24th Year of Publication

Vol: 24 No. 07
Monthly July 2018

INSIGHT

Hurriyat leaders 13th July - Importance of

hail UN report on The Kashmir Accession to
Kashmir Martyrs' Day Pakistan Resolution
 UN calls for end to
HR violations in Kashmir

“The political dimensions of the dispute between India and Pakistan have long been centre-
stage, but this is not a conflict frozen in time. It is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic
human rights, and continues to this day to inflict untold suffering. This is why any resolution of
the political situation in Kashmir must entail a commitment to end the cycles of violence and
ensure accountability for past and current violations and abuses by all parties, and provide
redress for victims. It is also why I will be urging the UN Human Rights Council to consider
establishing a commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive independent international
investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.”

(UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein at the launch of
UN Human Rights Report on Kashmir in
Geneva, July 14, 2018)
Kashmir Insight JULY 2018
Editor: M Raza Malik From The Editor's Desk
In occupied Kashmir, the puppet regime of pro-India Peoples
Sub Editor: Benazir Khan Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janata Party proved terrible
for the people of the territory as they faced the worst Indian
Art Editor: M.Haroon
atrocities during the period of this dispensation. The PDP-
BJP coalition regime was established on 1st May 2015 and
CONTENTS ended on 19th June 2018 after BJP pulled out its support to the
Editorial PDP.
During the PDP-BJP government, Indian troops in their
UN report on HR abuses in IOK – continued acts of state terrorism martyred 878 Kashmiris
A welcome development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02 including 21 women and 98 young boys. Of those martyred,
81 youth were killed in fake encounters. The killings rendered
Cover Story
82 women widowed and 197 children orphaned. During the
Ramadan ceasefire in IOK proved to be hoax . . . . . 03 period, 27,115 people were injured due to the use of brute force
Reports including firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells on
peaceful protesters by the Indian military, paramilitary and
Hurriyat leaders hail UN report on Kashmir . . . . . 07 police personnel. The eyes of over 1,500 youth were hit by
APPKG in UK Parliament releases pellets and at least 78 of them have become totally blind. The
troops also damaged 2,783 residential houses and disgraced
report on HR situation in IOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 948 women during the period.
Article It is ironical that the PDP during its campaign for the so-
13th July - The Kashmir Martyrs' Day called Kashmir Assembly elections in 2015 had raised
“Healing touch” and “Dialogue - not bullets” slogans to
M Raza Malik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 garner support of the people. However, after coming to power,
Pictorial its leaders - first Mufti Sayeed and after his demise his
daughter Mehbooba Mufti - left no stone unturned to inflict
Images speak louder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 all kinds of atrocities on the people of the territory and to
Human rights situation further the Hindutva agenda of extremist Hindu
organisations, Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya
HR violations by Indian troops in IOK
Swayamsevak Sangh. Mehbooba Mufti used to visit the area
during June 2018 wherever a youth was killed by the Indian troops during siege
Raies Ahmed Mir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 and search operations or anti-India demonstrations, promise
to bringing the killers to book and repeal draconian laws. She
Article forgot her all commitments and worked day and night to help
Importance of Accession to India in suppressing the Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle for
securing their inalienable right to self-determination.
Pakistan Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
During Mehbooba Mufti’s tenure, the Indian troops killed
Report popular youth leader, Burhan Wani, on 8th July in 2016 in a
UNHRC session: World attention drawn towards Indian fake encounter. The cold blooded murder of Burhan Wani
triggered mass uprising in the occupied territory which is still
atrocities in IOK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 continuing. Since July 2016, the troops have so far killed over
Chronology six hundred people besides injuring thousands by firing
bullets, pellets and teargas shells during peaceful
A chronological account of developments demonstrations and search operations. Towards the end of her
on Kashmir (143) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 tenure, the troops stepped up the killing spree under the
Beauty thy name is “Operation All Out”.
It is a reality that the worst kind of Indian state terrorism has
Dal Lake - the Jewel of Kashmir’s Crown . . . . . . . 29 failed to subdue the freedom sentiment of the Kashmiri people
Literature and they are committed to take their ongoing freedom
movement to its logical conclusion at all costs.
The opium smokers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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All Parties Hurriyat Conference AJK
Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 House # 389-B, Street # 85, I/8-4 Islamabad.
Ph: +92-51-4861457, Fax: +92-51-4861458
Email: kashmirinsight@yahoo.com
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Editorial
UN report on HR abuses in
IOK – A welcome development
The United Nations in its first-
ever human rights report on
Jammu and Kashmir has called
for an urgent need to address
past and ongoing human rights
violations and deliver justice to
all people in Kashmir who have
suffered a conflict for seven
decades that has claimed or
ruined numerous lives. The main
focus of the 49-page report
released by the United Nations
Human Rights Office in Geneva
remained on the human rights
situation in the Indian occupied
Kashmir from July 2016 - when
large and unprecedented
demonstrations erupted after
Indian troops killed popular
youth leader, Burhan Muzaffar
Wani - to April 2018. UN High
Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein,
while releasing the report said
that the dispute between India
and Pakistan had robbed
millions of their basic human
rights and continued to this day
to inflict untold suffering. He
maintained that any resolution of
the political situation in Kashmir
must entail a commitment to end
the cycles of violence and ensure
accountability for past and
current violations and provide
redress for victims. He urged the
UN Human Rights Council to
consider establishing a
Commission of Inquiry to
conduct a comprehensive
independent international
investigation into allegations of
human rights violations in
occupied Kashmir.
The report also mentioned the
killing and blinding of the people
through use of brute force, sexual
violence with particular refer-
ence to Kunanposhpora mass
rape, enforced disappearances
and surfacing of unmarked mass
graves as a result of the impunity
given to the Indian forces’
personnel under draconian laws.
As the Indian forces continue to
subject the peaceful protesters to
brute force, the report called
upon the forces’ personnel to
exercise maximum restraint and
strictly abide by the international
standards governing the use of
force when dealing with protests
in future.
It is fact that the people of
occupied Kashmir have been
facing the worst Indian state
terrorism for the past over seven
decades in their just struggle for
securing their inalienable right to
self-determination promised to
them by the international
community. The Indian troops
KASHMIR INSIGHT
and police personnel enjoying
unbridled powers under
draconian laws like Disturbed
Areas Act, Armed Forces Special
Powers Act and Public Safety Act
are committing grave human
rights violations - in fact crimes
against humanity - with impu-
nity in the occupied territory to
intimidate the Kashmiris into
submission. However, despite
applying all kinds of brutal
tactics, the Indian forces’
personnel have failed
to succeed in
suppressing the
Kashmiris’ freedom
sentiment.
The world human
rights organisations
including the
A m n e s t y
International, Human Rights
Watch and Asia Watch in their
reports from time to time have
been expressing serious concerns
over the Indian state terrorism in
occupied Kashmir. The UN had
passed several resolutions
decades ago calling for settling
the Kashmir dispute through
holding of an impartial plebiscite
under its supervision in Jammu
and Kashmir but unfortunately it
has so far failed to translate its
words into actions, resulting in
the continued sufferings of the
Kashmiri people. This report of
the World Body is an encour-
aging step and has generated a
hope among the Kashmiris that it
would pave the way for the
settlement of the Kashmir
dispute and end to their miseries.
JULY 2018 02
Cover Story
Ramadan ceasefire in IOK proved to be hoax
Indian troops martyred 30 Kashmiris during the period
In occupied Kashmir, there was
no let up in the atrocities of the
Indian forces’ personnel on the
innocent people of the territory
even after the announcement of
the so-called Ramadan ceasefire
by the Indian government.
Indian forces martyred 30 people
and injured as many as 160
others during the Ramadan
ceasefire drama enacted by India
between 17th of May and 17th of
June in the territory. The troops
arrested over 100 people during
the period. Days after the drama
of Ramadan ceasefire ended, the
Indian government imposed
Governor’s Rule in the occupied
territory on June 20 to further
step up the genocide of the
Kashmiri people.
The Indian Home Minister,
Rajnath Singh, had on May 16,
2018 announced the ceasefire in
occupied Kashmir for the holy
month of Ramadan. He declared
