Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir

Last updated

Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Personnel (BSF) have been accused of committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. [1] [2] [3] [4] According to Seema Kazi, militant groups have also been held responsible for similar crimes, but the vast majority of abuses have been perpetrated by the armed forces of the Indian government. [5]

Contents

A 2006 report by Human Rights Watch claimed that at least 20,000 civilians had died from 1990 to 2017. [6] The Indian government claims 14,000 civilians have died because of the insurgency against Indian rule as of March 2017, with most of these deaths having taken place in the 1990s and early 2000s. [7] Pakistani officials say India has killed more than 100,000 Kashmiri civilians, of which 7,200 died from custodial torture. [8] [9] Moreover, they also claim 162,000 Kashmiris have been tortured. [8] [9]

India and Pakistan accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and targeting civilians at the Line of Control, the de facto border between Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. India also accuses alleged state-sponsored militants from Pakistan of committing human rights violations against Kashmiri civilians. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] Leaked diplomatic cables revealed that the Red Cross had briefed US officials in Delhi in 2005 about the use of torture from 2002 to 2004 by security forces against hundreds of detainees suspected of being connected to or having information about militants. [16] [17]

In a 1993 report, Human Rights Watch stated that Indian security forces "assaulted civilians during search operations, tortured and summarily executed detainees in custody and murdered civilians in reprisal attacks"; according to the report, militants had also targeted civilians, but to a lesser extent than security forces. Rape was regularly used as a means to "punish and humiliate" communities. [18] Scholar Seema Kazi says it is used as a weapon of war by the state against the population. [19] [ better source needed ] A 2010 US state department report stated that the Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir had carried out extrajudicial killings of civilians and suspected insurgents. The report also described killings and abuse being carried out by insurgents and separatists. [20] In 2010, statistics presented to the Indian government's Cabinet Committee on Security showed that for the first time since the 1980s, the number of civilian deaths attributed to the Indian forces was higher than those attributed to insurgents' actions. [21] The Indian Army claims that 97% of the reports about the human rights abuse have been found to be "fake or motivated" based on the investigation performed by the Army. [22] However, a report by the US State Department said, "Indian authorities use Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to avoid holding its security forces responsible for the deaths of civilians in Jammu and Kashmir." [23]

Militant violence in the 1990s, led by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front against Kashmiri Hindu Pandits has led to the exodus of several hundred thousands of them out of the Kashmir valley, who comprised an estimated ~5% of the valley's population before. [24] [25] According to Asia Watch, the militant organisations forced the Hindus residing in the Kashmir valley to flee and become refugees in Delhi and Jammu. The chief perpetrators were the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front and the Hizbul Mujahideen. Migration continued until a vast majority of the Kashmiri Pandits were evicted out of the valley after having suffered many acts of violence, including sexual assault on women, arson, torture and extortion of property. [1] [24] Some of the separatist leaders in Kashmir reject this, while others accept it. The Indian government is attempting to reinstate the displaced Pandits in Kashmir. According to the J & K government an amount of ₹71.95 crore was spent in providing relief and other facilities to the Kashmiri migrants living in Jammu and other parts in 2007–08, ₹70.33 crore in 2008-09 and ₹68.59 crore from 2009 up to January 2010. [25] The remnants of Kashmiri Pandits have been living in Jammu, but most of them believe that, until the violence ceases, returning to Kashmir is not an option. [26]

According to a 2022 report by Amnesty International, repression by Indian government has intensified in the region after the abrogation of article 370 in 2019. Amnesty recognized at least 60 instances of human rights violations. The internet was shut down for 18 months after the revocation of special status of the region. The information coming out of the region is totally controlled by the government, with regular internet shut downs and passing policies like 2020 Revised Media Policy and 2021 Film Policy, which restrict press freedom. Indian government shut down Kashmir Press Club which led to further decline in the media coverage and freedom in the region. At least six journalists, human rights activists, and academics were denied travelling abroad despite having all the required documents, restricting freedom of movement without a court warrant or a written explanation. [27] [28]

Indian Armed Forces

Thousands of Kashmiris have been reported to be killed by Indian security forces in custody, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances and these human right violations are said to be carried out by Indian security forces under total impunity. [4] [29] Civilians including women and children have been killed in "reprisal" attacks by Indian security forces. International NGOs, as well as the US State Department, have documented human rights abuses including disappearances, torture, and arbitrary executions carried out during India's counter-terrorism operations. [24]

United Nations has expressed serious concerns over large number of killings by Indian security forces. [30] Human Rights groups have also accused the Indian security forces of using child soldiers, [31] although the Indian government denies this allegation. [3] [note 1] So far more than 15,000 inhabitants, reportedly including teenagers, have joined these self-defence groups. [32]
At the Asia-Pacific Conference on the Use of Children as Soldiers in May 2000 the representative of the state government of Jammu and Kashmir denied the involvement of children in VDCs. He acknowledged that there may have been some instances of young boys taking up arms to defend themselves under attack, but that there was "no policy to encourage young boys to become members of the Village Defence Committees." Torture, widely used by Indian security sources, whose severity is described as beyond comprehension by Amnesty International, has been responsible for the huge number of deaths in custody. [33]

The Telegraph, citing a WikiLeaks report, quotes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Indian security forces were physically abusing detainees with beatings, electrocutions and sexual interference. These detainees weren't Islamic insurgents or Pakistani-backed insurgents but civilians, in contrast to India's continual allegations of Pakistani involvement. The detainees were "connected to or believed to have information about the insurgents". According to ICRC, 681 of the 1296 detainees whom it interviewed claimed torture. US officials have been quoted reporting "terrorism investigations and court cases tend to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not beatings, threats, or in some cases torture." [34]

Amnesty International accused security forces of exploiting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that enables them to "hold prisoners without trial". The group argues that the law, which allows security to detain individuals for as many as two years "without presenting charges, violating prisoners' human rights". [35] The Army sources maintain that "any move to revoke AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir would be detrimental to the security of the Valley and would provide a boost to the terrorists." [36]

