Qaisar Mansoor
Each year, on 24 March, International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims is observed. Indian atrocities in IIOJK can well be defined as war crimes as per international law as the Kashmiris continue to suffer under brutal Indian occupation.
Women, men and children living in IIOJK have “faced pellet guns, sexual assault, electrocution, and physical and mental torture” at the hands of Indian forces. The genocide in IIOJK continues unabated leaving a blotch on India’s face of a ‘so-called champion of human rights’.
Continuation of inhuman military siege, machinations to bring demographic changes and gross violations of HR and international laws are perpetuating humanitarian and security crises in IIOJ&K that imperils regional security. Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism, martyred 95,979 innocent Kashmiris including 7,232 in custody, widowed 22,942, orphaned 107, 859 and molested 11,250 women since January 1989.
India occupied forces are involved in war crimes against Kashmiris. Recently, UK based law firm, “Stoke White” has filed an application along with dossier against Indian Army Chief and Home Minister Amit Shah vis-à-vis Indian war crimes in IIOJK with British Police.
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmad Shaheed, who presented the report to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council also denounced the wide-ranging Indian atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Indian occupied forces are relentlessly targeting Kashmiris, especially the youth, in IIOJK and are driven by extremist Hindutva ideology that provoked and condoned genocide of Muslims. Indian occupation army has intensified arbitrary detentions, night raids, coercion, harassment and humiliation of Kashmiris, and the extra-judicial killings in staged encounters and Cordon-And-Search-Operations continued unabated. Burial of the last remains of martyrs at unknown locations since April 2020 without the consent and presence of their families, is yet another abhorrent manifestation of the callous behavior and moral bankruptcy of BJP-RSS combination.
On 10 Dec 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted by representatives from all the regions of the world and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Since then, the declaration applies to all the signatory members of the UN, restraining them from abuse of any of the fundamental human rights protected in UDHR. Unfortunately, not all have adhered to these rights. The illegal occupation of the Kashmir Valley by the Indian government contravenes multiple articles of the 30 fundamental human rights stipulated in the UDHR.
Article 3 of UDHR affirms the right to life and to live in freedom and safety. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 43-page comprehensive report calling on both India and Pakistan to stop human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley. The report explicitly detailed civilian killings caused by excessive use of force. According to the report, 2018 saw the highest number of killings in a decade. Further, 162 conflict-based killings of civilians were recorded in early 2019.
It is also reported that Indian security forces continue to use pellet-firing shotguns in the Kashmir Valley as a method of crowd control. Human Rights Watch also notes that metal pellets shot by Indian forces upon civilians are extremely dangerous. The reported casualties and threats to the life of the people of Kashmir are in clear violation of Article 3 of UDHR.
Whenever a curfew is imposed, the probability of people facing multifaceted torture increases in that place. A newspaper writes in detail about systematic torture inflicted upon the people of Kashmir for decades. Human Rights Watch reports war crimes committed by the Indian forces who committed gang rapes of 882 Kashmiri women in 1992 alone. Their report, “Rape in Kashmir,” indicates that the security forces and militant armed groups raped civilians and detainees in Kashmir. In Kashmir, rape is used as a weapon of torture against the population. A local newspaper in the region reported 11,170 rape cases since the beginning of the conflict to date.
