IIOJK: Where freedom is a crime and silence is survival
PESHAWAR (APP): The people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jummu and Kashmir are passing through the worst forms of state oppression and human rights abuses unleashed by Indian Forces to suppress the legitimate freedom movement but failed.
“After revoking special status of IIOJK six years ago, the fascist Modi Govt had broken all records of repression and state sponsored terrorism in the held valley where freedom is a crime and silence is survival, words are weapons, and truth is treason,’ said Mushtaq Ahmed Shah, Voice Chairman, Jummu and Kashmir People League while talking to APP on Kashmir Exploitation Day.
“As the sun disappear behind the majestic Mahadev Mountain at Srinagar in Indian Illegally Jummu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), the atmosphere is laden with immense terror and oppression due to continued state terrorism unleashed by nearly one million Indian occupational forces since they invaded the held valley on October 27, 1947.
He said the Indian’s forces accompanied by the sniffer dogs entered the houses of Kashmirs in the name of so-called search and cordoned operations, and assaulted innocent Kashmiris including women and children besides making them almost sleepless,” said Mushtaq Ahmed Shah.
The reality remained even more stark and painful since the Hinduvata Modi regime abrogated the special status of IIOJK on August 5, 2019, casting a long shadow of despair and desolation over the held valley.
The oppressive environment has fundamentally altered daily life at IIOJK where families refrain from discussing political issues and fearing night raids at their homes at Srinagar and border towns of the held valley.
Schools, colleges and businesses centres mostly operate under specter of military presence at IIOJK where many parents were reluctant to send their children especially girls to educational institutes, mosques and bazaars due to fear of harassment and human rights abuses.
The indiscriminate firing, cluster ammunition, sniper attacks and excessive use of pellet guns have made life a nightmare for over one million Kashmiries at IIOJK where innocent Kashmirs were killed in fake encounters and false flags operations besides women and children are assaulted as weapons of war.
Mushtaq referred to 43 page report of the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 2019, exposing Indian security forces’ systematic terrorism and war crimes at IIOJK where India never allowed independent observers in a bid to hide the cases of human rights abuses and mass graves.
The report testified that Indian occupied forces used excessive force and pellet guns against peaceful Kashmiris in 2016, resulting in deaths and injuries of a large number of civilians that was a clear violation of UN Basic Principles on Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
Referring to the India’s Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA) promulgated in Occupied Kashmir in 1990, he said the Indian Govt had granted full immunity to its forces from prosecution in civil courts, and allowed detention of Kashmiri leadership without any charge or trial.
The black law was frequently used to detain peaceful protesters, Kashmiri leadership, political dissidents, and human rights activists. The puppet Indian state government in IIOJK amended section 10 of the Public Safety Act in 2018 under which freedom fighters and separatist political leaders were being transferred to prisons outside of the IIOJK and languished there for years.
Mirpur AJK District Council Chairman, Raja Naveed Akhtar said that human rights abuses at IIOJK have made life a nightmare for oppressed Kashmiris. “The social media is closely monitored and WhatsApp groups are infiltrated at IIOJK while school textbooks revised to reflect a nationalist narrative but failed.
He said the peaceful protests at the held Kashmir are met with brutal force where women and children are being used a human shield and subjected to severe physical torture.
Akhtar said the youth in IIOJK were even arrested for sharing a freedom poem on social media and laws like Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) are wielded with alarming regularity, and human rights defenders, students, poets, and even comedians were jailed under its sweeping provisions often without trial for months, or even years.
According to reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there is a clear pattern of vague charges, prolonged detention, and a justice system that often operates in the shadow of national security rhetoric at IIOJK.
Furthermore, India’s apartheid regime did not allow mass rituals and funeral of great Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Gillani and his body was forcefully snatched from the bereaved family and buried at night. Similarly, great hurriat leader, Muhammad Yasin Malik was jailed for life in a fake case in a bid to silence his strong voice for Kashmir’s freedom, and terrorize other Kashmir leadership.
The brutal killing of freedom fighter Burhan Wani and other Kashmiris leadership in a fake encounter besides issues of over six million illegal domicile certificates of IIOJK to Hindus besides brutal killing of tourists at Pehalgam in false flags operation had exposed the anti Kashmir’s policies of the Hinduvata’s regime.
The gruesome violation of human rights including forced disappearance of over 8,000 innocent Kashmiris, 8,652 unmarked mass graves and imposition of longest curfew on some 10 million unarmed Kashmiris further exposed India’s ugly secular face before the world, he said.
The Kashmir leader while citing the September 2021’s Pakistani dossier said that about 8,652 unmarked graves identified in 89 villages of six districts in the held valley while bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by Indian forces were beyond recognition.
Around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet guns injuries, 11,250 women raped, 23,000 women widowed and over 108,000 children orphaned since 1989 in IIOJK.
The excessive use of snipers and cluster ammunitions by India to target innocent Kashmiris along the Line of Control (LoC), use of children and women as human shields by Indian army during encounters, and making them sleep at military camps forcing them to dig out minefields and tying youth on military jeeps have further testified Modi government’s direct involvement in war crimes and genocide of the Kashmiris.
The burning of mosques, houses and shops belonging to Muslims at BJP-led Tripura state by Hindutvta groups of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal had unveiled Modi’s tyranny against minorities especially Muslims.
He said mosques in Krishnagar, Dharmangar, Panisagar, Chandrapure were vandalized by the saffron-wearing youth in planned attacks on the Muslims population.
Dr Adnan Sarwar Khan, former Chairman, International Relations Department, University of Peshawar said the illegal occupation of Kashmir valley by India violated multiple articles of the 30 fundamental human rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) drafted by representatives from all the regions of the world including India on December 10, 1948 and was adopted by UN General Assembly (UNGA).
“I think time has come that international community should look beyond trade and business interests and step forward with collective action to stop genocide of oppressed Kashmiris besides pressurize the RRS’s backed Hinduovata Modi government to reverse all its illegal actions of August 5, 2019 and give right of self-determination to Kashmiris, which is inevitable for lasting peace and stability in the South Asia.’
He said that despite the severity of the grim human rights situation at IIOJK, the international community’s response has been muted which was highly deplorable.
He said four wars were fought on Kashmir dispute between the two nuclear armed neighbours, and another war could bring devastation for world peace especially in South Asia.
The experts urged UNO and world powers to come forward with meaningful actions to address the Kashmir dispute like that of East Taimur.
They said resolution of the Kashmir dispute was imperative for the progress and prosperity of billions of people living in the subcontinent. In IIOJK, voice for freedom is no longer a right but a serious life risk and silence has become the only currency of survival. But as history has shown, even the deepest winters eventually thaw and time was nearer when people of the held valley will get freedom from Indian yoke.
The experts said the world must choose either to continue to turn a blind eye on human rights abuses and state terrorism at IIOJK, or listen to the silence of millions of oppressed Kashmiris because in the held valley, even silence is screaming.