Former Indian Army Chief General V. K. Singh rejected the accusations that the action was not taken in the cases of human rights violations by Army personnel. On 24 October 2010, he has said that 104 Army personnel had been punished in Jammu and Kashmir in this regard, including 39 officers. He also said that 95% of the allegations of human rights abuses against Indian Army were proved to be false, of which he remarked, had apparently been made with the "ulterior motive of maligning the armed forces". Going into details, he said: 'since 1994, 988 allegations against the Army personnel were received in Jammu and Kashmir. Out of these, 965 cases were investigated in which 940 were found to be untrue, accounting for 95.2%, leaving only 25 genuine allegations.' [37] However, according to Human Rights Watch, the military courts in India, in general, were proved to be incompetent to deal with cases of serious human rights abuses and were responsible in covering up evidence and protecting the involved officers. [38] Amnesty International in its report in 2015, titled "Denied"-Failures in Accountability in Jammu and Kashmir, says, "...with respect to investigations, an inquiry that is conducted by the same authority accused of the crime raises serious questions about the independence and impartiality of those proceedings", adding that according to the international law, an independent authority that is not involved in the alleged violations has to investigate such crimes. [39]

In the later revelations on 24 September 2013 made by General V. K. Singh, he said that the state politicians of Jammu and Kashmir are funded by an Army secret service to keep the general public at calm and this activity is there since the partition. [40] [41]

Indian Army

The soldiers of the 4th Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army on 23 February 1991 launched a search operation for the militants in a village Kunan Poshpora, in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir and after which they were accused by locals of allegedly raping 23 women. [42] : 490  Later, interviews of victims and eyewitnesses were documented into a short film Ocean of Tears which was prevented from being broadcast. [43] [44] Nevertheless, the Indian committee that led a thorough investigation concluded that the allegations were "grossly exaggerated" and the Kunan rape story was "a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathisers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad as a part of sustained and cleverly contrived strategy of psychological warfare and as an entry point for re-inscribing Kashmir on the International Agenda as a Human rights issue." [45] However, Human Rights organisations including Human Rights Watch have reported that the number of raped women could be as high as 100. [46] [47] [48] The Indian Army has also harmed the health care system in the valley. Major hospitals in Kashmir have experienced crackdowns and army men have even entered the operation theatres in search of insurgents. [49]

Border Security Force

On 22 October 1993, the 13th Battalion of the Border Security Forces was accused of arbitrarily firing on a crowd and killing 37 civilians in Bijbehara [50] [51] The number of reported dead and wounded vary by source. Amnesty International reported that at least 51 people died and 200 were wounded on that day. [52]

The Indian government conducted two official enquiries and the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) conducted a third. In March 1994 the government indicted the Border Security Force (BSF) for firing into the crowd "without provocation" and charged 13 BSF officers with murder. [50] In another incident which took place at Handwara on 25 January 1990, 9 protesters were killed by the same unit. [53]

Central Reserve Police Force

During the Amarnath land transfer controversy more than 40 unarmed protesters were killed by the personnel of Central Reserve Police Force. [54] [55] The same practice was again repeated by the personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, during the 2010 Kashmir Unrest, which resulted in 112 deaths, including many teenager protesters at various incidents. [56]

Special Operations Group

The Special Operations Group was raised in 1994 for counter-terrorism. A volunteer force, mainly comprising police officers and policemen from the Jammu and Kashmir Police. [57] The group is accused of torture and custodial killings. [58] A Senior Superintendent of this group and his deputy are among the 11 personnel, who were convicted for a fake encounter, which killed a local carpenter, and was labelled as a militant to get the promotions and rewards. [59] [60]

Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

In September 1990 the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was enacted in Jammu and Kashmir after passing in the Parliament of India to handle the rise in Kashmir Insurgency. [61] Human rights group Amnesty claim that the special powers under (AFSPA) gives the security force immunity from alleged violations committed, [62] [63] and condemn it. [64] [65] [66] United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir. [67]

Massacres

The Indian security forces are also accused of many massacres. Some of them include:

Gawakadal massacre: On 21 January 1990, 51 civilians were killed by CRPF troopers during protests against earlier raids in which wanton arrests and molestation of women were conducted by CRPF troops. [68]

Handwara massacre: On 25 January 1990, two BSF patrolling parties in Handwara indiscriminately fired at peaceful protesters and killed 25 people. Many people were injured. [69]

Zakoora and Tengpora massacre: Indian forces killed 33 protesters and injured 47 on 1 March 1990 at Zakoora Crossing and Tengpora Bypass Road in Srinagar. The killers were not punished. [70]

Hawal massacre: At the funeral of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq on 21 May 1990 over 60 civilians were killed by paramilitary forces and hundreds injured in the indiscriminate firing on the funeral procession. [71]

Sopore massacre: On 6 January 1993 Indian troops killed 55 civilians in the town of Sopore and set fire to many homes and buildings. [72]

Bijbehara Massacre: On 22 October 1993 the Indian Army killed 51 civilians during protests over the siege of the Hazratbal Mosque. 25 of those killed were students None of the accused were punished. [73]

Kupwara massacre: On 27 January 1994 the Indian Army fired at and killed 27 civilians, mainly traders, in Kupwara district. Survivors say that the soldiers carried out the massacre to punish people for observing shutdown on 26 January. [74]

Fake encounters and killings

Hundreds of civilians including women and children have reportedly been extrajudicially executed by Indian security forces and the killings are concealed as fake encounters. [64] Despite government denial, Indian security officials have reportedly confessed to Human Rights Watch of the widespread occurrence of fake encounters and its encouragement for awards and promotions [75] According to a BBC interview with an anonymous security person, 'fake encounter' killings are those in which security personnel kill someone in cold blood while claiming that the casualty occurred in a gun battle. It also asserts that the security personnel are Kashmiris and "even surrendered militants". [76]

In 2010 three men were reported missing proceeding these missing reports 3 men claimed to be militants were killed in a staged gun battle the army also claimed they had found Pakistani currency among the dead. The major was subsequently suspended and a senior soldier transferred from his post. [77] In 2011, a Special Police Officer and an Indian Army Jawan were charged by the Kashmir police for murder of a civilian whom the duo had killed in an encounter claiming that he was a top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. [78]

