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Srinagar, June 07, 2013 (PPI-OT): Kashmiri leaders, Altaf Hussain Wani and Sardar Amjad Yousaf have said that human rights situation in occupied Kashmir requires immediate attention of the UN Human Rights Council as India’s human rights violations in Kashmir are systematic, deliberate, and officially sanctioned.
Altaf Hussain Wani and Sardar Amjad Yousaf taking part in general debate of the 23rd session of the UN HRC said Indian laws grant legal immunity for any actions of the Indian armed forces aimed at suppressing Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
They said torture, rape, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, extra judicial killings is a daily routine. According to a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the rule of law in the state ceases to exist.
The Kashmiri leaders said like past, 2013 also brought miseries and sorrows to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The execution of Muhammad Afzal Guru in complete secrecy in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and subsequent peaceful protests by the people of occupied Kashmir conveying their displeasure over the execution and bringing back mortal remains to Kashmir have been quelled with brutality.
About 20 people have been killed, hundreds injured arbitrarily detained. Use of live ammunition, platter guns, and pepper gas for crowd control has resulted in death of innocent people, they added
They said, “Kashmir is equally important as other troubled part of the world. The arson and mass rapes by the Indian occupation forces are no less humiliating in Kashmir than in DR Congo. Torture and illegal confinement in Indian-occupied Kashmir is no less of significance as compared to other areas in the world, which are on the agenda of this Council.
In fact the pains, sufferings and humiliations in Kashmir are more severe as the people of Kashmir have been under Indian occupation for over six decades. This Council has a responsibility towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir as Kashmir remains one of the oldest disputes on the agenda of United Nations, they maintained.”
Altaf Hussain Wani and Sardar Amjad Yousaf said the crimes of the Indian occupation forces in Kashmir, numbering more than half a million have now reached genocidal proportions, presenting the worst example of state-sponsored terrorism.
The right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir was acknowledged no less an authority than the UN Security Council to decide their future under conditions free from coercion and intimidation. However, the peaceful movement of the Kashmiri people for the realization of this right and the respect for their fundamental human rights has been crushed with brute force, they added.
They said people of Indian occupied Kashmir have been robbed of all fundamental rights. Torture, extrajudicial killings, rape, molestation, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearance, harassments and declared and undeclared curfew constitutes an important part of daily life in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The Kashmiri leaders said after February 9, 2013 the day when Indian authorities executed Muhammad Afzal Guru putting aside all international norms of fair trial, peaceful protest demonstrations, demanding mortal remains of Afzal Guru were met with brute force resulting in killings of over dozen people and injuring hundreds. Hundreds of youth and juveniles were arrested in midnight raids. Youth and juveniles are detained under lawless law Public Safety Act.
They said the occupation authorities imposed curfew for several days and print and electronic media and social networks are gagged. The government directed that all licensed Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers had to make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload any contents criticizing their policies.
Indian Government has also urged private telecom operators to provide swiftly a mechanism for “fool-proof” monitoring of Internet traffic in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, especially for smart-phone users.
They said political leaders are either detained in the house or booked under draconian Public Safety Act (PSA). The PSA hunts juveniles in occupied Kashmir. The number of youth detained during last two months is 650. Amnesty International issued a number of urgent appeals for the release of juveniles and repealing of PSA.
Meanwhile, Mrs Shamim Shawl, permanent representative of International Muslim Women Union (IMWU) at Geneva, speaking on the occasion highlighted the trauma and victimization of Kashmiri women.
She remarked that it must be recognised that women in conflict areas are entitled to all security and dignity that is afforded to all citizens in any other part of the world. The sex violence by members of armed forces or uniformed personal must be brought under the purview of ordinary criminal law.
She stressed the international community should take notice of gross violations of human rights taking place with impunity in occupied Kashmir.
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