The French newspaper, Le Figaro, in its fresh report has praised occupied Jammu and Kashmir as a “Forgotten Paradise” and ignored brutalities on its people by around a million Indian occupation troops for the past many decades.
The newspaper forgets that in 2023 alone, Indian troops killed 248 innocent Kashmiris in multiple incidents of violence across occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
An overview of the Annual Report 2023 on occupied Jammu and Kashmir will suffice to prove that the territory is more of a hell than a “Forgotten Paradise”, as the French newspaper has described it.
Although, the French newspaper praises the beauty of Kashmir but the reality is that the Indian troops conducted at least 260 Cordon and Search Operations (CASOs) and Cordon and Destroy Operations (CADOs) in 2003 in the same “Forgotten Paradise”, which Le Figaro skipped to mention. The paper also ignored injuries to 274 Kashmiris and the arrest of 5667 by Indian troops in the year. During these operations, nearly 138 civilian properties were vandalized and ransacked. Also, 171 instances of Internet shutdown reported during the year failed to attract the attention of the French newspaper. There is no need to say something on media freedom as it is something absent in the territory. Even posting of a picture of any encounter lands a journalist in jail.
Besides, on 11 December 2023, the Supreme Court of India pronounced the verdict of the 16 hearings pertaining to the petitions challenging the August 5, 2019 unilateral decision of the Indian parliament to abrogate the semi-autonomous status of UN-recognized disputed territory.
The 476 page judgment upheld the validity of the CO 273 bifurcating the erstwhile state into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The mainstream political parties, Kashmiri civil society and renowned Indian jurists including former SCI judges criticized the verdict of five-judge Constitutional Bench stating that the court has misinterpreted the constitutional framework including the federal structure and distorted the legal history of Jammu and Kashmir.
The French newspaper was mesmerized by vast stretched valleys and sky-high mountains, but it did not give importance to the killing of at least 66 extra-judicial killing of civilians by Indian troops during past year.
The French newspaper’s story would have some credibility if it would also contain the report on civilian killings, demolition of properties, illegal confiscations and forced evictions as part of India’s ongoing systematic campaign to deprive Kashmiris of their land, resources and livelihood in their own homeland, described by Le Figaro.—KMS