Disappearances

Indian security forces have been implicated in many reports for enforced disappearances of thousands of Kashmiris whereas the security forces deny having their information and/or custody. This is often in association with torture or extrajudicial killing. The extent of male disappearances has been so large that a new term "half-widows" has been created for their wives who end up with no information of their husbands' whereabouts. Human right activists estimate the number of disappeared to be over eight thousand, last seen in government detention. [64] [75] [79] The disappeared are believed to be dumped in thousands of mass graves across Kashmir. [80] [81] [82] [83] [84]

Mass graves

Mass graves have been identified all over Kashmir by human right activists believed to contain bodies of thousands of Kashmiris of enforced disappearances. [85] [84] A State Human Rights Commission inquiry in 2011, has confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 2730 bodies uncovered in 4 of the 14 districts, 574 bodies were identified as missing locals in contrast to the Indian governments insistence that all the graves belong to foreign militants [85] [86] According to deposition submitted by Parvez Imroz and his field workers in 2011, the total number of unmarked graves was more than 6,000. [87]

Extrajudicial killings by security personnel

In a 1994 report, Human Rights Watch described summary executions of detainees as a "hallmark" of counter-insurgency operations by Indian security forces in Kashmir. The report further stated that such extrajudicial killings were often administered within hours of arrest, and were carried out not as aberrations but as a "matter of policy". [88] In a 1995 report, Amnesty International stated that hundred of civilians had been victims of such killings, which were often claimed by officers as occurring during "encounters" or "cross-fire". [89]

Torture

Indian security forces and police have been accused of the systematic use of torture. US officials first showed concern regarding the widespread use of torture in 2007 where they presented evidence to Indian diplomats. [90] [91] [92]

In 2012, human rights lawyer Parvez Imroz and his field workers commenced the first statewide study of torture in Kashmir and his report concluded that torture in Kashmir is both endemic and systematic. The report suggests that one in six Kashmiris have faced torture. In Imroz's study sample of 50 villages, more than 2,000 extreme cases of torture were identified and documented, where he found that there were 50 centers run by the army and paramilitaries, where torture has been practised since 1989. [92]

In 2023, armed forces entered the mosque in Zadoora, Jammu and Kashmir, and forced the villagers to chant pro-Hindu slogans. This event was condemned by various political leaders and was seen as assault on religious freedom. [93] [94] [95]

Sexual violence

Although both security forces and militants are guilty of rape, according to scholar Seema Kazi and Jeffrey Kenney, rape by the former outstrips the latter in both scale and frequency. [96] [97] [98] Rape is said to have been used as a weapon of war against the Kashmiri population. [99] [100] [101] The frequent rape of Kashmiri Muslim women by Indian state security forces routinely goes unpunished. [102] According to a report by Human Rights Watch in 1993, the security forces use rape as a method of retaliation against Kashmiri civilians during reprisal attacks after militant ambushes. [101] [103] [104] Professor William Baker states that rape in Kashmir was not the result of a few undisciplined soldiers but an active strategy of the security forces to humiliate and intimidate the Kashmiri population. [105] Human rights groups state that 150 top officers, of the rank of major or above, have participated in torture as well as sexual violence and that the Indian government was covering up such acts. [90] [91]

Suicide and psychological problems

Kashmiri women are reportedly said to be highly prone to suicidal tendencies due to the conflict-situations. The fear, stress, tension, and uncertainty prevailing in the state are said to be the main reasons for this. According to a survey in 2012, 17,000 people, mostly women, have committed suicide during the past 20 years in the Valley. [106] [107] [108] According to a study by the Medecins Sans Frontieres,

"Women in Kashmir have suffered enormously since the separatist struggle became violent in 1989–90. Like the women in other conflict zones, they have been raped, tortured, maimed, and killed. A few of them were even jailed for years together. Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. Sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6% of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse". [109]

Due to the impact of the conflict, a number of people in the valley suffer from various psychological problems like stress (normal or related to traumatic event), anxiety, mood, and post-traumatic disorders. At the beginning of the insurgency, there were 1200 patients in the valley's sole mental hospital.[ citation needed ]

International response

A 2010 US State Department report cited extrajudicial killings by security forces in areas of conflict such as Kashmir as a major human rights problem in India. [20] The British parliament expressed its sadness and regret over the discovery of over 6,000 unmarked graves in Kashmir. [110] Christof Heyns, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has warned India that "all of these draconian laws had no place in a functioning democracy and should be scrapped". [87] [111]

On 14 June 2018 for the first time ever UN human rights council released a report of 49 pages on human rights violations in Kashmir and accused both India and Pakistan on the issue. The report also urges to set up a COI to investigate the issue of human rights violations in Kashmir. Pakistan welcomed the step while India rejected, saying the report violates India's sovereignty. Further India says facts in the report are not authentic and misleading, use of term armed group instead of terrorist group and leaders instead of terrorists is not acceptable. [112]

Kashmiri militants

Reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists have confirmed Indian reports of systematic human rights violations by militants who claim Jammu and Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. [24] The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has also been blamed of carrying out human rights violations, ranging from kidnapping to ethnic cleansing of several hundred thousand Hindu Kashmiri Pandits. [24] A 2010 US state department report blamed separatist insurgents in Kashmir and other parts of the country of committing several serious abuses, including the killing of security personnel as well as civilians, and of engaging in widespread torture, rape, beheadings, kidnapping, and extortions. [20]

Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits

Kashmiri Pandits had been a favoured section of the population during Dogra rule (1846–1947). About 20 per cent of them had left the Kashmir valley by 1950 after the land reforms [113] and they began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s. According to a number of authors, approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during that decade. [114] Other authors have suggested a higher figure for the exodus, ranging from the entire population of over 150,000, [115] to 190,000 of a total Pandit population of 200,000, [116] to a number as high as 253,000. [117] The US government has reported on the terrorist threat to Pandits still living in the Kashmir region. [118]

