AI censures India over restrictions in IIOJK, farm laws

Author: Agencies

Despite Covid-19 wrecking havoc across the country, India continued to clamp down on civil liberties and restrictions on communications services in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), a new report by the Amnesty International revealed on Wednesday.

“Political leaders such as Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who were administratively detained in 2019, were released in 2020. However, the union government continued to silence those who demanded accountability and imposed a harsh media blackout,” the report added.

On August 5, 2019, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order. By repealing Article 370 of the constitution, people from the rest of India now have the right to acquire property in the occupied territory and settle there permanently.

It said that at least 18 journalists in IIOJK were physically attacked by the police or summoned to police stations. “Dissent was further suppressed when a new media policy was introduced by the IIOJK government to create a sustained narrative on the functioning of the government in media’ by checking ‘anti-national activities.”

The human rights group said that India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) also raided offices and residences of civil society activists including Khurram Parvez and three of his associates, and Parveena Ahanger, who had reported extensively on human rights abuses in IIOJK.

Share
Leave a Comment

Recent Posts

  • Editorial

Protecting Journalists

Being a journalist in Pakistan means you must be willing to live with a Damoclean…

1 hour ago
  • Editorial

To Space

Pakistan's historic lunar payload - regardless of how small it may be when compared to…

1 hour ago
  • Op-Ed

Snakes, Ladders and the Power Paradox

Barack Obama's rise to the presidency in 2009 gave hope to millions across the globe.…

1 hour ago
  • Cartoons

TODAY’S CARTOON

1 hour ago
  • Op-Ed

This Is Not a Jungle!

Pakistan is neither a jungle nor are the ways of the jungle followed here. There…

1 hour ago
  • Op-Ed

Populists and Polarized Democracies – III

The long-term adverse effects of a polarized nation extend beyond immediate social unrest to the…

1 hour ago