Qaisar Mansoor
In Indian illegally occupied Kashmir, thousands of Kashmiri youth have been subjected to enforced disappearance during custody by Indian troops and police over the last thirty two years.
According to a report released on the occasion of the International Day of Disappeared, today, Jammu and Kashmir being the most militarized zone in the world has witnessed killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other brutalities by the Indian forces over the last three decades.
The report said at-least 8,000 innocent civilians vanished in the Indian military and police custody after they were picked up by the Indian troops, police and paramilitary forces since 1989.
India has resorted to a series of illegal actions, gross and widespread violations of human rights and other crimes, including: extra-judicial killings of innocent Kashmiris in fake encounters; custodial killings and “cordon-and-search” operations; use of pellet guns to kill, maim and blind peaceful protestors; abduction and enforced disappearances of 15,000 young Kashmiri boys; incarceration of almost the entire Kashmiri leadership; and ‘collective punishments,’ with the destruction and burning of entire villages and urban neighbourhoods.
Thousands of unmarked and unknown graves of victims of enforced disappearances have surfaced in the Kashmir valley for the last few years. Since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, more than 636 Kashmiris have embraced martyrdom in fake ‘encounters’ and so-called ‘cordon-and-search operations’.
This year alone, 113 extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris have been recorded. The intensified military crackdown and the rising numbers of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK are part of the extremist anti-Muslim designs of the “Hindutva” inspired BJP-RSS combine in India. Ironically, Kashmiri youth have been a specific target of the 900,000 strong Indian military occupation force stationed in the IIOJK. India must realize that use of brutal force against the Kashmiri people, extra-judicial killings, custodial torture & deaths, forced disappearances, incarceration of Kashmiri leadership & youth and other methods of subjugation have failed in the past and will not succeed in the future.
Through a Dossier unveiled last year, Pakistan has provided to the world, incontrovertible evidence of the gross and systemic oppression and human rights violations by the Indian occupation forces in the IIOJK. Pakistan reiterates its call for investigation of extra-judicial killings in IIOJK by establishing an Independent Commission of Inquiry as recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019.
International community should hold India responsible for its brazen suppression of innocent Kashmiris and play its due role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