suspension of operations against
the Kashmiri freedom-fighters
but had maintained that the
Indian forces reserved the right
to retaliate if they were attacked.
On May 18 and 19, the second
and third day of Ramadan,
Indian troops martyred four
Kashmiri youth in a violent siege
and search operation at Brinjal
Vilgam in Handwara area of
Kupwara district.
On May 26, the troops martyred
five Kashmiri youth including
Mudassir Ahmed and Sheraz
Ahmed in a fake encounter in
Tangdhar area of the same
district.
On May 27, a civilian, Bilal
Ahmed Ganai, a driver by
profession was killed after
Indian troops resorted to
indiscriminate firing at Dugam
Kakapora in Pulwama district
after an attack on the camp of 50
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Rashtriya Rifles unit of the
Indian Army. On the very next
day, several people were injured
after Indian police fired bullets,
pellets and teargas shells in and
around the District Hospital,
Pulwama, to disperse the
protesters who were demanding
the body of Bilal Ahmed Ganai.
On May 31, the troops martyred
two Kashmiri youth during a
violent cordon and search
operation at Qaziabad in
Handwara area of Kupwara
district.
On June 01, one youth was
crushed to death while another
sustained critical injuries after
being run over by a vehicle of
Indian paramilitary Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF)
during an anti-India demonstra-
tion in Nowhatta area of
Srinagar. People had staged a
forceful demonstration outside
JULY 2018 03
Cover Story
Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid at
Nowhatta after Juma prayers
against the desecration of the
grand mosque by the Indian
police on last Friday (May 25).
Soon a speedy CRPF vehicle that
came from Khanyar drove into
the protesters. The CRPF vehicle,
according to eyewitnesses, in
order to move out of the demon-
stration sped on, knocking down
two boys, Younis Ahmed and
Qaiser Butt. They were rushed to
Soura Institute of Medical
Sciences where Qaiser
succumbed to his injuries.
On June 06, Indian troops
martyred three Kashmiri youth
during a cordon and search
operation in Machhil area of
Kupwara district.
On June 10, six youth were
martyred by the troops during a
siege and search operation in
Keran area of Kupwara district.
On June 14, two more youth were
martyred by the troops during a
siege and search operation which
lasted for more than six days in
Panar area of Bandipore district.
On June 15, a civilian, Waqas
Ahmed Rathar, was killed and
several others including a girl,
Ruqaya Jan, were injured after
Indian Army personnel opened
fire on peaceful protesters in
Nowpora area of Pulwama
district after they resisted Indian
troops’ attempts to vandalise the
property of a local freedom-
fighter, Saju Mir.
Even on the day of Eidul Fitr on
June 16, one Kashmiri youth was
martyred by the troops. The
youth identified as 18-year-old
Sheraz Ahmed Naikoo was
killed after the troops opened
indiscriminate fire on
worshipers following Eid
prayers at Ashajipora in
Islamabad district.
On the other hand, Hurriyat
leaders and organisations
KASHMIR INSIGHT
strongly condemned the killing
spree unleashed by the Indian
troops during the holy month of
Ramadan in occupied Kashmir.
They also paid glowing tributes
to the martyred youth and urged
the international community to
impress upon India to stop its
state terrorism in the occupied
territory.
The Joint Resistance Leadership
comprising Syed Ali Gilani,
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and
Muhammad Yasin Malik
strongly denouncing the killing
spree in the occupied territory
during the holy month of
Ramadan said that the Indian
Army’s actions deflated the
ceasefire hoax.
The resistance leaders in a joint
statement issued in Srinagar said
that the ceasefire was a cosmetic
measure. They said that how
could it be termed a ceasefire as it
meant that they would stop
killing in the month of Ramadan
only and would continue the
genocide of the Kashmiris after
Eidul Fitr. They said that a
ceasefire should have been based
on a long term and followed by a
concrete and practical roadmap
for the resolution of the Kashmir
dispute.
JULY 2018 04
Cover Story
The leaders said that the killing
of Kashmiris by the Indian
forces’ personnel continued
despite the Ramadan ceasefire
either by bullets, pellets or lately
by crushing them under their
heavy vehicles. They also
thanked the Kashmiri people for
staging demonstrations against
the killings and desecration of
Jamia Masjid and vandalisation
of houses and graveyards by the
Indian forces.
The Chairman of All Parties
Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali
Gilani, in a separate statement in
Srinagar said that killings
throughout the occupied
territory and the vandalisation of
residential houses and fruit
orchards by the troops in
Shopian and desecration of
Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid
had deflated the balloon of
ceasefire. He pointed out that
India and its stooges had waged
a war on the people of the
occupied territory while the
announcement of ceasefire was
just a ploy to hoodwink the
international community. He
criticised local stooges of India
for abetting these merciless
killings and said that there
seemed no letup in prevailing
bloodshed in the territory as
killer forces’ personnel
continued to enjoy impunity
under draconian law, Armed
Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA).
The APHC Chairman said that
the sacrifices of Kashmiri
martyrs would not be allowed to
go waste and their mission
would be accomplished at all
costs. “We will not forget the
warm blood of our young
martyrs and will strive hard to
achieve the goal for which they
have sacrificed their lives,” he
added.
Senior resistance leaders,
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Muhammad Yasin Malik and
Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai,
while addressing a seminar in
Srinagar termed the ceasefire
announced by India during the
holy month of Ramadan in
occupied Kashmir as a cosmetic
measure and said that cosmetic
things would not work unless a
comprehensive plan was made
to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq deplored
that India had been pursuing the
policy of oppression, use of brute
force and targeted killing of
innocent people during the past
thirty years in general and for the
last four years in particular. He
said that it was due to the
commitment showed by the
Kashmiri youth towards the
freedom movement that now
Indian Army generals were
admitting the fact that the
Kashmir dispute could not be
resolved and the Kashmiris
could not be defeated through
use of military might.
Muhammad Yasin Malik said
that the people of Kashmir
desired to live with dignity,
honour and freedom but India
was denying them their basic
rights. He said that the
Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom
JULY 2018 05
Cover Story
and self-determination was
genuine and use of military
might, political gimmicks or
oppressive measures by India
could not deter the people of
Jammu and Kashmir from
pursuing the sacred cause.
Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai said
that the ceasefire in Ramadan
meant that India would resume
the killing of innocent Kashmiris
after Eidul Fitr.
Other Hurriyat leaders including
Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi
Al-Safvi, Yasmeen Raja,
Zamruda Habib, Farida Bahenji,
Muhammad Yousuf Naqash,
Hakeem Abdur Rasheed, Syed
Bashir Andrabi, Bilal Siddiqi,
Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, Javaid
Ahmed Mir and Zafar Akbar
Butt in their statements also
pointed out that Ramadan
ceasefire was nothing but hoax
and a ploy to mislead the
international community about
the prevailing grim human rights
situation and the brutalities
perpetrated by the Indian forces’
personnel on the innocent people
of occupied Kashmir. They said
that the ceasefire could have
become meaningful provided
that there was a halt to all forms
of violence by the Indian troops
not only inside the cities and
towns of occupied Kashmir but
also on the Line of Control. They
said that the ceasefire should
have been followed by a tripar-
tite engagement of all the
stakeholders, an end to curbs on
the political, social and religious
activities of Hurriyat leadership
and a process of withdrawal of
Indian troops from occupied
Kashmir, but nothing as such
happened.
The Indian drama of Ramadan
ceasefire got exposed before the
w o r l d
community
after the
relentless
use of force
b y t h e
I n d i a n
troops in
occupied
Kashmir. It
is very
u n f o r t u-
nate that
instead of
respecting the sentiments of the
Kashmiri people, India is
resorting to brutal methods to
suppress their genuine aspira-
tions for securing their inalien-
able right to self-determination.
New Delhi and its cronies in the
occupied territory are using
KASHMIR INSIGHT
disproportionate military might
to intimidate the Kashmiris into
submission. The Indian troops,
despite being equipped with all
kinds of modern technologies
and gadgets, have failed to
subdue the Kashmiris’ resolve
for freedom and they are deter-
mined to take their ongoing
liberation movement to its
logical conclusion at all costs.
The so-called ceasefire also
indicated that over 700,000
Indian troops cannot fight a few
hundred Kashmiri freedom-
fighters and they are finding
excuses for face saving.
It is high time that instead of
resorting to temporary measures
and time-buying tactics, New
Delhi must take practical steps to
settle the Kashmir dispute in
accordance with the Kashmiris’
aspirations. It must resolve the
Kashmir dispute by fulfilling its
promises of holding plebiscite in
Jammu and Kashmir under the
UN-supervision to give the
Kashmiri people an opportunity
to exercise their right to self-
determination. The settlement of
the Kashmir dispute is also
imperative for ensuring perma-
nent peace in South Asia.
(Humayun Aziz Sandeela)
JULY 2018 06
Report

