Spending on arms has escalated since India’s right-wing government came to power in 2014. The two countries that send India the most weapons to enable the ongoing occupation in Kashmir are Israel and the United States.
Indian Administered Kashmir is the most militarized region in the world, and is known as the biggest open jail existing on the face of earth. India has failed to maintained routine law and order in the disputed territory as it has mainly employed its security forces to violently deal with the peaceful freedom struggle of Kashmiris.
Kashmiris believe that even the Indian government has lost faith in its security agencies deployed in Indian Administered Kashmir, as they have been fully corrupted due to state patronage and are good for nothing. Rather, India has resorted to the policy of cover up of its persistent failures using the rhetoric of Pakistan backed armed resistance.
In the latest development, India has started to arm civilians in Indian Administered Kashmir to fight terrorists under the grab of VDGs. The VDGs comprising of Indian government selected and trained ‘civilian’ networks will be used to harass, intimidate, track and kill Kashmiri Muslims and suppress the freedom movement.
As, Indian government has rapidly ramped up efforts to change the demography of Indian Administered Kashmir, the re-creation of the VDGs seems to be the next big step in that direction.
The fear is that as more Indian settlers move into the region, they will also be provided with arms in order to consolidate their settler colonization.
Give that the VDGs are government backed, they will also be given complete impunity to terrorize local Muslims and tribal groups by threatening to take their property, committing acts of sexual violence, as well as killings and disappearances.
The existence of these groups will also exacerbate tensions between Hindus and Muslims living in these areas, especially as Hindu populations are provided with weapons and emboldened to commit war crimes and human rights violations against Muslims. International community must take stock of the Indian neo-Nazi machinations being employed in Indian Administered Kashmir and ensure safe guard of Muslims from the evolving existential threat in Indian Administered Kashmir.
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