Daily Times

Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. In this regard, in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which set out a broad range of fundamental rights and freedoms to which all of us are entitled. It guarantees the rights of every individual everywhere, without distinction based on nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, or any other status.

But, it is regrettable that in practice, many nations and world’s leaders have neglected the Declaration by committing various forms of human rights violations in one way or the other in order to obtain their selfish intersects overtly or covertly.

Since August 5, 2019 when Indian fanatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ended special status of the Jummu and Kashmir by abolishing articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution to turn Muslim majority into minority in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), strict lockdown was imposed there. In order to hide human rights violations, communication services have been cut off from the world and foreign journalists are not allowed to enter that region. Due to military clampdown in wake of shortage of foods and medicines even for the coronavirus-affected patients, many Kashmiris have died. Indian army and paramilitary forces have been committing gross human rights abuses by employing brutal tactics of state terrorism in the IOK.

Particularly, since 1989, Indian forces have already been committing gross human rights violations such as crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacre, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounters.

Despite India’s excessive deployment of troops in the Indian Controlled Kashmir, arrest of the Kashmiri leaders, use of chemical weapons—the pellet guns and phosphorus bombs, Kashmiris have accelerated the war of liberation, being waged for their right of self-determination, which was also recgonised by the United Nations resolutions. However, use of these brutal tactics by the Indian forces is violation of international law and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Besides, the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), passed by the Indian Parliament further exposed the discriminatory policies of the Modi-led government. The CAA coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is mainly against the Muslim immigrants especially from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Despite criticism of the rights groups, foreign leaders, the UNO and moderate Hindus in wake of violent protests which killed and injured hundreds of persons—mostly Muslims by the police and prejudiced Hindus, Modi’s government has not withdrawn the CAA/NRC.

In this context, a government-appointed-the Delhi Minorities Commission said in its report on July 16, 2020: “At least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 200 were injured in the worst communal violence in the Indian capital Delhi…against a new citizenship law [CAA] in February, this year…laying out the path to citizenship for six religious groups from neighbouring countries except Muslims…the law was discriminatory and flouted India’s secular constitution…Muslim homes, shops and vehicles…mosques were selectively targeted during the rioting…to crush the protests, with support of the administration and police, a retaliatory plan of pro-CAA protesters was worked out to trigger violence at a large scale…Some senior BJP leaders like former member of Delhi legislative assembly Kapil Mishra of fuelling the Feb 23 violence”.

Notably, under Modi regime, persecution of religious minorities such as Sikhs, Christians and Muslims, including even of lower cast-Hindus-Dalits has been intensified in accordance with the ideology of Hindutva ((Hindu Nationalism).

Almost similar tactics of ruthless terrorism are being applied by the Israeli occupying forces on the Palestinians. A majority of the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation does not enjoy their fundamental human rights under international human rights and humanitarian law.

In the recent years, the military regime in Burma (present Myanmar) has broken all the record of religious cleansing by encouraging Rakhine extremist Buddhists who butchered thousands of the Burmese Muslims belonging to the Rohingya Muslims through various brutal methods of torture.

While the genocide of several innocent Muslim women and children by the Serb forces in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Kosovo presented another example of violations of UN Declaration of Human Rights.

In fact, under the cover of the 9/11 tragedy, the US President George W. Bush who was in collaboration with the neo-conservatives and the Zionist Jews, orchestrated the drama of global war on terror to obtain the illegitimate interests of Israel by targeting the Islamic countries and the Muslims.

During the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and after occupation, the atrocious techniques of the US-led NATO/allied forces like heavy air bombardment and ground shelling by the sophisticated war machinery, including special military operations and extra-judicial assassinations killed many innocent persons.

And the US-led troops, assisted by CIA carried out indiscriminate mass round-ups in catching up suspected Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, including some Arab countries without evidence. Besides Guantanamo Bay and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, CIA torture cells were present in several Muslim countries and were also set up in ships where US secret agencies, including FBI and military personnel employed various methods of torture on the militants and suspected persons like physical violence and even murder.

In March, 2013, an investigative report by the British Guardian/BBC disclosed that acting under the direction of the top US officials; the CIA utilized a global network of secret prisons, foreign intelligence agents and torture centers in various Islamic countries, including Belgium, Thailand etc. where torture was conducted directly by American intelligence operatives. President Barrack Obama also continued the ruthless killings of the Muslims to complete the unfinished agenda of the Zionist Jews and Israel. He converted Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen etc. into concentration camps. As part of the US double game, CIA which created Al-Qaeda and ISIS, including Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front and Syrian rebel groups in fighting against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the mass murder of more than 2 million Muslims who were martyred in civil wars—ground and aerial strikes of the US-led Western countries, including suicide attacks and bomb blasts, conducted by Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Particularly in Syria, millions of Muslims became homeless.

President Obama is also responsible for violations of human rights—extrajudicial killings of the innocent people through illegal CIA-operated drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc. in general and Pakistan in particular.

It is mentionable that after the terror attacks in Europe and the US, some American and Western political leaders especially American President Donald Trump and their media started equating the acts of Al Qaeda and ISIS with all the Muslims, while propagating the so-called threat of Islamophobia. Their biased approach resulted into creation of chauvinism against the Muslims in the Western countries and far-right wing parties’ members increased. Nevertheless, in these civilized countries, these phenomena resulted into assaults by the extremist Christians on the Muslims and their places of worship.

In the recent past, the dispute flared after French middle school teacher Samuel Paty, who showed his pupils satirical cartoons of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) during a civics lesson, was beheaded by an attacker of Chechen origin. French officials said that the assassination was an attack on the core French value of freedom of expression and defended the right to publish the cartoons.