The alleged rigging of the 1987 Assembly Elections by the ruling party, National Conference, [119] saw the rise of an armed rebellion among Kashmiris associated with the Muslim United Front (MUF), a conglomerate of several Muslim political organisations opposed to National Conference. During the eruption of the armed rebellion, the insurgents are reported to have specifically targeted the Pandits, with torture and killings. [26] Reports by Indian government state that 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed from 1989 to 2004 and around 140,000 migrated due to militancy while over 3000 stayed in the valley [120] [121] The local organisation of Pandits in Kashmir, Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti after carrying out a survey in 2008 and 2009, claimed that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by insurgents from 1990 to 2011 with 75% of them being killed during the first year of the Kashmiri insurgency. [122] [123] Motilal Bhat, the president of the Pandit Hindu Welfare Society, rejected the figure of 399 killed and said that only 219 were killed. [124]

Kashmiri separatists believe that the then Governor Jagmohan encouraged the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley by deliberately creating an atmosphere of paranoia. This, they claim, was done to "facilitate the counter-insurgency" operations and suppressing the anti-Indian uprising in Kashmir. [125] [126] The mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley started on 19 January 1990 immediately preceding the first massacre of Kashmiri Muslims at Gawakadal. The Gawakadal massacre was followed by eight other major massacres and allegations of fake encounters, enforced disappearances, tortures and crackdown operations. [127] [ unreliable source? ]. [124] Pro-India commentators have refuted this version as a false allegation "to hide the truth".[ citation needed ]

Our people were killed. I saw a girl tortured with cigarette butts. Another man had his eyes pulled out and his body hung on a tree. The armed separatists used a chainsaw to cut our bodies into pieces. It wasn't just the killing but the way they tortured and killed.

— A crying old Kashmiri Hindu in refugee camps of Jammu told BBC news reporter [26]

The violence against Kashmiri Pandits was condemned and labelled as ethnic cleansing in a 2006 resolution passed by the United States Congress. [128] It stated that insurgents infiltrated the region in 1989 and began an ethnic cleansing campaign to convert Kashmir to a Muslim state. According to the same, the population of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir had declined from 400,000 in 1989 to 4,000 in 2011. [129] Historian Mridu Rai says that such high numbers are not credible because the total Kashmiri Pandit population was only 160,000 to 170,000 at the time of their departure. [130]

The CIA has reported nearly 506,000 people, about half of which are Pandit Hindus are displaced due to the insurgency. [117] [131] The United Nations Commission on Human Rights reports that there are roughly 1.5 million refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir, bulk of whom arrived in Pakistan administered Kashmir and in Pakistan after the situation on the Indian side worsened in 1989 insurgency. [132]

Post-1989, Kashmiri Pandits and other minority groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been targets of jihadi elements which India alleges and blames on the Inter-Services Intelligence. [133] The Kashmiri Pandits, a community of Hindu Brahmins, then comprising 5% of the population of the state were the primary targets of Islamic militants, who also sought to also eliminate Kashmir's record of 5000 years of Hindu Sanskrit culture and scholarship as well as the tolerant indigenous multiculturalism referred to as Kashmiriyat . [134] As many as 170,000 Kashmiri Pandits are estimated to have fled the state due to being targeted and threatened by militant groups. [135] In 1989, attacks on Pandits escalated and Muslim paramilitaries selectively raped, tortured and killed Kashmiri Pandits, burnt their temples, idols and holy books. The Pandits fled en masse from the state after which their houses were burnt by militants and their artwork and sculptures were destroyed. [134]

In August 2000, militant groups killed 30 Hindu pilgrims in what became known as the 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre. [136] The Indian government blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the killings. [137] [138] The BBC writes that "hundreds of Hindu labourers ha[d] been leaving the Kashmir Valley" in August 2000 due to targeted killings against Hindu workers. [136]

Other minorities such as Kashmiri Sikhs were also targeted. According to Chitkara, the killing of Sikhs near Anantnag in 2001, by the Jehadis was aimed at ethnic cleansing. Hindus have migrated from most of the Kashmir valley, Sikhs who form a very small percentage could be forced to migrate in the wake of such killings. [139] The Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed by Indian government for the Chittisinghpura massacre, which killed 36 Sikhs at the time of Clinton's visit to India. [140] In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, confessed to the National Investigation Agency that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre. [141]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Indian Government claims that even though children can join the armed forces, they are not formally enrolled into regular service before the age of 18. [..]In Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian army has armed local Village Defence Committees (VDC) – primarily Hindus – in Doda, Udhampur and the border districts to assist security forces in anti-insurgency operations.(HRW, Behind the Kashmir Conflict: Abuses by Indian Security Forces and Militant Groups Continue, op. cit.; Bukhari, S., "Militants kill 19 in Jammu", The Hindu, 21 July 1999.)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jammu and Kashmir (state)</span> 1952–2019 state administered by India

Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century. The underlying region of this state were parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, whose western districts, now known as Azad Kashmir, and northern territories, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, are administered by Pakistan. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.

Armed Forces Act (AFSPA), 1958 is an act of the Parliament of India that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain public order in "disturbed areas". According to the Disturbed Areas Act, 1976 once declared 'disturbed', the area has to maintain status quo for a minimum of 3 months. One such act passed on 11 September 1958 was applicable to the Naga Hills, then part of Assam. In the following decades it spread, one by one, to the other Seven Sister States in India's northeast. Another one passed in 1983 and applicable to Punjab and Chandigarh was withdrawn in 1997, roughly 14 years after it came to force. An act passed in 1990 was applied to Jammu and Kashmir and has been in force since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir</span> Ongoing separatist militancy in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir

The insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, also known as the Kashmir insurgency, is an ongoing separatist militant insurgency against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir, a territory constituting the southwestern portion of the larger geographical region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashmir conflict</span> Territorial conflict in South Asia

The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier, and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.

The Gawkadal massacre was named after the Gawkadal bridge in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India, where, on 21 January 1990, the Indian paramilitary troops of the Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on a group of Kashmiri protesters in what has been described by some authors as "the worst massacre in Kashmiri history". Between 50 and 100 people were killed, some from being shot and others from drowning. The massacre happened two days after the Government of India appointed Jagmohan as the Governor for a second time in a bid to control the mass protests by Kashmiris.

