India hurting people of Kashmir: JKCHR

Islamabad: Two documents on “using civilians as human shield” and “atrocities images a threat to good community relations” highlighting the human rights situation in Indian occupied Kashmir, received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations have been circulated as UN General Assembly Documents at the current thirty-fifth session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, says a press release.

JKCHR has alerted the Human Rights Council that Indian Army has remained involved in the death of a generation. It has used gang rape as a weapon to humiliate and humble a people engaged in challenging the Indian rule and demanding the holding of a UN supervised referendum. Document states that Indian forces are involved in custodial killings, involuntary disappearances, degrading and inhuman treatment, torture and in the use of lethal weapons, like pellet guns to blind, disable and kill. The human rights abuse has now graduated into a sinister practice of using the civilians as a human shield. The death of a generation is deliberate act of war against the civilians, to create a number deficit and influence the outcome of any future UN supervised referendum.

Indian Army and its forces have been killing the Kashmiri youth, under one or the other pretext. The common and convenient practice is to stage fake encounters and kill them in cold blood. It is unfortunate that Indian Army should chose to violate the fundamentals of its presence in Kashmir and declare a war on the people and the principles of UN Charter. Indian security forces need to be stopped and international community has to be updated on the continued wave of human rights abuses in Kashmir.

JKCHR document states that there is an urgent need to consider alerting the International Criminal Court on these War Crimes. Since India with a primary competency is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute these crimes at issue, there is merit in invoking the Principle of complementarity — which grants jurisdiction to the ICC. ICC prosecutor has the mandate to open, investigate and prosecute the most serious crimes, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Document released on “atrocities images a threat to good community relations”, states that Indian Government has lost all legitimacy of its presence in Kashmir. It is for the first time in the history of the State elections that voter interest dropped to 2%.  Pledge of a UN supervised vote in Kashmir has frozen these people and their supporters into a non-action. It has taken away from them the right to defend themselves. This situation merits an urgent attention.

Indian Government has insulated the people of Kashmir from the outside world. India needs to be cautioned that the atrocities committed by its security forces on the defenceless Muslim men and women, young and old in Kashmir are  a serious threat to good community relations in many parts of  the world. Indian administration is out to hurt the habitat and people in its administered part of Kashmir.  There is a need that members of Indian forces (CRPF, BSF) and other Indian nationals engaged in the abuse of human rights in Kashmir be prescribed accordingly. Major Leetul Gogoi who used a Kashmiri civilian as a human shield needs to be flagged for similar prescription by the member States and reported to International Criminal Court for action.