India is the largest violator of human rights in the world, from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to mainland India, minorities’ rights are being frequently and brazenly violated under the patronage of Indian state.
It also disrespects international laws and norms and fast emerged as a threat to the regional peace. With the phenomenal rise of the RSS-led fascist movement in India and the consolidation of political power by the RSS-affiliated BJP, Kashmiri Muslims had been facing the worst, according to experts.
They said that Indian army did not regard the international humanitarian laws and violated human rights with sheer impunity. The international community must take notice of dire situation in IIOJK as the resolution of this lingering dispute was linked with the regional peace and security, they opined.
India acted irrationally on the global stage and used disinformation to hide its heinous crimes. The long history of Indian gross human rights violations in IIOJK is dotted with blood of innocent Kashmiris, cries of women and wails of children.
An ugly episode involving Indian forces took place on 7 March, 1990, in which the CRPF raided several houses in the Chhanpora locality of Srinagar, raping a number of women.
The Committee for Initiative in Kashmir visited the area during March 1990 and interviewed the victims. A victim Noora (24) was forcefully dragged out by 20 men from the CRPF and raped, along with her sister-in-law Zaina. The rape victims also witnessed two minor girls being molested.
As per details, the security forces did not even permit the hospital ambulances to collect the injured victims.
The Kashmiri leadership had demanded of the international community to take notice of blatant Indian human rights abuses and fulfill promises made to people of Kashmir through various UNSC resolutions.
A report by Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights had documented rape cases that occurred since 1990 in Kashmir. One of the earliest cases was the mass rape in Chanapora Srinagar committed by Indian security forces. The report also mentioned that Indian soldiers committed rapes frequently after January 1990. It is used as a weapon of war against the Kashmiri Muslim women.
Similarly, the global human rights watchdog Amnesty International had also issued an appeal for urgent action on Tengpora and Zakoora massacres, however, no action was initiated against anyone. The victim families still await for justice.
Since Modi came to power, the brutalities against hapless Kashmiris had reached such to such a level that even the world bodies and international community openly condemned such tactics.
With regard to such gross human rights violations, a series of reports had been released by the different global forums since 2017. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation released its report on its fact-finding mission to assess the human rights situation in Kashmir in March 2017.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its on June 2018, and again on July 8, 2019 also highlighted the human rights violations.
Similarly, All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group in the UK also released its report in November 2018.
Taking advantage of laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act that gave immunity to the Indian security forces, they had had been on a killing spree.
On Aug. 5, 2019, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) not only abrogated Article 370, but also it revoked Article 35A, which empowered the legislative assembly to define permanent residents and offer them special privileges such as exclusive land rights. Modi also split the three different divisions of the erstwhile state—Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh—into two union territories.
The Kashmiris and the world community had rejected such demographic changes.
Knowing well that the decision would invoke a severe reaction from the people of Kashmir, the Indian government sent 180,000 fresh troops to IIOJK in addition to 700,000 troops already stationed there. Furthermore, curfew and communication blackouts were enforced to curb the growing Kashmiri voices.
The shortage of medicines, lack of communication, and restriction of movement had also been resulting in several preventable deaths.
The use of pellet guns which had been termed as “non-lethal weapon” by India and used against the unarmed Kashmiri youth, had wounded 10,298 people, 147 lost their eyesight forever whereas, some 215 other youngsters lost eyesight in one eye. The use of lethal weapon even did not spare the children including a child of 18-month-old.