2003 Nadimarg massacre was the killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in the village of Nadimarg in Pulwama District of Jammu and Kashmir on 23 March 2003. The Government of India blamed militants from the Pakistan-based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba but failed to secure convictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 Bijbehara massacre</span>

The Bijbehara Massacre took place when 74th Battalion Border Security Force (BSF) fired upon protesters in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, India on 22 October 1993, killing 51 civilians. In the official version of events, BSF had only acted in self-defense when fired upon by militants; however, this narrative was rejected by Human Rights Watch citing the 1993 U.S. Department of State country report on human rights in India which said, "Despite government claims that the security forces were ambushed by militants, only one BSF sub inspector was injured."

From 1984 to 1995, the state of Punjab in northern India was engaged in a power struggle between the militant secessionist Khalistan movement and Indian security forces. The Indian government responded to the escalating Punjab insurgency by launching Operation Blue Star in 1984, storming the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple complex in Amritsar—the center of Sikh religious and spiritual life, where some militant groups had retreated. The Operation was controversial and resulted in death of hundreds of civilians, militants and soldiers. After Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a state wide massacre ensued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Kashmir unrest</span> Violent protests and riots in Kashmir, India

The 2010 Kashmir unrest was a series of violent protests and riots in the Kashmir Division and Northern Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir, India which started in June 2010 after the Indian Army claimed to have killed three Pakistani infiltrators in which a soldier of the Territorial Army, a counter-insurgent and a former special police officer had found three young men from their Nadihal village in Baramulla district and killed them in a "staged" encounter at Sona Pindi. The protests occurred in a movement launched by Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in June 2010, who called for the complete demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference made this call to a strike, citing human rights abuses by security forces. Rioters shouting pro-independence slogans, defied curfew, attacked riot police with stones and burnt vehicles and buildings. The protests started out as anti India protests but later were also targeted against the United States following the 2010 Qur'an-burning controversy. The riot police consisting of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Indian Para-military forces fired teargas shells rubber bullets and also live ammunition on the protesters, resulting in 112 deaths, including many teenagers and an 11-year-old boy. The protests subsided after the Indian government announced a package of measures aimed at defusing the tensions in September 2010.

Secession in India typically refers to state secession, which is the withdrawal of one or more states from the Republic of India. Whereas, some have wanted a separate state, union territory or an autonomous administrative division within India. Many separatist movements exist with thousands of members, however, some have low local support and high voter participation in democratic elections. However, at the same time, demanding separate statehood within under the administration of Indian union from an existing state can lead to criminal charges under secession law in India. India is described as an ‘Union of States’ in Article 1 of the Indian constitution I.e "Indestructible nation of destructible states" by its father of constitution Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar where a state or Union territory of India cannot secede from India by any means and the Central Government has more powers than the respective state governments and can forcefully change the names and boundaries of the states without their permission at any time when needed for self interest and for the maintenance of integrity.

Human rights abuses in Kashmir have been perpetrated by various belligerents in the territories controlled by both India and Pakistan since the two countries' conflict over the region began with their first war in 1947–1948, shortly after the partition of British India. The organized breaches of fundamental human rights in Kashmir are tied to the contested territorial status of the region, over which India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars. More specifically, the issue pertains to abuses committed in Indian-administered Kashmir and in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights issues in Northeast India</span> Sushanta Chowdhury (Minister of Tripura)

Human rights issues in northeast India have been widely reported in the press and by human rights activists. Northeast India refers to the north-easternmost region of India consisting of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, as well as parts of northern West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus</span> Exodus of Hindus from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s

The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency. Of a total Pandit population of 120,000–140,000 some 90,000–100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave by the middle of 1990, by which time about 30–80 of them are said to have been killed by militants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burhan Wani</span> Kashmiri Islamist militant (1994–2016)

Burhan Wani was a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, an Islamist militant organization and insurgent group of the Kashmir conflict. He had become a popular figure amongst the local Kashmiri populace, having done so primarily through a strong social media presence, and was responsible for moulding the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir into a youth-oriented movement. Wani was a militant leader and had reportedly recruited numerous foot-soldiers through his personal efforts.

Farooq Ahmed Dar known by his nom de guerre Bitta Karate, is a Kashmiri-separatist militant , who currently serves as the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (R) in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016–2017 Kashmir unrest</span> Pro Independence demonstrations in Indian Administered Kashmir

The 2016–2017 unrest in Kashmir, also known as the Burhan aftermath, refers to protests in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, chiefly in the Kashmir Valley. It started after the killing of militan leader Burhan Wani by Indian security forces on 8 July 2016. Wani was a commander of the Kashmir-based Islamist militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen.

The Kashmir conflict has been beset by large scale usage of sexual violence by multiple belligerents since its inception.

Women's rights in Jammu and Kashmir is a major issue. Belonging to a patriarchal society, they have had to fight inequality and routine discrimination. Since the onset of insurgency in 1988, rape has been leveraged as a popular 'weapon of war' by Indian security forces. Separatist militants have also committed rapes, which remain under-researched but are not comparable in scale to that of the Indian state forces. Women's rights in Kashmir Valley has major issues as there is harassment of young muslim women participating in sports activities, demands of dowry after marriage, domestic violence incidents, acid attacks on women, and men being generally taken in a higher regard than women. Many small organisations have been formed to struggle for women's rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released two reports on "the situation of human rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir". The first report released on 14 June 2018 was the first ever issued by the United Nations on human rights in Kashmir. The second update report was released on 8 July 2019. The first report covered June 2016 to April 2018 while the second report covered the period May 2018 to April 2019. In both cases the reactions of Pakistan and India were diametrically opposite.

