Mohammad Jamil
On Friday, body of a martyred Kashmiri freedom fighter with chains around his legs and tied to the vehicle was dragged on a road in Katra. People of Kashmir in general and human rights activists in particular condemned the incident and called it a barbaric act. During a cordon and search operation in the Kakriyal area of the district, security personnel killed three Kashmiris in Reasi district on Thursday, the police had said. Kashmiri journalist Ahmed Ali Fayyaz said on Twitter, “To the best of our knowledge, no law, no international protocol does permit security forces to drag a dead militant’s body this way. This is why sometimes killing of one militant leads to induction of two fresh militants and the cycle goes unending. It is illegal and condemnable.” Anyhow, 11 Kashmiris have been killed by army personnel in Indian Occupied Kashmir during the last three days.
But blatant violation of human rights and killings continues unabated in IOK. In March 2018, Indian troops killed at least 20 youths during search operations in occupied Kashmir. Indian security forces had killed at least three civilians and wounded about 70 when hundreds of people tried to prevent them from carrying out operations against innocent people. At least 20 were killed in gun battles during the day in southern Kashmir, police officials said, the worst violence in the region this year. Security forces used tear gas and pellet guns to disperse the crowd, and later opened fire. Local residents said that after the protests, the security forces had called off the operation. Police said five militants and three soldiers were killed in the fighting. Kashmiri freedom fighters have been waging a campaign against Indian rule since the late 1980s in Indian-held Kashmir.
The scale of the popular uprising in Kashmir can be judged from the fact, that on many occasions during the month of July-August 2018, virtually the entire population of Srinagar came out on the streets to stage demonstrations to protest the attempt by the Government of India to scrap the Article 35 A of the Indian constitution, which gives the special rights and privileges to the state subject of Jammu and Kashmir. The abrogation of this constitutional provision is a conspiracy to change the demographic composition of the state. However, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing of Article 35-A till January 2019. Over the last seventy years, Indian occupation has become increasingly brutal. Indian army has tried its best to subjugate the people of Kashmir with its 700,000 military and paramilitary forces, but have not been able to bow them down.
The brutalities of Indian government should not go unnoticed, and it is the responsibility of the Kashmiri diaspora to raise the voice of voiceless people in the corridors of powers all over the world. There are UNSC resolutions bestowing on the people of Kashmir the right to self-determination, and could join India or Pakistan through plebiscite to be held under the aegis of the United Nations. First prime minister of India Jwaharlal Nehru had promised on the floor of the Assembly that US resolution would be implemented. Anyhow, peace in the region of South Asia remains elusive because of the Kashmir dispute. The Joint Resistance Leadership has described the statement of new UN rights chief, Michelle Bachelet as a ray of hope for the people of occupied Kashmir, facing the brunt of human rights violations at the hands of Indian occupation forces. However, the UN must act to implement the UNSC resolutions, which is the only way to bring peace in Kashmir and in the region at large.