Hurriyat leaders hail UN report on Kashmir

In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyat between India and Pakistan have authorities take immediate and
leaders, human rights activists long been centre-stage, but this is effective steps to avoid a
and organisations have not a conflict frozen in time. It is a repetition of the numerous
welcomed the United Nations’ conflict that has robbed millions examples of excessive use of
first-ever report on human rights of their basic human rights, and force by security forces in
situation in the occupied continues to this day to inflict Kashmir,” he added.
territory. They appealed to the untold suffering on the people of The High Commissioner
world community to take Kashmir.” spearheaded a series of high-
cognisance of Indian brutalities
That is why, he said, any level policy statements on
in the occupied territory and play
resolution of the political Kashmir in every session of the
their role in the settlement of the
situation in Kashmir must entail UN Human Rights Council
Kashmir dispute in accordance
a commitment to end the cycles starting in September 2016 and
with the Kashmiris’ aspirations
of violence and ensure until March 2018. But on June 14
to mitigate their sufferings.
accountability for past and and again on June 18, this year,
The United Nations human current violations and abuses, he stunned the rights defenders
rights report on Jammu and and provide redress for the
Kashmir released by the UN
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein,
at the UN Human Rights Office
in Geneva on June 14, 2018, called
for an urgent need to address
past and ongoing human rights
violations and abuses and
deliver justice to all people in
Kashmir.
The main focus of the 49-page
report remained on the human
rights situation in the Indian
occupied Kashmir from July 2016
- when large and unprecedented
demonstrations erupted after
Indian troops killed popular
youth leader, Burhan Muzaffar victims. and the international community
Wani - to April 2018. It said that Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein urged the by his recommendation for the
the people of Kashmir had UN Human Rights Council to UN Human Rights Council to
suffered a conflict for seven consider establishing a establish a commission of
decades that had claimed or commission of inquiry to inquiry into the rights abuses
ruined numerous lives. The conduct a comprehensive being committed by the Indian
report by the UN on the human independent international troops in occupied Kashmir.
rights situation in Kashmir investigation into allegations of The report said that the Indian
highlighted a situation of chronic human rights violations in forces used excessive force that
impunity for violations Kashmir. led to unlawful killings and a
committed by the Indian forces He called upon the Indian forces very high number of injuries.
in the occupied territory. to exercise maximum restraint Civil society estimated that up to
The UN High Commissioner for and strictly abide by the 145 civilians were killed by the
Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al- international standards Indian forces between mid-July
Hussein, while releasing the governing the use of force when 2016 and the end of March 2018.
report said, “The political dealing with protests in future. It said that one of the most
dimensions of the dispute “It is essential that the Indian dangerous weapons used

KASHMIR INSIGHT JULY 2018 07

Report
against protesters in 2016 - and
which is still being employed by
the Indian forces - was the pellet-
firing shotgun. “According to
official figures, 17 people were
killed by shotgun pellets
between July 2016 and August
2017, and 6,221 people were
injured by the metal pellets
between 2016 and March 2017.
Civil society organisations
believe that many of them have
been partially or completely
blinded,” the report said.
“Impunity for human rights
violations and lack of access to
justice are key human rights
challenges in the state of Jammu
and Kashmir,” the report said,
noting that Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public
Safety Act (PSA) have “created
structures that obstruct the
normal course of law, impede
accountability and jeopardise the
right to remedy for victims of
human rights violations.” The
AFSPA prohibits prosecution of
the Indian forces’ personnel
unless the Indian Government
grants prior permission to
prosecute, it noted. This gives the
forces virtual immunity against
prosecution for any human
rights violation, it said, adding
that in the nearly 28 years that the
law has been in force in occupied
Kashmir, there has not been a
single prosecution of armed
forces’ personnel sanctioned by
the Indian government.
There is also almost total
impunity for enforced or
involuntary disappearances,
with little movement towards
credibly investigating
complaints, including into sites
of mass graves in the Kashmir
Valley and Jammu region, it said.
The report also mentioned the
Kunanposhpora mass rape and
stated that chronic impunity for
s e x u a l
violence
a l s o
remained a
key concern
in occupied
Kashmir. It
pointed out
that an
emblematic
case was the
K u n a n -
poshpora
mass rape
27 years ago
when Indian soldiers gang-
raped several women from the
ages of 8 to 80 years. Attempts to
seek justice have been blocked
over the years at different levels,
it said.
The report urged India to
urgently repeal the draconian
KASHMIR INSIGHT
law Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA), establish
independent, impartial and
credible investigations to probe
all civilian killings since July 2016
and provide reparations and
rehabilitation to all injured
individuals and to the families of
those killed in the context of
operations conducted by the
Indian forces in the occupied
territory. Similarly, the PSA
should be amended to ensure its
compliance with the
international human rights law
and all those held under
administrative detention should
either be charged or immediately
released, it added.
Meanwhile, Hurriyat leaders
and organisations welcomed the
UN report that highlighted the
gross human rights violations by
the Indian troops in occupied
Kashmir.
The Chairman of All Parties
Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali
Gilani, in a statement in Srinagar
appealed to the World Body to
pressurise India to implement
the UN resolutions on Kashmir
to pave way for permanent peace
and prosperity in the South
Asian region. Expressing deep
concern over the stepped up
Indian state terrorism, he urged
JULY 2018 08
Report
the United Nations and UN
Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) to take cognisance of
the gross human rights
violations being perpetrated by
the Indian troops in the territory.
He said that India through its
military might seemed desperate
to cow down the Kashmiris’
spirit. However, all the follies
committed by the Indian
authorities will culminate in
their defeat.
The Chairman of Hurriyat
forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in
a twitter massage said that the
first-ever UN report on human
rights violations in Kashmir was
recognition of the grave abuses
being perpetrated by the Indian
forces’ personnel in the occupied
territory for the past 30 years in
particular and for the last over
seven decades in general. He said
that calling for inquiry into these
violations was long overdue. He
said that the UN report reflected
the ground situation of occupied
Kashmir and detailed how the
people of the territory were
denied all freedoms and justice.
The Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front Chief,
Muhammad Yasin Malik, in a
statement said that at a time
when the oppressed Kashmiris
felt to have been abandoned by
the international community,
this report highlighting their
miseries had actually come as a
ray of hope to them.
Other Hurriyat leaders and
organisations including
Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai,
Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi,
Muhammad Yousuf Naqash,
Hakeem Abdur Rasheed, Syed
Bashir Andrabi, Bilal Siddiqi,
Mukhtar
Ahmed
W a z a ,
Shabbir
Ahmed
D a r ,
Yasmeen
R a j a ,
Zamruda
Habib,
Farida
Bahenji,
Javaid
Ahmed
Mir, Zafar Akbar Butt,
Muhammad Ahsan Untoo,
Imtiaz Ahmed Reshi, the High
Court Bar Association of
occupied Kashmir, the Jammu
and Kashmir Coalition of Civil
Society and Association of
Parents of Disappeared Persons
in their statements welcoming
the UN report said that it had
depicted the gross human rights
violations by the Indian troops in
the territory.
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Meanwhile, the Secretary
General of World Kashmir
Awareness Forum, Dr Ghulam
Nabi Fai, in an article wrote that
the UN report was a significant
step towards greater
international recognition of the
serious human rights abuses
committed against the Kashmiris
by the Indian forces. He pointed
out that the report cited specific
incidents where the Indian
Government violated the very
principles of human decency and
democratic freedom against the
people of Kashmir.
Noted Kashmiri jurist and
Secretary General of the London-
based Jammu and Kashmir
Council for Human Rights
(JKCHR), Dr Syed Nazir Gilani,
in an article termed the release of
49-page report as a great
achievement. He said that the
report was based on the
mechanism of “remote
monitoring” that had defeated
the Indian refusal to allow the
UN team into occupied Kashmir.
He said, the credit goes to NGOs,
civil society representatives and
Governments that continued
directly and indirectly to force
the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights to find a way out
against the Indian refusal to
allow unhindered access into
occupied Kashmir to assess the
human rights situation.
JULY 2018 09
Report
APPKG in UK Parliament releases report on HR situation in IOK
The All-Party Parliamentary
Kashmir Group (APPKG) in the
UK Parliament released an
interim report on the ongoing
human rights situation of
occupied Kashmir.
The report compiled after
receiving various testimonies
about the human rights
violations perpetrated by the
Indian troops in the occupied
territory was released by the
APPKG Chairman, MP Chris
Leslie, in a meeting of the Group
held in London on June 19, 2018.
The report discussed in detail the
draconian laws, Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and
Public Safety Act (PSA), as well
as enforced disappearances in
the territory.
The report said, “The pattern of
grave human rights violations in
Jammu and Kashmir involves
persistent reports of thousands
of arbitrary arrests and
prolonged arbitrary detentions
under special laws curbing
important legal safeguards and
thus facilitating human rights
violations; notably
disappearances, routine torture
of detainees so brutal that it
frequently results in death, rape
of women during search
operations, and extrajudicial
executions of unarmed civilians,
often falsely labelled as having
been the result of “encounters”
or as having occurred in “cross-
fire”; [and] security forces have
operated with virtual impunity.”
The report mentioned as how in
2012, the Crisis Watch Group
summarised the picture of
Jammu and Kashmir in the
following terms, “J&K remains
heavily militarised, and
draconian laws that provide
legal cover for human rights
abuses by security officials
remain in force giving the army
widespread powers to search
houses, arrest people without
warrants and detain suspects
indefinitely.”
The report gave justifiable
attention to two pieces of
legislation, the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and
the Public Safety Act (PSA) -
whose combined effect, critics
contend, is massively to broaden
the discretionary powers given
to the Indian forces in Jammu
and Kashmir, and then shield
them from legal scrutiny or
attempt at prosecution.
A closer analysis of their
provisions, as written and effects
in practice, will shed some light
on how these legal fixities
systematically determine
failures to uphold human rights
in occupied Kashmir.
The APPKG report said, the
AFSPA gives the Indian forces’
personnel discretionary powers
to kill, use excessive force and
detain any person without any
fear of prosecution. It said that to
prosecute an erring soldier or
KASHMIR INSIGHT
policeman in a civilian court
requires approval from the
Indian government which was
rarely granted. It said that the
government of occupied
Kashmir had sought permission
to prosecute in 50 cases since
2001; and strikingly, the Indian
government had declined to
provide it in 47 of these. The
report said, laws matter, but the
effect of the AFSPA is to erode
rather than strengthen the rule of
law across the territory. It
militates against a return to a
rule-governed society which
incorporates respect for human
rights, and its repeal should be a
matter of priority, it said.
The Armed Forces Special
Powers Act, versions of which
apply in various Indian states, is
used to deploy the military in
conflict situation. In its 2016
survey of the human rights
picture in India, the US State
Department pointed out that
under the AFSPA, a central
government designation of state
or union territory as a “disturbed
area” authorises the Indian
forces in the state to use deadly
JULY 2018 10
Report
force to “maintain law and
order” and arrest any person
“against whom reasonable
suspicion exists” without
informing the detainee of the
grounds for arrest. The law also
provides the forces immunity
from civilian prosecution for acts
committed in regions under the
AFSPA. The US State
Department had also pointed out
that the Public Safety Act, which
applies only in occupied
Kashmir, gives the authorities
permanent powers of
administrative detention. “The
PSA permits state authorities to
detain persons without charge or
judicial review for up to two
years without visitation from
family members. Authorities
allowed detainees access to a
lawyer during interrogation, but
police in Jammu and Kashmir
allegedly routinely employed
arbitrary detention and denied
detainees access to lawyers and
medical attention” the State
Department had stated.
The APPKG report maintained
that in both AFSPA and PSA
there are parallel but distinct
criticisms in relation to human
rights. On one hand, critics hold
that the AFSPA and PSA
constitute an immediate
evidentiary violation of India’s
international human rights
obligations. On the other, it is
pointed out that (well-
evidenced) claims of abuse by
police and security forces reflect
a culture of disregard for human
rights which is in practice
systematised by the Acts
themselves. In the APPKG’s
judgement both of these
propositions are amply justified.
The report said that the PSA was
the most frequently used in
several instruments which
enabled administrative
detention by police and
paramilitary forces in occupied
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Kashmir. The APPKG seemed
convinced by Amnesty
International’s contention that
the detention under the PSA
violated the principle of legality
required by the International
Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) - to which India
was a party. It stated that in 2014
a petition under India’s Right to
Information Act revealed the
extent of this practice: a total of
16,329 administrative detentions
had been filed since 1988.
Tellingly, rates of detention
under the PSA were not
correlated with levels of violence
in the state, lending credence to
the suggestion that
administrative detention powers
are being abused.
The report pointed out that the
due process principles observed
in the context of PSA detentions
also appear to fall far below what
could be thought of as an
acceptable standard. The
detainees are not permitted to
request legal representation and
the PSA sets out no mechanism
for judicial review, it added.
The report said that the APPKG
had considered a number of
well-evidenced submissions
alleging forced disappearances
in occupied Kashmir.
The APPKG report stated that
JULY 2018 11
Report

