Srinagar: Over a sample period of 1990-2013, human rights abuses which have taken place from in Kashmir speak volumes about the ground realities in the state. In the year 1990, Kashmir was shaken by Gawakadal Massacre, Zakoora and Tengpora massacre. In 1991, mass rape was committed against women of Kashmir (Kunan Poshpora incident). In 1993, lal chowk fire, Bijbehara massacre and Sopore massacre took place. In the year 1996, Jalil Andrabi murder took place. In 1997, Sangrampora massacre took place. In the year 1998 Wandhama massacre, chapnari massacre and Pranakote massacre took place. In the year 2000, Chatisinghpora massacre took place. In the year 2001, Kishtawar massacre and Chalwalkote massacre took place. In the year 2002, Kaluchak massacre and Qasim nagar massacre took place. In the year 2003 and 2004 Nadimarg massacre and Teli Katha massacre took place. In the year 2006, Doodthipathri and Doda massacre happened. In the year 2008 and 2009 Amarnath land controversary and Shopain double rape and murder case and Bomai incident took place. In the year 2010 and 2013, Kashmir unrest and Ramban firing incident took place.
The perpetrators of human rights abuses that include disappearances, arbitrary detentions and deaths have invariably been the armed and paramilitary and the police forces.
In a recently released report by International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), it has been indicated that top army and Paramilitary officers including a major general and seven Brigadiers are the alleged perpetrators for grave human rights violation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The 804- page report estimates that the strength of armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir is between 6,56,638 to 7,50,981 personnel. The report analyzed 333 cases of grave human rights violations including 1080 extra judicial killings, sexual violence and enforced disappearances and has identified 972 army and paramilitary officers responsible for these crimes. A Major General, seven Brigadiers, 31 Colonels, four Lt Colonels, 115 Majors and 40 Captains are included in the 972 alleged perpetrators. Insofar as the Police is concerned, the alleged perpetrators include a retired Director General of Police, a serving Additional Director General of Police, two Inspector Generals and two Deputy Inspector General of police, the report reveals.
The conviction rate is either abysmally low or non existent.
According to Khurram Parvaiz, a human rights activist and coordinator of (IPTK), Kashmir is facing human rights abuse every single day with torture being one of the most under reported phenomenon in Jammu and Kashmir. If you go to any part of Kashmir people have been tortured not just men, but women, children and old people as well. I have documented the torture of over 1500 people who became impotent because their genitals were electrocuted. There have been hundreds of boys who were raped by soldiers. In one case the abuse by the army was caught on video, still there was no conviction. In one of the cases the army kept a 60- year old man in solitary confinement for one month. During that time, he wasnt given anything to eat, but his own flesh. They tore flesh from his body and served it to him. This was all he was given to eat for a month. Recounting the torture Parvaiz said, this was something which really shook me.
Alluding to state complicity, Parvaiz said In July 2011, the State Human Rights Commission of J&K (SHRC) released a report documenting 2,156 unidentified bodies in 38 graveyards of which 53 bodies were DNA tested, out of which 49 were Kashmiri civilians, one Kashmiri combatant and three remained unidentified. The government is not giving bodies to their families as they are hiding the marks of torture, he added further.
According and putting a gender perspective on Human Rights abuses in Kashmir, thePresident of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) Ms. Parveena Ahanger asserts, From last three decades Kashmiri are the worst sufferers of human rights violations at the hands of paramilitary forces. More than one lac people in Kashmir have died and tens of thousands are disappeared. The crimes committed against the women of Kashmir are the worst. There are gross human rights violations carried in Kashmir on pretext of shielding army personnel.
Unequivocally demonstrating her determination and resolve, Ahangar said, I am and I will fight till the last breath of my life for the cause of Kashmir and for the rights of Kashmiri people,.
It may be recalled that the world marked and celebrated the 10th of December as Human Rights Day. Human Rights Day is marked annually on 10 December to commemorate the day in 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A milestone document in the history of human rights, it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.
The theme for Human Rights Day 2015 was Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always” to mark the launch of a one-year campaign commemorating two international treaties adopted 50 years ago: Two Human Rights Covenants are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both adopted in 1966.
It is indeed a travesty and a sad saga that as human rights have advanced all over the world , in Kashmir, these have regressed. But ,alas, the world is mute to this condition despite the mute testimony of the dead and the disappeared.
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