Abdul Hamid Bhatt was a commander in the Islamist militant organisation Hizbul Mujaheddin. He was killed in an encounter on 13 March 2000 by Indian security forces. Hamid Gada, at the time of his death, was the most wanted North Kashmiri militant. He had been called "Jammu and Kashmir's most important terrorist leader" by Indian journalist Praveen Swami, responsible for the massacres of numerous Kashmiri Hindus, including the 1998 Wandhama massacre. Press Trust of India said that in total, over a period of ten years of militancy, he was responsible for killing over a hundred civilians.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 "23 years on, Kashmiri Pandits remain refugees in their own nation". Rediff News. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  2. ↑ Hindwan, Sudhir (1998). Verma, Bharat (ed.). "Policing the police". Indian Defence Review. 13 (2): 95. ISSN   0970-2512.
  3. 1 2 Hartjen, Clayton; S. Priyadarsini (2011). The Global Victimization of Children: Problems and Solutions (2012 ed.). Springer. p.  106. ISBN   978-1-4614-2178-8.
  4. 1 2 "Document – India: Jammu/Kashmir government should implement human rights program". Amnesty International. 27 October 2002. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  5. ↑ Kazi, Seema. Gender and Militarization in Kashmir. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Sordid and gruesome as the militant record of violence against Kashmiri women and civilians is, it does not compare with the scale and depth of abuse by Indian State forces for which justice has yet to be done.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ↑ Everyone Lives in Fear: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir (PDF) (Report). Human Rights Watch. September 2006. p. 1.
  7. ↑ Jayanth Jacob; Aurangzeb Naqshbandi. "41,000 deaths in 27 years: The anatomy of Kashmir militancy in numbers". Hindustan Times . Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Pakistan attacks India at U.N. again over Kashmir". The Hindu. 2 October 2015. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  9. 1 2 Hanan, Abdul (4 November 2022). "Kashmiris being faced with an unending ordeal of terror, trauma" . Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "Pakistan Violated Ceasefire in Jammu And Kashmir 685 Times in 8 Months". HuffPost. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Kashmir: India says eight civilians injured in Pakistan firing". BBC. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "1 killed, 9 injured as Pakistan trains guns on civilians". The Hindu. 3 January 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Pakistan continues to violate ceasefire, kills 5 civilians". Hindustan Times. 7 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  14. ↑ "Pakistan violates ceasefire yet again; 2 civilians killed in J&K". The Times of India. 23 August 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "LoC violation: Indian forces target Harpal sector in Sialkot". Dunya News. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  16. ↑ Burke, Jason (16 December 2010). "WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir". The Guardian. London.
  17. ↑ "US embassy cables: Red Cross clashes with India over treatment of detainees". The Guardian. 16 December 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  18. ↑ "Rape in Kashmir: A Crime of War" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 1993. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  19. ↑ Kazi, Seema. Between democracy and nation: Gender and militarisation in Kashmir. Diss. London School of Economics and Political Science (United Kingdom), 2008.
  20. 1 2 3 "2010 Human Rights Reports: India". State.gov. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  21. ↑ "For the first time, security men kill more civilians than terrorists in J&K". The Times of India . 7 September 2010. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  22. ↑ "Why Kashmiris want the hated AFSPA to go". Daily News Analysis. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  23. ↑ "India uses AFSPA to obscure civilian killings in Kashmir: US Report". greaterkashmir.com. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 Tolley, Howard B. Jr. (2009), "Kashmir", in David P Forsythe (ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 3, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 306, ISBN   978-0-19-533402-9 , retrieved 23 September 2012
  25. 1 2 Bukhari, Shujaat (23 March 2010). "219 Kashmiri Pandits killed by militants since 1989". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  26. 1 2 3 Paradise lost, BBC World Service, undated. Retrieved August 2016.
  27. ↑ "'We are being punished by the law'". Amnesty International. 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  28. ↑ Mir, Shakir (5 September 2022). "In Jarring Report, Amnesty Notes 'Drastically Intensified Repression' in J&K Since 2019". The Wire . Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  29. ↑ "Shadow report for the Universal Periodic Review of India 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  30. ↑ Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, E/CN.4/1994/7, paragraph 327
  31. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (19 February 1997). "Refworld | Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 – India". United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  32. ↑ ("Jammu & Kashmir: the new vigilantes: despite lack of proper training and sophisticated arms, Village Defence Committees are proving invaluable in the fight against militancy in the state", India Today, 11 October 1999.
  33. ↑ "India: Torture continues in Jammu and Kashmir | Amnesty International". www.amnesty.org. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  34. ↑ Allen, Nick (17 December 2010). "WikiLeaks: India 'systematically torturing civilians in Kashmir'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  35. ↑ Huey, Caitlin (28 March 2011). "Amnesty International Cites Human Rights Abuse in Kashmir". Usnews.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  36. ↑ "Army opposes Omar's plans to revoke AFSPA: Report - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  37. ↑ "104 armymen punished for human rights violations in JK: Gen VK Singh | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. 24 October 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  38. ↑ "Rape by Security Forces: The Pattern of Impunity". Human Rights Watch. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  39. ↑ Correspondent, Reader (3 September 2016). "96% complaints against army rejected by GoI under 'colonial' AFSPA: Amnesty". Kashmir Reader. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  40. ↑ "Paying ministers nothing new in J&K, former Army chief Gen VK Singh". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  41. ↑ "JK ministers on Army payroll: Gen Singh". greaterkashmir.com. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  42. ↑ Manoj Joshi (January 1999). The Lost Rebellion. Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-027846-0.
  43. ↑ Billal A. Jan (Director) (2012). Ocean of Tears (Excerpt) (Youtube). Jammu and Kashmir: PSBTIndia.
  44. ↑ "A documentary movie on Kashmir lands in controversy". english.samaylive.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  45. ↑ Crisis and credibility: Press Council of India. Lancer International. December 1991. pp. 12. ISBN   8170621526.
  46. ↑ Abdul Majid Mattu (2002). Kashmir issue: a historical perspective. Ali Mohammad & Sons.