while official data was of course

not available to them, solid
evidence of disappearances
numbering in thousands was
lent credence by the findings of
International People’s Tribunal
on Human Rights (IPTHR) in
2009 that indicated 2,943
unidentified bodies across 55
villages in occupied Kashmir.
The IPTHR feared that many of
those bodies belonged to the
roughly 8,000 civilians believed
to be victims of enforced
disappearances by the Indian
forces in Kashmir, the APPKG
said. The Jammu and Kashmir
J&K State Human Rights article of the International
Government posture, of
Commission in 2011 found 2,156 Convention for the Protection of
wholesale refusal to investigate
bodies in unmarked graves at 38 All Persons from Enforced
the identity of bodies deposited
sites in northern Kashmir. While Disappearance, signed but yet to
in mass graves, was in APPKG’s
the Indian government claimed be ratified by India, adopted the
view both morally indefensible
that the bodies were all of following definition, “For the
and wholly at odds with
unidentified, mostly Pakistani, purposes of this Convention,
international legal instruments,
militants that had been given to “enforced disappearance” is
which India was theoretically
village authorities for burial, at considered to be the arrest,
committed to uphold, it added.
least 574 were identified as local detention, abduction or any
The APPKG in its report
Kashmiris,” the report said. other form of deprivation of
mentioned the Crisis Watch
liberty by agents of the State or by
persons or groups of persons
acting with the authorisation,
support or acquiescence of the
State, followed by a refusal to
acknowledge the deprivation of
liberty or by concealment of the
fate or whereabouts of the
disappeared person, which place
such a person outside the
protection of the law”.
The APPKG considered a
number of well-evidenced
submissions of forced
disappearances in the occupied
territory. By any reckoning this
constituted a gross violation of
Group’s creditable reporting on In this context, the APPKG international law as well as the
the issue of enforced seemed especially troubled by Indian domestic law and the
disappearances during the last the seemingly deliberate opacity Group was particularly troubled
two decades, as thousands of of the process mandated by the by the refusal of the Indian forces
Kashmiris had disappeared as a puppet regime for ascertaining in occupied Kashmir to commit
result of operations conducted the identity of a body located to investigate credible
by the Indian forces. “An within a grave. allegations when they were
investigation conducted by the It pointed out that the second presented, it added.

KASHMIR INSIGHT JULY 2018 12

02-06-2018 Srinagar 02-06-2018 Srinagar 03-06-2018 Srinagar

08-06-2018 Srinagar 10-06-2018 Kupwara 14-06-2018 Ramban 16-06-2018 Islamabad

22-06-2018 Srinagar 24-06-2018 Kulgam 25-06-2018 Srinagar

Human Rights Situation

India is subjecting the people of

HR violations by Indian troops
occupied Kashmir to the worst in IOK during June 2018
kind of state terrorism for the past
Compiled by Raies Ahmed Mir brute force and fired pellets and
over seven decades for demanding
teargas shells on protesters in
their inalienable right to self- June 01: A youth, Qaiser Srinagar and Hajin areas.
determination and freedom from Ameen Butt, was crushed to The authorities detained
its illegal occupation. The Indian death while another, Hurriyat leaders including
troops and police personnel Muhammad Younis, was Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar
enjoying unbridled powers under critically injured after they Farooq, Muhammad Ashraf
draconian laws like Armed Forces were run over by a vehicle of Sehrai, Muhammad Yasin
Special Powers Act, Disturbed Indian paramilitary Central Malik, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza
Areas Act and Public Safety Act Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Zafar Akbar Butt in their
are committing grave human rights during anti-India houses and police stations to
violations - in fact crimes against demonstrations near historic prevent them from visiting the
humanity - with impunity in the Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta family members of the
occupied territory to intimidate the area of Srinagar. A 12th class martyred youth, Qaiser Butt, in
Kashmiris into submission. The student, Danish Ahmed, lost Srinagar and expressing
eyesight in one eye after solidarity with them.
imposition of Governor's Rule in
Indian troops fired pellets on June 03: Indian troops killed a
the occupied territory on June 20,
2018 is another attempt by the
Indian authorities to further step
up the genocide of the Kashmiri
people.
The United Nations and the All-
Party Parliamentary Kashmir
Group (APPKG) in the UK
Parliament in their recent reports
have expressed serious concerns
over the gross human rights
violations by the Indian forces'
personnel in occupied Kashmir.
The UN report released by the UN
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein,
called for an urgent need to address
past and ongoing human rights protesters in the area. youth during a violent military
violations and deliver justice to all Indian police arrested dozens operation in Keran area of
people in Kashmir who have of youth from Bijbehara, Kupwara district.
suffered a conflict for seven Arwini, Khudwani, Kulgam, The sleuths of India's National
Sugan, Shopian and Pulwama Investigation Agency and the
decades that has claimed or ruined
areas. personnel of Indian police
numerous lives. The APPKG report
The puppet authorities arrested many youth from
highlighted the impunity given to
continued to place the All Shopian.
the Indian forces under draconian
Parties Hurriyat Conference June 05: Several people
laws and the issue of custodial
Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, sustained injuries after Indian
disappearances in occupied under house arrest and once police used brute force on
Kashmir. again barred him from protesters in Washbugh,
Following is an account of day-to- offering Friday prayers. Dangerpora Chowk and
day human rights violations by June 02: Over two dozen Murran Chowk areas of
Indian troops in the occupied people were injured after Pulwama. The protesters were
territory during June 2018. Indian forces' personnel used demanding the mortal remains

