World powers can arrest the course of brutalities in Kashmir
KASHMIR is a natural paradise, surrounded by India, Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and with a narrow Wakhan stripe, separating it from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Compared to existing 193 countries in the world taken individually, Kashmir is larger than103 and more populous than 129. It is also more than three times the size of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg combined.
The people of Jammu & Kashmir have not forgotten that it was on April 21, 1948, that the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution # 47 which states that the future of Kashmir shall be decided by its inhabitants.
There have been successive United Nations Security Council resolutions that pledged to the people of Kashmir their right to self-determination.
The Indian Government has barred the exercise of this right and has waged a campaign of terror against the people of Kashmir.
The Kashmiris have become victim of systematic and extreme brutalities and nothing has been done by the world powers or any organ of the United Nations including the Secretary General to permit them any relief or redress.
Each time the people of Kashmir have demanded the right to self-determination, Indian authorities have responded with extreme repression. Since 1989, the Indian Government has embarked upon a campaign of mass slaughter, rape and robbery against the people of Kashmir.
It is estimated that since January 1990, more than 100,000 people have been killed in Kashmir at the hands of the Indian forces of occupation. More than 10,000 persons have involuntarily disappeared.
Their wives are called “Half-widows” because no one knows whether they are dead or alive. Further, it is estimated that hundreds of Kashmiris are held as political prisoners by the government of India.
Very recently, on 15 November 2021, the killing of three innocent Kashmiris, Dr Mudasir Gul, Altaf Butt and Mohammad Amir in Hyderpora, Srinagar, Kashmir in a fake encounter has once again shaken the conscience of the global civil society.
This act of barbarism by occupation army signifies the death of so-called Indian democracy. This latest killing of innocent civilians needs a transparent investigation by a neutral outside agency, like the United Nations.
And, now the arrest of world-renowned human rights activist Khurram Parvez by NIA of India on 21 November 2021 is obviously travesty of justice.
Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defender tweeted: He (Khurram Parvez) is not a terrorist. He is a Human Rights Defender.
India has legalized torture, arbitrary arrest, wanton destruction of property and has given its soldiers the right to kill at sight and to conduct searches without warrant. Here are a few black laws enacted by the Government of India which clearly violate international standards.
The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA). This law enables the Indian armed forces in Kashmir to detain civilians for up to one year without trial or due process for a wide variety of reasons, including the exercise of free speech.
Under this law, an individual who prints pamphlets and newsletters that advocate the implementation of the United Nations resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir can also be arrested and detailed without formal charge or due process.
That is why the Amnesty International calls the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, ‘Lawless Law.’ The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA). Under UAPA a person can be incarcerated up to 180 days without a charge sheet being filed.
It does not allow right to dissent. The Amnesty International Executive Director has said that UAPA has been used to “target journalists and human rights defenders who criticize government policies.”
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) [Jammu and Kashmir]. It allows the Governor of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to unilaterally ‘declare the whole or any part of the state to be a disturbed area.’
By identifying Kashmir as a disturbed area, this act empowers the armed forces to search homes without warrants, arrest Kashmiri people without warrant, destroy entire home and villages and shoot innocent civilians in the streets with intent to kill.
Dr Syed Nazir Gilani, President, Jammu Kashmir Council for Human Rights submitted a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council on August 30, 2019. He elaborated that there was a war going on between the people of Kashmir and the Indian Security forces. The June 2018 and July 2019 reports by OHCHR have detailed the situation.
According to these reports “The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) grants broad powers to the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and effectively bestows immunity on security forces from prosecution in civilian courts for their conduct, by requiring the Central Government to sanction all prospective prosecutions against such personnel”. Currently, two dangerous misunderstandings exist about the Kashmir issue.
If allowed to continue, they can destroy the potential of peace making in the subcontinent: These are:
(a) Kashmiris have been battered into submission by Indian forces through these draconian laws.
(b) India is unbendingly opposed to giving up her occupation of Kashmir; so it is futile to bring any pressure on her.
As regards the first, one needs only to recall what happened to a nation as great as France under the 5-year Nazi occupation.
That so many prominent Frenchmen and sections of French society refused to offer any resistance to German forces. Did they betoken even a limited popularity of the Nazis? Certainly not.
If this happened in France in four or five years of alien occupation, is it any wonder that it should happen in Kashmir after seventy-four years of unremittingly suppressive alien rule. The second misunderstanding arises from a superficial reading of realities.
During the last two years or so, particularly since August 5, 2019, when several articles have appeared in the international press written by thoughtful Indians opposed to the official policy on the issue. They take their stand not on morality but realistically on India’ own long-term interest.
That an unresolved Kashmir issue, the occupation of Kashmir in defiance of the people’s wishes, has damaged India’s democratic credentials and hence her standing and aspiration for an enhanced status in the United Nations.
If world powers want to help bring about a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute, it must demand from India as a first step, the immediate repeal of these black laws.
The world powers are in a position to arrest the course of brutalities by examining and exposing the situation and persuading both India and Pakistan that the way to bring peace and stability to the region of South Asia is by resolving the Kashmir dispute to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
—The writer is the Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness Forum.
