Dr Muhammad Khan
THE war-torn India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) can be described, “A place on the universe where the mothers often receive the dead body of their sons, fathers announce the venue and time for their funeral prayers and sisters throw candies and flowers on their funeral procession.” This has been happening in IOJK since 1990 and the world generally remains quite over the worst human rights violations in the territory. A civilian, Bashir Ahmed Khan, killed by Indian Army on the 1st of July 2020 in Sopore area of IOJK was not a militant. Indeed, this 65-year old man is described as small-time employee who earned 6,000 rupees (£64) per month. Bashir Ahmed Khan’s only fault was that he was a Kashmiri and there is a complete impunity for Indian security forces to kill anyone in the State. It was painful for everyone who saw the bullet ridden body of Bashir Khan with his grandson crying while sitting on his grandpa’s chest. As per eye witnesses he was removed from his car and killed mercilessly by firing multiple bullets in front of his grandson. The only explanation Indian Army men had that, he was killed during a cross-fire between militants and Indian Army. In fact, Indian Army kills Kashmiris on a daily basis through fake encounters and later labels them as militants. In the absence of any independent media coverage over 80% cases are not even reported in the media.
This inhuman practice has been going on in IOJK since 1990. However, the post-August 5, 2019 period is more critical with respect to genocide of Kashmiris through a well-planned strategy. As the world witnessed the brutal killing of Bashir Ahmed Khan in front of his three-year old grandson, the Indian Army kill, torture and rape the women in front of their relatives as routine. There is no body to resist these atrocious crimes of Indian security forces in IOJK in the presence of special laws like Armed Forces Special Power Act and Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act. Indian security forces in IOJK are not answerable to any court of law. The maximum Kashmiris can do in this subjugation and occupation is protest and mourning over the death of their loved ones. In three decades, Indian security forces have perpetrated thousands of such inhuman acts in IOJK. Indian Army put on fire thousands of houses in IOJK, later declaring those as militant hideous. On 5 August 2019, India illegally annexed the State into Indian Union while relegating the state into union territories. The US based human rights organization: Genocide Watch had revealed and alerted the world that there were signs of early stages of the genocide process in IOJK. Beginning of this genocide can be traced from the decade of 1990s, however, the form and format varied over time.
The Genocide Watch has mandated its-self “to build an international movement to predict, prevent, stop and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder.” According to this organization, India has taken extreme steps by revoking Articles 370 and 35-A, which indicates that it can undertake killing of Kashmiris, protesting against these illegal acts of India. After the death of Burhan Wani, a young social media activist in July 2016, there have been massive killings of the Kashmiri youth with new yet another strategy: the use of pellet guns. According to some Indian human rights activists and doctors of various hospitals in IOJK there are more than2000 Kashmiris of various age groups who were blinded by Indian security forces from 2016 to 2018. This is a known figure of blinded persons in IOJK; otherwise fewer details are known about the people living in remote areas and have been blinded and paralysed by Indian forces. The worst part of this campaign is that there is no let-up in this brutal Indian campaign of blinding, paralyzing and systemic killing of the Kashmiris in IOJK.
In November 2016, ‘The Guardian’ a prestigious British newspaper, exposed Indian campaign of blinding the Kashmiris in an article, entitled, “India’s crackdown in Kashmir: is this the world’s first mass blinding?” The article recorded some of the incidents from July 2016 to November 2016. These four months have been described by the newspaper as the bloodiest in the recent history of Kashmir. In those few months, the peaceful Kashmir protestors ‘met with a ruthless response from Indian security forces, who fired millions of metal pellets into crowds of civilians, leaving hundreds as blinded or paralysed.’
In the last two years, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has initiated two reports about the worsening state of human rights violations in IOJK. In its June 14, 2018 report, the Commission published a detailed report on the Indian excesses in IOJK. A year after, on July 8, 2019, there was a reiteration of the previous report with new facts and figures of Indian cruelties in IOJK. After the 5th of August 2019, very less is known about the real situation in IOJK since it is still under siege and curfew. Only a few media persons of BBC and Al-Jazeera, who visited some parts of IOK in disguise, had revealed horrendous situation in IOJK; people are afraid to narrate even what has happened with them and how they are spending their days and nights. The New York Times, in its January 17, 2020 Op-ed has unveiled the Indian planning for establishing concentration camps for the Muslims of the State. Despite witnessing the worst form of human rights violations in IOJK, there is mysterious silence at the capitals of world’s major powers and those organizations and institutions which matter in global power politics. The continued Indian atrocities warrants that the UNSC and other International organizations must take decisive steps for bringing an end to appalling human rights violations in IOJK.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