KASHMIR INSIGHT JULY 2018 18

Human Rights Situation
of a youth, Sheraz Ahmed
Sheikh, who was killed by Indian
troops in a fake encounter in
Tangdhar area of Kupwara on
May 25, 2018.
June 06: Indian troops killed
three youth including Nisar
Ahmed Butt and Zahid in a fake
encounter in Machil area of
Kupwara district.
The puppet authorities booked
Hurriyat leader, Ghulam
Muhammad Khan Sopori and
Farooq Tawheedi, once again
under black law, Public Safety
Act, and shifted them from
Sopore Police Station to Kathua
Jail in Jammu.
June 08: Ten
people were
injured in Indian
forces' violent
actions against
p e a c e f u l
protesters in
Srinagar and
Islamabad areas.
Indian police
arrested a dozen
youth from a
mosque in
Islamabad town.
June 09: Several
people including
a woman were
injured after Indian police used
brute force on protesters in
Takipora area of Budgam
district.
June 10: Indian troops killed six
youth during a violent military
operation in Keran area of
Kupwara district.
June 11: Indian forces' personnel
arrested two youth, Mukhtar
Ahmed and Aijaz Ahmed
Paarray, from Shopian.
June 12: Several youth sustained
injuries after Indian forces'
personnel fired teargas shells on
the demonstrators who were
protesting against Indian troops'
attempts to erase pro-freedom
graffiti from walls in D K Pora in
Shopian district.
June 13: The troops beat up
several youth without any
reason at Ahgam in Shopian.
June 14: The troops killed two
youth during a violent cordon
and search operation in Panar
area of Bandipora district.
Unknown gunmen killed senior
journalist and Editor-in-Chief of
English daily Rising Kashmir,
Shujaat Bukhari, along with his
two personal security officers
outside his office at Press Enclave
in Srinagar.
Indian forces' personnel used
brute force on peaceful
protesters in Banihal and injured
four people, Shabbir Ahmed,
Muhammad Saleem, Ghulam
Muhammad and Mubarak
Ahmed Shah.
June 15: Indian troops killed a 15-
year-old boy, Waqas Ahmed
Rather, and injured several
people including a girl, Ruqaya
Jan, by using excessive force on
protesters at Nowpora Payeen in
Pulwama district. The troops
also vandalised the property of a
prominent young liberation
activist, Saju Mir, in the area.
The puppet authorities
continued to keep the All Parties
Hurriyat Conference Chairman,
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Syed Ali Gilani, under house
arrest and didn't allow him to
offer Jummatul-Wida, the last
Friday of holy month of
Ramadan.
June 16: An 18-year-old youth,
Sheraz Ahmed Naikoo, was
killed and over 30 people were
injured when the Indian forces'
personnel fired bullets, pellets
and teargas shells on anti-India
demonstrations after Eidul Fitr
prayers in Islamabad and
Shopian districts.
The puppet authorities
continued to place the APHC
Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani,
under house arrest and barred
him from offering
congregational
Eid prayers at
E i d g a h i n
Srinagar.
June 17: A youth,
Abdul Majeed
War, was injured
after Indian
troops fired
pellets on
p e a c e f u l
protesters in
Soura area of
Srinagar.
June 18: A
civilian, Aijaz
Ahmed Butt, was killed and
seven others were injured after
Indian troops fired bullets and
pellets on peaceful
demonstrators at Nowpora Mir
Bazaar in Kulgam.
The troops killed two youth
during a siege and search
operation in Panar area of
Bandipore district.
June 19: The troops killed three
youth including Aadil Ahmed
and Danish Ahmed during a
crackdown operation at Hayuna
Nazneenpora in Tral.
The troops shot at and injured a
vegetable vendor, Javaid Ahmed
Waza, in Srigufwara area of
JULY 2018 19
Human Rights Situation
Bijbehara town.
Indian police arrested two
civilians, Arif Ahmed Malla and
Raies Ahmed Naik, from
Rafiabad area of Baramulla
district.
June 21: The police arrested
several people from Budgam and
Ganderbal areas.
The occupation authorities
arrested the Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front Chairman,
Muhammad Yasin Malik, and
put Hurriyat leaders including
Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq, Muhammad Ashraf
Sehrai, Engineer Hilal Ahmed
War and Zafar Akbar Butt under
house arrest in Srinagar.
June 22: Indian troops killed six
youth including Dawood
Ahmed Sofi, Majid Manzoor Dar,
Aadil Rehman Butt, Muhammad
Ashraf Ittoo and Muhammad
Yousuf Rathar during a
crackdown operation in
Srigufwara area of Islamabad
district. The troops also
destroyed a residential house
and injured forty people
including a woman, Rafeeqa
Begum, by firing bullets, pellets
and teargas shells on protesters
in the area. Indian police arrested
Sayar Ahmed Rathar and didn't
allow him to attend the funeral
prayers of his father,
Muhammad Yousuf Rathar.
June 23: At least thirteen people
were injured after Indian forces'
personnel fired pellets on
protesters at Darumdore in
Shopian and Hajin areas of
Bandipora.
Indian police arrested seven
people from various areas of Tral
town.
June 24: A teenage boy, Shahid
Nazir Hajam, who was injured in
the firing of Indian troops on
protesters in Srigufwara area of
Islamabad district, two days ago
(on June 22), succumbed to his
injuries at Soura Institute of
Medical Sciences in Srinagar.
Three youth including Yawar
Ahmed Dar and Shakoor Ahmed
Dar were killed and over two
KASHMIR INSIGHT
dozen others injured after the
troops opened fire on protesters
at Cheddar in Kulgam.
Indian police arrested two
civilians, Amin Ahmed Sofi and
Tanveer Ahmed Butt, from
Islamabad town.
June 25: An 11th class student,
Ubaid Manzoor Lone, was
critically injured in the firing of
Indian troops in Nadihal area of
Sopore.
Indian forces’ personnel
thrashed several people and
smashed windowpanes of many
houses at Syedabad in Tral.
June 26: Indian troops
vandalised shops and broke
windowpanes of houses without
any reason at main market in
Hajin.
Indian police arrested four
persons, Muhammad Ayoob
Malla, Fayaz Ahmed War, Javaid
Ahmed War and Maqsood
Ahmed War, from Sopore.
June 28: Indian troops arrested
four Hurriyat activists, Abdul
Hameed Parray, Ghulam Hassan
Shah, Khursheed Ahmed Hajam
and Muzaffar Ahmed Lone,
during house raids in Hajin.
June 29: Indian forces killed two
civilians including a 9th class
student, Faizan Ahmed Khan,
and injured dozens others by
resorting to indiscriminate firing
on protesters at Thamuna
Chatpora in Pulwama.
JULY 2018 20
Article
Importance of Accession to Pakistan Resolution
Background
19th July holds a special
significance in the history of
Jammu and Kashmir as on this
day in 1947 the genuine Kashmiri
leadership had unanimously
decided that the Jammu and
Kashmir will be part of Pakistan
in future. The representatives of
majority of the Kashmiris during
a meeting at the residence of
Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim
Khan in Aabi Guzar area of
Srinagar had passed the
resolution of Kashmir’s
Accession to Pakistan. Sardar
Ibrahim later became the first
President of the liberated part of
Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution called for the
accession of the State of Jammu
and Kashmir to Pakistan in view
of its existing religious,
geographical, cultural and
economic proximity to Pakistan
and aspirations of millions of
Kashmiri Muslims. The
resolution stated: "This
convention of Muslim
Conference has reached the
conclusion that geographical
conditions, 80 percent Muslim
population, important rivers of
Punjab passing through the state,
language, cultural, ethnic and
economic relations and
contiguity of the state with
Pakistan make it imperative to
merge with Pakistan". The
Muslim Conference was the only
representative body of the
Muslims of the territory in the
state Assembly.
The development had come
almost a month before the
creation of two sovereign states
of Pakistan and India under the
Partition Plan of the British
Indian colony on August 14 and
15 respectively, the same year.
Under the understanding behind
the Partition Plan, the Princely
States were free to accede to
either of the two newly
established countries. The
decision of 19th July 1947 was a
testimony to the fact that the
people of Kashmir had linked
their future with Pakistan.
Indian invasion
It is a fact that being a Muslim
majority state, Jammu and
Kashmir had a natural tendency
to accede to Pakistan but the then
Hindu ruler of the territory,
Maharaja Hari Singh, by signing
a controversial “Instrument of
Accession” with the then
Governor General of India, Lord
Mountbatten, destroyed the
future of millions of Kashmiris
and laid the foundation of the
Kashmir dispute. On the basis of
this so-called accession, India
invaded Jammu and Kashmir by
landing its troops in Srinagar on
October 27, 1947. Many neutral
observers deny the existence of
such document on the grounds
that had it been there, India
would have made it public either
officially or at some international
forum. Within next two months,
Indian troops, the forces of Dogra
Maharaja, and Hindu extremists
KASHMIR INSIGHT
had massacred over three
hundred thousand Muslims with
the sole aim of changing the
demographic composition of the
territory. The Muslims had faced
unprecedented miseries under
the Dogra Rule. A new saga of
their sufferings started with the
Indian occupation of Jammu and
Kashmir in 1947 and it still
continues.
Kashmiris’ resistance against
Indian occupation
The Indian invasion faced a stiff
resistance from the people of
Jammu and Kashmir who started
a revolt against it. Despite having
little resources, they succeeded
to liberate a vast area now known
as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Sensing a humiliating defeat to
its forces, India approached the
United Nations Security Council
on January 01, 1948, to seek its
help to settle the dispute. The
World Body passed successive
resolutions, nullifying the Indian
invasion and occupation of
Kashmir. At that time, the Indian
rulers had promised before the
UN to resolve the dispute by
giving the Kashmiris their right
to self-determination under a
UN-supervised plebiscite in
JULY 2018 21
Article

