London
London-based Amnesty International has said that the Indian government must immediately halt its intensifying suppression of dissent in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Amnesty International said this in a statement released on its website following a series of raids by India’s National Investigation Agency on the homes and premises of civil society groups, human rights defenders and journalists in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and on Wednesday and Thursday.
The NIA raided the residences and offices of prominent human rights activists Khurram Parvez, the Coordinator of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), three of his associates, and Parveena Ahanger, Chairperson of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). Both organizations have reported extensively on human rights abuses in IIOJK, including the indefinite administrative detention and extrajudicial execution of human rights defenders, torture of people in detention and the widespread impunity of the Indian forces in the occupied territory. Further raids were carried out on the offices of the NGOs Athrout and GK Trust and on the residence of Agence France-Presse’s Kashmir correspondent Parvez Bukhari and residences of Hurriyat leaders Zafar Akbar Butt and Muhammad Yousuf Sofi.
“These raids are an alarming reminder that India’s government is determined to suppress all dissenting voices in Jammu and Kashmir. The authorities are evidently targeting these civil society and media groups because of their continued work reporting and advocating for the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir despite a harsh communications blackout that was imposed by the Indian government in the region since 5 August 2019,” said Julie Verhaar, Acting Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“In a worrying pattern, the UAPA and the foreign funding law are being repeatedly and deliberately weaponized to intimidate, harass and restrict the ability of civil society groups from operating, in clear violation of their rights to freedom of expression and association,” she said.
The statement pointed out that the raids come after Amnesty International India was forced to halt its work and let go of its employees in the country from 1st October 2020 after its bank accounts were frozen by the Indian government, shortly after it released a Situation Update on human rights in IIOJK.
In September 2020, APDP submitted almost 40 testimonies of victims who were subjected to arbitrary detention and torture by Indian forces in IIOJK, to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. On 5th August 2020, JKCCS published its bi-annual human rights review documenting the extrajudicial executions of at least 32 individuals and the impact of internet shutdowns in the region.
The Amnesty statement said, both UAPA Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), under which the raids were conducted, have been criticized by UN human rights experts for their overarching nature, which is used to criminalise religious minorities, political dissidents and human rights defenders.—KMS
