By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: As a United Nations report seeking an international inquiry into multiple human rights violations and abuses and deliverance of justice for people in Kashmir gathers dust, the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continue to suffer in silence.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet at the start of the 48th session (2021) of the UN Human Rights Council on human rights developments around the world voiced her continued concern over the situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), saying the ongoing use of a tough law, was aimed at quelling dissent, was “worrying.”
“Indian authorities’ restrictions on public assembly, and frequent temporary communication blackouts, continue in Jammu and Kashmir, while hundreds of people remain in detention for exercising their right to the freedom of expression, and journalists face ever-growing pressure.”
“Ongoing use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act throughout India is worrying, with Jammu and Kashmir having among the highest number of cases in the country,” the UN rights chief said in the session on the disputed territory, adding that “such restrictive measures can result in human rights violations and foster further tensions and discontent.”
Michelle Bachelet has been expressing her concerns regarding the plight of people in IIOJK since 2018 after the first-ever report of the UN on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir was issued by the world body.
The report also expressed an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have suffered a conflict that has claimed or ruined numerous lives. The main focus of the report was the human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir from July 2016 to April 2018.
The Indian government on August 5, 2019, revoked Articles 370, 35A and other related provisions from its Constitution. The Narendra Modi regime locked down the region, detaining thousands of people, imposing movement restrictions, and enforcing a communications blackout.
What is happening in IIOJK post-August 2019 is nothing new. In the past, the valley witnessed coercive measures that caused killings, debilitating pellet injuries, unlawful detention and torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, etc.
The members of civil society and international humanitarian agencies have documented and campaigned around some of the gravest forms of human rights violation in Kashmir. The partition of the subcontinent in 1947 plan gave the right of self-determination to the people to decide their future. Ironically, India forcefully and illegally annexed Kashmir and took the matter to the United Nations, prompting the world body to declare that a plebiscite was the only legitimate solution to the problem.
However, India backed off its own commitment and started to dilly-dallying the implementation of the UN Resolutions. Kashmir, today, is the most militarized zone in the world. Illegal and draconian laws like PSA fully provide the cover to the Indian Occupation Forces to torment the innocent civilians and make them yield to the demands of India.
Indian forces have resorted to lockdowns, curfew, communication blackouts, rape, arson, kidnapping, illegal detentions etc.