Jammu and Kashmir but later

backed away from their
commitments.
India’s continued denial of their
right to self-determination
resulted in the resentment
among the people of occupied
Kashmir. Disappointed at the
failure of all efforts aimed at
settling the Kashmir dispute
through peaceful means, they
launched a massive uprising in
1989 to secure this right.
However, Indian authorities
responded to this popular mass
movement with brute force.
Since then, Indian troops have
demonstrations for three mammoth demonstrations as
killed over ninety five thousand
consecutive years from 2008 to their referendum against its
Kashmiris, widowed more than
2010 and on some occasions the illegal occupation, India
twenty two thousand women,
number of protesters had crossed responded with the use of brute
orphaned over one hundred
one million mark in Srinagar city force. Since the martyrdom of
thousand children and raped
alone. However, during these Burhan Wani, the Indian troops
more than eleven thousand
mass uprisings, the protesters have killed over six hundred
Kashmiri women. The
were subjected to brutal force by Kashmiris and injured more than
whereabouts of thousands of
the Indian troops that resulted in 22,000 by firing pellets, bullets
innocent Kashmiris, subjected to
the killing of more than three and teargas shells during
peaceful demonstrations and
cordon and search operations.
Over 8,000 people have received
pellet injuries, 128 of whom have
lost their eye-sight totally, 207 in
one eye while 1,869 are at the
verge of losing their eye-sight
partially.
Increase in genocide
The Narendra Modi-led Indian
government has now imposed
Governor’s Rule in occupied
Kashmir after the collapse of
Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP
coalition regime following
withdrawal of support to it by
the Bharatiya Janata Party.
custodial disappearance by the hundred people and injuring of Immediately, after the
troops, are yet to be made known thousands other. The occupied imposition of the Governor’s
while thousands of unnamed territory is once again on the boil Rule, the Indian troops have
graves discovered in the territory after the extrajudicial killing of stepped up their cordon and
are believed to be of the popular youth leader, Burhan search operations in the occupied
disappeared Kashmiris. Wani, on July 8, 2016. territory and genocide of the
Mass uprisings Unfortunately, instead of Kashmiri people. However, it is a
The people of occupied Kashmir respecting the Kashmiris’ fact that the Indian brutalities
staged massive pro-freedom aspirations and taking these have failed to suppress the