  47. ↑ Abdication of Responsibility: The Commonwealth and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. 1991. pp. 13–20. ISBN   978-1-56432-047-6.
  48. ↑ James Goldston; Patricia Gossman (1991). Kashmir Under Siege: Human Rights in India. Human Rights Watch. pp. 88–91. ISBN   978-0-300-05614-3.
  49. ↑ The Human Rights Crisis in Kashmir: A Pattern of Impunity . Asia Watch Committee (U.S.), Human Rights Watch (Organization), Physicians for Human Rights (U.S.). Human Rights Watch, 1993. 1993. p. –115, 116. ISBN   9781564321046 . Retrieved 11 September 2012.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  50. 1 2 Siddharth Varadarajan and Manoj Joshi, BSF record: Guilty are seldom punished The Times of India, India, 21 April 2002
  51. ↑ Shibli, Murtaza. "Bijbehara Massacre: 22 October 1993". Kashmir Affairs. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  52. ↑ "Amnesty International Report 1994 – India". Amnesty International. 1 January 1994. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  53. ↑ Goldston, James; Gossman, Patricia (1991). Kashmir under siege: Human rights in India. Human Rights Watch. p. 59. ISBN   978-0300056143 . Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  54. ↑ "BBC World Service  – Non-violent protest in Kashmir". Bbc.co.uk. 14 October 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  55. ↑ "South Asia | Top Kashmir separatists detained". BBC News. 5 September 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  56. ↑ "India to free protesters in Kashmir peace move". Reuters. 30 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  57. ↑ "Special Operations Group". uttaranchalpolice.com. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  58. ↑ "J&K: Sopore protests death of youth in police custody". India Today. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  59. ↑ "Azad orders probe into Padroo's killing". The Indian Express. 13 February 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  60. ↑ "Ganderbal Fake encounter case". kashmirwatch. Archived from the original on 5 April 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  61. ↑ “(PDF) The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990” Archived 1 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine Indian Ministry of Law and Justice Published by the Authority of New Delhi
  62. ↑ Egyesült, Államok (2008). Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007. House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. p. 2195. ISBN   9780160813993.
  63. ↑ "Crisis in Kashmir" Council on Foreign Relations retrieved 11 September 2012
  64. 1 2 3 INDIA: Summary of human rights concerns in Jammu and Kashmir, Amnesty International, 20 February 1995
  65. ↑ "India: Security forces cannot claim immunity under AFSPA, must face trial for violations". Amnesty International. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  66. ↑ Global Press Institute (7 March 2012). "Mass Rape Survivors Still Wait for Justice in Kashmir". Thomson Reuters Foundation. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  67. ↑ "India has duty to use global influence to speak out on human rights". United Nations News Service. 25 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  68. ↑ Wani, Arif Shafi (20 January 2014). "Gaw Kadal massacre: Lone survivor recounts CRPF terror". Greater Kashmir.
  69. ↑ Ahmed, Mushtaq (25 January 2014). "January 25, 1990: When BSF gunned down 25 in Handwara". Kashmir Reader. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  70. ↑ Aslam, Faheem (1 March 2009). "Zakura, Tengpora carnages haunt survivors". Greater Kashmir.
  71. ↑ Wani, Arif Shafi (20 May 2015). "Hawal massacre anniversary: 'It was hell; saw paramilitary men firing with machine guns on civilians'". Greater Kashmir.
  72. ↑ Muhammad, Ghulam (5 January 2016). "23-years on, Sopore massacre still haunts survivors". Greater Kashmir.
  73. ↑ "23 years of Bijbehara Massacre:'Guilty yet to be punished'". Kashmir Observer. 23 October 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  74. ↑ Rafiq, Shahid (26 January 2016). "1994 Kupwara Massacre: 27 civilians shot dead for 'observing shutdown on Jan 26'". Greater Kashmir.
  75. 1 2 Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (16 February 2007). "India: Investigate All 'Disappearances' in Kashmir". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  76. ↑ "South Asia | Kashmir's extra-judicial killings". BBC News. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  77. ↑ Hussain, Altaf (28 June 2010). "'Fake killings' return to Kashmir". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  78. ↑ "SPO, jawan arrested for fake encounter in Kashmir, victim 'civilian'". Deccan Chronicle . 8 August 2011. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  79. ↑ "Everyone Lives in Fear". Human Rights Watch. 11 September 2006. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  80. ↑ "India: Events of 2008". India. Human Rights Watch. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  81. ↑ Bukhari, Shujaat. "Mass graves found in North Kashmir containing 2,900 unmarked bodies". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  82. ↑ "Kashmir graves: Human Rights Watch calls for inquiry". BBC News. 25 August 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  83. ↑ "India must investigate unidentified graves, News, Amnesty International Australia". 30 August 2008. Archived from the original on 30 August 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  84. 1 2 Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-Administered Kashmir A preliminary report; International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir
  85. 1 2 "India: Investigate Unmarked Graves in Jammu and Kashmir". Human Rights Watch. 24 August 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  86. ↑ LYDIA POLGREEN (22 August 2011). "Mass Graves Hold Thousands, Kashmir Inquiry Finds". The New York Times.
  87. 1 2 Scott-Clark, Cathy (9 July 2012). "The mass graves of Kashmir". The Guardian. London.
  88. ↑ "Continuing Repression in Kashmir" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 1994. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  89. ↑ "Summary of Human Rights Concerns in Jammu and Kashmir". Amnesty International. 1995. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  90. 1 2 Burke, Jason (16 December 2010). "WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir". The Guardian.
  91. 1 2 Burke, Jason (11 September 2015). "Indian forces in Kashmir accused of human rights abuses cover-up". The Guardian.
  92. 1 2 Scott-Clark, Cathy (9 July 2012). "The mass graves of Kashmir". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  93. ↑ "J&K: Army Men 'Forced' Villagers to Chant 'Jai Shri Ram' in Mosque, 2 Former CMs Demand Probe". The Wire. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  94. ↑ "Major accused of forcing worshippers to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' at Pulwama mosque". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  95. ↑ "J&K mosque-goers forced to chant religious slogans; leaders demand probe". Deccan Herald. 25 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  96. ↑ Kazi, Seema. Gender and Militarization in Kashmir. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Oxford University Press. "Sordid and gruesome as the militant record of violence against Kashmiri women and civilians is, it does not compare with the scale and depth of abuse by Indian State forces for which justice has yet to be done."
