annexation, and disintegration of the 176 year old State, the BJP/RSS nexus has embarked upon its nefarious and malicious policy to decimate, and obliterate centuries’ old heritage, and identity of the interconnected heterogeneous State J&K by fomenting divisions on religious, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural grounds across the diverse people. India defied UN resolutions 91 of 1951, 123 and 126 of 1957, which clearly stipulated that unilateral action to change territorial and political disposition of Kashmir was prohibited for India and Pakistan.  

Excellencies, Kashmiris on both sides of the ceasefire line CfL expect that Pakistan, a prominent OIC member country which is hosting the current OIC Foreign Ministers’ conference in Islamabad, will refrain from emulating India by changing political and territorial disposition of Azad Jammu Kashmir-AJK, and Gilgit Baltistan AJK&GB. Developments around Gilgit Baltistan in Islamabad however, signify that through back channel facilitation of friendly countries, Pakistan and India may be persuaded to formalise the CfL so as to effect permanent division of Kashmir. We hope that no OIC country will either condone, or facilitate such an abominable solution, as it would amount to the annihilation of Kashmiris’ heritage, identity, and the territorial integrity of their beloved homeland- Kashmir.

Excellencies, quite poignantly therefore, India’s aggression against Kashmir on 5 August 2019 will remain etched in the collective psyche of the Kashmiris as their nakba- the great catastrophe- which the people of Palestine also suffered having been ‘ethnically cleansed’ from most of their homeland in 1948; and seven decades on Palestinians are disenfranchised and seen as strangers in their own land as a direct consequence of the settler policy of the Israeli government. Unfortunately similar fate not only awaits but has descended on the defenceless Muslim majority and their leadership in Indian occupied Kashmir with India’s Hindutva project to settle non Kashmiris.

Excellencies, India follows a similar pattern of repressive policies and laws to delegitimize Kashmiris’ internationally recognised right to self-determination. The BJP/RSS Modi government projects the legitimate freedom struggle as a struggle for Muslim religious rights. In a calculated policy to vilify and denigrate the freedom struggle, India has weaponised the Pandit minority of the greater valley of Kashmir to project the struggle as ‘Islamic terrorism’. Ironically projecting the Kashmiris, as the problem, in their own homeland, just as Israel projects the people of Palestine a problem in their homeland.

Excellencies, since the annexation on 5 August 2019 the economy and livelihood of the relatively prosperous Indian occupied part of Kashmir has nose-dived drastically. The economy of Indian occupied J&K has lost around 7 billion US dollars with more than half a million unemployed, while the economic slide continues to move downward. It is quite clear therefore that at best it is indifference and neglect, and at worst a calculated policy of the Hindu- nationalist BJP/RSS Modi Government of India to pauperise the masses in Indian occupied Kashmir. We are dismayed and disappointed that despite India’s heinous conduct in Kashmir of brutalising and inhuman treatment of the population which includes extra judicial killings, collective punishment, depriving the families of appropriate religious burial rites for their loved ones killed in all too frequent fake encounters, goes un-noticed, with very few exceptions, by the OIC countries.of the issue based on the international legality with UN resolutions, and Kashmiris’ right to self-determination Excellencies, we anticipate that the OIC will take an extended view to seek an equitable resolution. We expect the leaders of the OIC countries to support people of GB in their legitimate need for Self-Government, structured on the AJK model, and will encourage Pakistan to facilitate the needs of Gbians rather than to annex the region as a province of Pakistan. As people of the divided State including the Gbians, we fully support China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC. It is appropriate to expect, however, that GB’s Government must be represented as a full-fledged partner on the all-important CPEC project.

Excellencies, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the governments and peoples of nations that support the rights and aspirations of our people’s valiant struggle for freedom. In particular our heartfelt gratitude to the people of OIC countries whose leaders during their address at the UN General assembly in September 2019, 2020 and 2021 extended their support to the people of Kashmir despite considerable opposition, and threats of trade boycott by the Hindu-nationalist majoritarian BJP/RSS Modi Government of India. Kashmiris wish to see their State become a cross road, and a bridge of peace in South Asia to unlock prosperity, and create amity in the region.

All that is required is to take the first step based on the inherent and inalienable sovereign right of more than twenty two million Kashmiris in accordance with the UN mandate. Many of the OIC countries including Pakistan, have close ties with Britain, the US and the PRC. All these powers have a direct diplomatic and economic stake in peace and prosperity of the South Asian sub-continent. A just and equitable resolution of the Kashmir issue will ensure peace and prosperity in the region to the advantage of all concerned.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, JKLF.

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