KASHMIR INSIGHT JULY 2018 22

Article
Kashmiris’ freedom sentiment in
the past and would definitely
meet the same fate in the future
as well.
Pakistan’s support
Pakistan is the only country of
the world that has been
extending its continued support
to the Kashmiris in their just
struggle since 1947. There are
several reasons for Pakistan’s
support to the Kashmir cause as
the people of Pakistan and
Kashmir share strong bonds in
respect of religion, geography,
culture and aspirations. Pakistan
has been hosting since 1947
hundreds of thousands of
Kashmiris who migrated from
occupied Kashmir to Pakistan
due to their strong emotional
attachment to the country after
they were subjected to the worst
kind of state terrorism by the
Indian forces. The people of
occupied Kashmir have time and
again showed their attachment
with Pakistan by raising the
slogans of “Long live Pakistan”
and “We want Pakistan.”
Hoisting of Pakistani flags
during demonstrations has
become order of the day in
occupied Kashmir. Pakistan's
national days are celebrated with
full enthusiasm in the occupied
territory while those of India are
marked as black days. The fact is
that Pakistanis and Kashmiris
consider the Kashmir dispute as
an unfinished agenda of the
partition of the South Asian sub-
continent in 1947 and the
Kashmir liberation struggle as an
inseparable part of Pakistan
Movement.
The Pakistani leadership has
always lived up to the
expectations of the Kashmiri
people and never betrayed the
faith reposed on it by the
Kashmiri
people. It is
a fact that
despite
being the
victim of
I n d i a n
military
aggression
f o
supporting
t h
Kashmiris
during the
past more than seventy years,
Pakistan never gave up its
support to the Kashmir cause
and continues to advocate
resolution of the dispute to the
satisfaction of the Kashmiri
people.
Flashpoint
India’s continued stubbornness
on the Kashmir dispute is posing
a serious threat to the regional
peace as both Islamabad and
KASHMIR INSIGHT
New Delhi now possess nuclear
weapons and Jammu and
Kashmir has become a nuclear
flashpoint. A minor clash
between the two countries can
prove disastrous for the whole
world.
Conclusion
The passing of resolution of
"Accession to Pakistan" by the
people of Kashmir shows that
they had attached their future
with Pakistan and wanted to
become part of this country. The
resolution passed seventy-one
years ago is still valid and
continues to establish the fact
that the Kashmiris have spiritual,
social, political and cultural
bonds with Pakistan. The worst
r Indian state terrorism in
occupied Kashmir during the
e past over seven decades stands
testimony to the fact that the
Kashmiris’ decision of accession
of Jammu and Kashmir to
Pakistan was justified. The world
community must take steps
towards resolving the Kashmir
dispute by giving the Kashmiris
their inalienable right to self-
determination to end their
sufferings and to ensure global
peace.
(Compiled By: M Raza Malik,
Senior Editor Kashmir Media
Service, Islamabad)
JULY 2018 23
Report
UNHRC session: World attention drawn
towards Indian atrocities in IOK
Speakers at different functions
including seminars, conferences
and demonstrations organised
during the 38th session of the
United Nations Human Rights
Council held in Geneva,
Switzerland, from June 18 to July
6, 2018 condemned the gross
human rights violations
perpetrated by the Indian troops
and police personnel in occupied
Kashmir. They asked India to
stop killings in the territory and
settle the Kashmir dispute by
giving the Kashmiri people their
inalienable right to self-
determination for ensuring
permanent peace in South Asia.
Kashmiri representatives
including Altaf Hussain Wani,
Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, Sardar
Amjad Yousaf Khan, Barrister
Abdul Majeed Tramboo,
Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl,
Shamim Shawl, Ahmed Quraish,
Hassan Al-Bana and Advocate
Pervez Ahmed Shah took part in
different activities during the
UNHRC session and highlighted
the Indian atrocities in occupied
Kashmir. They also held
meetings with representatives of
different organisations and
many dignitaries and apprised
them of the present human rights
situation in the occupied
territory.
On June 18, the Kashmiri
delegation met the UN High
Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein,
and thanked him for his historic
role in the release of the first-ever
UN report on Kashmir which
reaffirmed the international
status of Kashmir as a disputed
territory and censured India for
serious human rights violations
in occupied Kashmir.
On June 21, diplomats, human
rights activists and defenders in
an event held on the sidelines of
the UNHRC session said that the
Kashmir dispute entered a new
era after the first-ever
comprehensive UN report on
Kashmir released by the UN on
June 14, 2018. They said that the
United Nations had made the
biggest progress in the conflict
since the passing of the Security
Council resolutions, decades
ago. They said that the UN report
brought the conflict at the
forefront of the international
agenda and had paved the way
for an international
humanitarian and political
intervention in Kashmir.
Speaking on the occasion,
Ahmed Quraishi said that it was
the most important development
since the Security Council passed
the first resolution on a
referendum in Kashmir more
than a half century ago. “Sixty
years ago UN had called for a
referendum in Jammu and
Kashmir and now in 2018, the
World Body is calling for a
commission of inquiry to
conduct “a comprehensive
KASHMIR INSIGHT
independent international
investigation” into the human
rights violations by the Indian
troops in seventy years of
conflict,” he added.
Altaf Hussein Wani said,
Kashmir now truly tops the
international agenda.
Sardar Amjad Yousaf Khan said
that the UN report had achieved
two things. The first achievement
is taking Kashmir to the top of the
international agenda and the
second is reaffirming the
Kashmiris’ right to self-
determination, he maintained.
On June 24, Kashmiri woman
leader, Shamim Shawl, joined
members of European
Parliament and other panelists to
raise at the United Nations the
case of gang rape and murder of
the eight-year-old Kashmiri girl,
Aasifa Bano.
Shamim Shawl led this major
side-event in her capacity as the
Geneva representative of
International Muslim Women
Union (IMWU), in collaboration
with a key American NGO,
Women’s UN Report Network
(WUNRN).
JULY 2018 24
Report
Afton Beutler, Director of Global
Education Opportunity
Programme, an NGO,
commended the work of rights
defenders in highlighting the
human rights violations
perpetrated by the Indian troops
in occupied Kashmir.
Member European Parliament,
Julie Ward, gave a detailed
presentation on her long study of
human rights violations by the
Indian troops in occupied
Kashmir.
MEP Alex Mayer drew the
attention of Kashmiri activists to
the fact that British MEPs were
often alone in talking about the
Kashmir conflict and that there
was a need for the Kashmiri
activists to reach out to the MEPs
other than those from the UK.
A short film on the case of Aasifa
was also screened on the
occasion.
On June 28, speakers at a road
conference organised by the
International Council for Human
Rights and the South Asia Centre
urged the UN to impress upon
India to give the Kashmiri people
an opportunity to exercise their
right to self-determination.
Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo
addressing the conference said
that it was duty of the
international community and the
UN to implement the resolutions
passed by its Security Council
several decades ago.
The participants called upon the
World Body to come to the rescue
of subjugated people of occupied
Kashmir and help them in
achieving their inalienable right.
On July 03, the demand for
setting up of an independent
inquiry commission to
investigate the allegations of
gross human rights violations by
the Indian troops in occupied
Kashmir was raised at an event
titled “Human Rights Globally,
Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights are enshrined in
the Universal Declaration of
KASHMIR INSIGHT
Human Rights and the Charter of
the United Nations including
Peoples’ Right to Self-
Determination” on the sidelines
of the UNHRC session. The event
was held under the auspices of
International Human Rights
Association of American
Minorities (IHRAAM) in
collaboration with the
International Commission for
Human Rights (ICHR),
Indigenous Peoples and Nations
Coalition (IPNC) and Koani
Foundation.
The event was moderated by
Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo
and was joined by fellow
panelists Professor Alfred de
Zayas, Frank Schwalba-Hoth,
Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl,
Ambassdor Ronald Barnes and
Leon Kaualhao Siu.
Barrister Tramboo (IHRAAM &
ICHR) in his address focused on
the report released by the UN
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein,
on Jammu and Kashmir on 14th
June 2018. He welcomed the UN
High Commissioner’s
recommendation to initiate an
independent inquiry
commission to investigate the
gross human rights abuses
perpetrated by the Indian forces’
personnel in occupied Kashmir.
JULY 2018 25
Report
Continuing the discussion, Frank
Schwalba-Hoth, political
strategist and former MEP,
addressed the issue of self-
determination globally and
highlighted that states were
frightened to ever accept or give
states the right to self-
determination as it could lead to
changing of the borders. He
explained that the European
Union was always open to self-
determination. He said that
Kashmir dispute was justified
amongst various
European States
but they could not
be publically vocal
to support the
issue because of
their own self-
determination
issues.
Professor Nazir
Ahmed Shawl
commented that
the UN High
Commissioner’s
report was
indicative of the
promise made to the people of
Jammu and Kashmir for the
protection of their fundamental
rights and freedoms.
Ambassador Ronald Barnes,
Chair and Director of Indigenous
Peoples and Nations, praised the
work done by Barrister Tramboo
and others besides the UN High
Commissioner’s report on
Kashmir.
The event concluded with a key
intervention by Professor Alfred
de Zayas, independent expert for
the Democratic and International
Order for the Human Rights
Council and Secretary of the
Human Rights Committee. He
enunciated that every state in its
fight for self-determination had
the fundamental right to fair vote
and fair referendum. He
endorsed the UN High
Commissioner’s concluding
remarks in the report and
specifically emphasised the need
to establish a commission of
inquiry to conduct a
comprehensive independent
international investigation into
human right violations by the
Indian troops in occupied
Kashmir. He maintained that the
Kashmir dispute had been on the
UN agenda since 1947 and
criticised the World Body for its
failure to resolve it.
Later on, speaking under the
Agenda Item 5 at one of the
UNHRC sessions Barrister
Abdul Majeed Tramboo urged
the Council to play its role in
protecting the populations under
military occupation. He asked
the Council to appoint a special
rapporteur on the situation of
Jammu and Kashmir, rush a fact-
finding mission to both parts of
Kashmir especially occupied
Kashmir and initiate, as soon as
practicable, a panel discussion in
the Council on the High
Commissioner’s report.
Syed Faiz Naqshbandi speaking
under the Agenda Item 5
demanded of the UNHRC to
ensure that human rights
defenders in occupied Kashmir
cooperating with the UN and
KASHMIR INSIGHT
other human rights mechanisms
were protected against all forms
of intimidation and reprisals by
India. He pointed out that India
did not allow a UN team to
occupied Kashmir despite
repeated requests made by the
UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights since September
2016. Now when the Office of
High Commissioner has
published report on 14th June
2018, India has not only rejected
the report but is opposing the
establishment
of commission
of inquiry, he
deplored. He
pointed out that
it was so
because India
did not want
the world to
know the
massive and
systematic
human right
violations
b e i n g
committed by
its forces in the
territory.
Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl
speaking under the Agenda Item