  97. ↑ Kazi, Seema. "Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine ." Socio-Legal Rev. 10 (2014): 21-23.
  98. ↑ Jeffrey T. Kenney (15 August 2013). Islam in the Modern World. Routledge. pp. 156–. ISBN   978-1-135-00795-9. Studies on women's lives in contemporary Kashmir show how nationalist resistance has been heightened due to the sexual assaults, displacements and loss of life suffered by Kashmiri women, primarily at the hands of Indian security forces.
  99. ↑ "RAPE IN KASHMIR: A Crime of War" (PDF). Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights A Division of Human Rights Watch. 5 (9): 6.
  100. ↑ Sharon Frederick (2001). Rape: Weapon of Terror. World Scientific. pp. 101–. ISBN   978-981-4350-95-2.
  101. 1 2 Inger Skjelsbæk (2001) Sexual violence in times of war: A new challenge for peace operations?, International Peacekeeping, 8:2, 75-76.
  102. ↑ Rawwida Baksh; Wendy Harcourt (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements. Oxford University Press. pp. 683–. ISBN   978-0-19-994349-4.
  103. ↑ "Rape in Kashmir: A Crime of War" (PDF). Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights A Division of Human Rights Watch. 5 (9): 1.
  104. ↑ Littlewood, Roland. "Military Rape". Anthropology Today , vol. 13, no. 2, 1997, pp. 7–16.
  105. ↑ Ranjan, Amit (2015). "A Gender Critique of AFSPA: Security for Whom?". Social Change. 45 (3): 440–457. doi:10.1177/0049085715589471. S2CID   143176670.
  106. ↑ "17,000 Kashmiris committed suicide in two decades | KashmirWatch". KashmirWatch. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  107. ↑ "Increasing cases of suicide in Kashmir". milligazzette. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  108. ↑ "Kashmir women lead suicidal tendencies". kashmirdispatch. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  109. ↑ "Oppression driving women in Kashmir to suicide". tehelka. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  110. ↑ "Early day motion 2607 – KASHMIR GRAVES – UK Parliament". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  111. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  112. ↑ "UN releases first of its kind report on Kashmir; India reacts sharply - Rediff.com India News". Rediff.com. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  113. ↑ Zutshi 2003 , p. 318 Quote: "Since a majority of the landlords were Hindu, the (land) reforms (of 1950) led to a mass exodus of Hindus from the state. ... The unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India, coupled with the threat of economic and social decline in the face of the land reforms, led to increasing insecurity among the Hindus in Jammu, and among Kashmiri Pandits, 20 per cent of whom had emigrated from the Valley by 1950."
  114. ↑ Bose 1997 , p. 71, Rai 2004 , p. 286, Metcalf & Metcalf 2006 , p. 274 Quote: "The Hindu Pandits, a small but influential elite community who had secured a favourable position, first under the maharajas, and then under the successive Congress regimes, and proponents of a distinctive Kashmiri culture that linked them to India, felt under siege as the uprising gathered force. Of a population of some 140,000, perhaps 100,000 Pandits fled the state after 1990; their cause was quickly taken up by the Hindu right."
  115. ↑ Malik 2005 , p. 318
  116. ↑ Madan 2008 , p. 25
  117. 1 2 "CIA – The World Factbook". Cia.gov. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  118. ↑ "India". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  119. ↑ "Kashmir's flawed elections". BBC News. 14 September 2002. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  120. ↑ "Front Page : "219 Kashmiri Pandits killed by militants since 1989"". The Hindu . Chennai, India. 24 March 2010. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  121. ↑ "219 Pandits Killed in J&K Since 1989". news.outlookindia.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  122. ↑ Azad Essa. "Kashmiri Pandits: Why we never fled Kashmir – Kashmir: The forgotten conflict". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  123. ↑ GreaterKashmir.com (Greater Service) (20 June 2011). "399 Pandits killed since 1990 KPSS Lastupdate:- Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT". Greaterkashmir.com. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  124. 1 2 Bhat, Bilal (19 March 2015). "The Gaw Kadal Massacre and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits". The Milli Gazette.
  125. ↑ Essa, Azad. "Kashmir: The Pandit question". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  126. ↑ "How Syed Ali Shah Geelani at India Today Conclave denied role in exodus of Kashmiri Pandits". India Today. 2 September 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  127. ↑ "LET TRUTH PREVAIL | JKCCS | Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society". www.jkccs.net. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  128. ↑ Expressing the sense of Congress that the Government of the Republic of India and the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir should take immediate steps to remedy the situation of the Kashmiri Pandits and should act to ensure the physical, political, and economic security of this embattled community. HR Resolution 344], United States House of Representatives, 2006-02-15 [ dead link ]
  129. ↑ "Resolution on Kashmiri Pandits in US House" . Retrieved 5 August 2011.
  130. ↑ Essa, Azad. "Kashmir: The Pandit question". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  131. ↑ Ka Leo The Voice – Kashmir: The Predicament Archived 26 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  132. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2 July 2008). "Refworld | Freedom in the World 2008 – Kashmir [Pakistan]". United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  133. ↑ B. Raman (19 January 2012). "Future of Kashmiri Pandits". Outlook. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  134. 1 2 Knuth, Rebecca (2006). Burning books and leveling libraries: extremist violence and cultural destruction. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 77–79. ISBN   978-0-275-99007-7 . Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  135. ↑ Leather, Kaia (2004). "Kashmiri Separatists : Origins, Competing Ideologies and Prospects for Resolution of the Conflict". In Columbus, Frank (ed.). Asian economic and political issues, Volume 10. Nova Publishers. p. 156. ISBN   978-1-59454-089-9 . Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  136. 1 2 Amarnath pilgrimage resumes, BBC, 2000-08-04
  137. ↑ "Steve Coll: "Zawahiri's record suggests he will struggle" | FRONTLINE". PBS. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  138. ↑ "Prime Minister Vajpayee's statement in Parliament regarding the recent massacre in Jammu & Kashmir". Embassy of India. 4 August 2000. Archived from the original on 4 August 2007.
  139. ↑ M. G. Chitkara (2002). Kashmir Shaivism: under siege. APH Publishing. p. 172. ISBN   978-81-7648-360-5 . Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  140. ↑ Terrorism in India and the Global Jihad, Brookings Institution, archived from the original on 11 November 2011, LeT has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks in India including the massacre of dozens of Sikhs in Kashmir in March 2000 during President Clinton's visit to India, bombings in New Delhi in 2005 and bombings in Varanasi and Mumbai in 2006
  141. ↑ Lashkar behind Sikh massacre in Kashmir in 2000, says Headley. Hindustan Times. 25 October 2010.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.