4 informed the UN Human
Rights Council that India had
been using the metal pellet-firing
shotguns against the people of
occupied Kashmir since, at least,
2010. He said that there was no
way to control the trajectory or
direction of the pellets, whose
effects are therefore
indiscriminate. By this very
nature, the weapon has a high
risk of causing serious and
permanent injuries to the
persons targeted as well as to
others. He called upon the UN
Human Rights Council and the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights to impress upon India to
stop the use of pellet guns in
occupied Kashmir.
JULY 2018 26
Chronology
A chronological account of
developments on Kashmir (143)
KMS Research Desk
2014
February 26: Hurriyat leaders,
Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq and Muhammad Yasin
Malik, in their statements
demand a probe by an
international agency into the
killing of the seven youth killed
by the Indian troops in Lolab area
of Kupwara district to ascertain
their identity. They deplore that
people are first killed and then
incidents are portrayed as
encounters. They say that Lolab
incident seems to be another
Machil-like fake encounter.
Complete shutdown is observed
in Kupwara district against the
killing of the youth and the use of
brute force on protesters by the
Indian troops. Clashes break out
after the Indian police resort to
baton-charge against the
protesters in the town. The
occupation authorities continue
to impose curfew and strict
restrictions in Lalpora area of
Kupwara district to prevent
protests against the killings.
February 27: The All Parties
Hurriyat Conference at a joint
meeting of its Executive and
General Councils in Srinagar
says that the implementation of
the UN resolutions or result-
oriented dialogue among
Pakistan, India and the people of
Jammu and Kashmir is
imperative for settlement of the
Kashmir dispute.
Anti-India demonstrations are
held at Press Colony in Srinagar
against the worst human rights
violations committed by the
Indian troops in the territory.
APHC leaders, Javaid Ahmed
Mir, Zafar Akbar Butt, Yasmeen
Raja and Syed Bashir Andrabi
among others participate in the
demonstrations.
A soldier of Indian Army’s 13
Rashtriya Rifles, Ranveer Singh,
commits suicide after shooting
five of his colleagues to death at
an army camp in Manasbal area
of Ganderbal district.
Complete shutdown is observed
in Kupwara district against the
killing of seven youth and the use
of brute force on protesters by the
Indian troops. The authorities
continue to impose curfew on the
third consecutive day in Lalpora
area of the district to prevent
people from staging the protests.
February 28: Complete
shutdown is observed in
occupied Kashmir to protest the
recent killing of seven Kashmiri
youth by the Indian troops in a
staged encounter in Kupwara
district. Call for the shutdown is
given by the veteran Hurriyat
leader, Syed Ali Gilani, and
supported by several pro-
freedom organisations and the
High Court Bar Association of
the occupied territory. The
puppet authorities impose
curfew in Kupwara to prevent
people from holding
demonstrations against the
killings.
The Indian police arrest the
Chairman of Jammu and
Kashmir Liberation Front,
Muhammad Yasin Malik, along
with several party leaders at
Budshah Chowk in Srinagar
during a rally against the closure
of Pathribal fake encounter case
by the Indian Army. The police
action triggers severe clashes
between the protesters and the
policemen resulting in the
injuring of many people.
The authorities put the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference
Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar
Farooq, and other Hurriyat
leaders including Shabbir
Ahmed Shah, Muhammad
Ashraf Sehrai, Mukhtar Ahmed
Waza, Zafar Akbar Butt, Javaid
Ahmed Mir and Syed Saleem
Gilani under house arrest to stop
them from leading anti-India
demonstrations. The police raid
the residences of Hurriyat
JULY 2018 27
Chronology
leaders Nayeem Ahmed Khan
and Muhammad Yousuf Naqash
and harass the inmates. The
police also take Hurriyat leaders
Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Showkat
Ahmed Bakhshi and Ayaz
Muhammad Akbar, into custody
in Srinagar.
Senior APHC leader, Agha Syed
Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi,
leads a demonstration in
Budgam against the killing of
youth in Kupwara and closure of
Pathribal fake encounter case by
the Indian Army.
APHC leaders, Professor Abdul
Ghani Butt, addressing a
gathering at Harwan in Srinagar
and Syed Bashir Andrabi in
Gundbal area of Pampore say
that the Kashmir dispute is the
main issue between Pakistan and
India and permanent peace in
South Asia is not possible
without its settlement.
A delegation of Voice of Victims,
a human rights forum in
occupied Kashmir, meets several
human rights and social activists
in Mumbai, Jalgaon and Nasik
cities of Indian state of
Maharashtra. The delegation
headed by the VoV Executive
Director, Abdul Qadeer Dar,
apprises them of the human
rights violations perpetrated by
the Indian forces’ personnel in
the occupied territory.
March 01: A
r e p o r t
released by
the Research
section of
Kashmir
Media Service
reveals that
the Indian
troops in their
continued
acts of state
terrorism in
probe into unmarked graves
occupied Kashmir martyr 13
discovered in Jammu and
Kashmiris during the last month
Kashmir but no investigation is
of February. The report says that
initiated yet. The report titled
8 of those martyred are killed in
‘India 2013 Human Rights
custody. During the period, 206
Report” and released by the US
people are injured due to the use
Secretary of State, John Kerry,
of brute force by Indian troops
points out that there are reports
and police personnel on peaceful
that the government and its
protesters while 650 persons
agents commit arbitrary or
including Hurriyat leaders and
unlawful killings, including
activists are arrested. The troops
extra-judicial executions, in
also disgrace 3 women during
Kashmir. It points out that India
the month, the report adds.
continues to impose black laws
The United States expresses like Armed Forces Special
disappointment over Indian Powers Act and Public Safety Act
Government’s failure to hold an in occupied Kashmir that give
inquiry into the unmarked unbridled powers to its forces to
graves and continuing the fire upon and arrest people
arbitrary detentions under
without any reason.
draconian law, Public Safety Act,
The Chairman of All Parties
in occupied Kashmir. A report
Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz
commissioned by the US
Umar Farooq, talking to
Congress and published by the
reporters in Srinagar expresses
State Department says that the satisfaction over the US State
authorities in Kashmir are Department’s report on human
denying rights situation in occupied
permits to Kashmir. He hopes that the
the people international rights bodies will
for holding also raise their voice against the
p u b l i c Indian brutalities on the
rallies. It Kashmiris.
says that the People observe complete
I n d i a n shutdown and stage
government demonstrations in Hajin town of
h a s Bandipora district against arrest
expressed its of local youth by the Indian
intention to police.
conduct a Compiled by: Showkat Ali
To be continued...
JULY 2018 28
Literature
(A Kashmiri folktale)
Several opium smokers were
once seated in their den. For a
long time they had not had an
outing and they decided to go to
the Mughal Gardens the next
Sunday. Those days the boat was
the only means of conveyance
suited to those going to the
gardens on pleasure trips and the
small fraternity of opium
smokers decided to go to the
riverside wherefrom they could
be transported across the
Dal Lake. They carried
with them their rations and
some utensils to cook their
meals. It was rather too
early in the morning for
any one to be transported
over the Dal Lake and the
opium smokers had to wait
on the river bank for some
time. The early morning
breeze was blowing and
the friends felt cold. So they
decided to enjoy a smoke
and the pipe was filled with
tobacco and opium and
each of them enjoyed the
luxury of a puff.
Not long after one of them
shouted, "There you are! A
boat is coming."
"Let us be ready," said another.
A third shouted, "Friends, you
are aware, I am always the first to
step into a boat."
The next was eager to contest this
assumed right of his companion.
There were arguments and
appeals while the first opium
smoker shouted, "You accursed
boatwoman! Why don't you
make for this bank?"
"But where is she?" asked one of
them who appeared to be
comparatively sober.
The first smoker picked up a
pebble saying, "Let this crush her
silly head", hurled it at what he
imagined to be a boatwoman
plying a boat, but what was in
reality a fly sitting on a stalk of
dried paddy grass. The pebble
splashed into the water and the
fly was frightened away. "There!
there!" said he, "the stone has
done away with that dirty
woman and the boat is about to
capsize."
After some time they managed to
get a boatman to take them across
the Lake to the Mughal Gardens
at the foot of the hills flanking
Srinagar on the east. The shikara,
as the light boat used for such
pleasure trips over short
KASHMIR INSIGHT
distances is called, is a comfort-
able means of conveyance and
one sits in it perfectly at ease as in
one's home. Such an attitude
develops the mood for smoking
one's favourite pipe and, having
taken a day off, the fraternity of
smokers amply fumigated their
interior with opium.
Consequently, the stars became
visible to their naked eyes, and
the nymphs under water and the
spirits of the air enter-
tained them with their
minstrelsy.
In this atmosphere
surcharged with gaiety
one of them felt a little
heaviness in his throat
and spat out into the
water. A shriek escaped
the throat of another.
"Oh!" he cried, "our
friend has spat his heart
out." There was genuine
concern among all of
them for their
companion who spat
into the water and even
he came to believe that
he must have thrown
away his heart. They laid
him down, rubbed the
soles of his feet, fanned his face
and heaved long drawn-out
sighs till the influence of opium
lifted off his brain.
He sat up and consoled his
friends. "Don't grieve yourselves
to death, brethren," he said, "my
heart, nay, not even my whole
life is worth all the grieving. May
I be your sacrifice! Take comfort
and be at peace."
JULY 2018 30
Literature
They ultimately crossed the Dal
Lake and the boat landed. They
picked up their things from the
boat, utensils, rations, sheets,
pillows, etc. and the queen of
them all, the smoking apparatus.
It was decided that they should
cook their meals outside the
garden and make a repast of it on
the flower-bestrewn lawns of the
garden under a chinar by the
fountains and cascades.
The first step decided upon was
to prepare tea and to sip it
leaning against the trunks of
trees with their branches
outspread. While tea-leaves were
being heated in the somavar, a
mulberry dropped from above
and perched on the lip of the
opium smoker who lay stretched
on the ground under the
mulberry tree. They watched
him rather enviously and
expected him to open his lips and
eat the fruit. But he didn’t do
such thing and the mulberry lay
glued to the spot where it had
fallen.
One of his companions could not
resist saying, "Look, a mulberry
is fallen on your lips. If I were you
I would open my lips and
swallow it."
The other replied, "It is all very
well for you to advise me to open
my lips. But do you take it to be
so easy a job to move the heavy
gates leading to the stomach and
eat the mulberry. If I were as
young in years as you, as once I
was, I could do so. But now it is
too exacting a job."
In the meantime the mulberry
had slipped into the mouth and
the man quite enjoyed its taste.
Duties about the preparation of
their meals were allotted but it
was decided to do everything
without speaking a single word.
Whoever broke this golden rule
of silence was to stand the others
a course of pilau. Consequently
all of them set about discharging
their duties in absolute silence.
One of them improvised an oven,
another ignited fire, while a third
one put the pots on the oven. Not
a word was spoken. At length the
rice boiled and gruel had to be
drained off. In Kashmir, pots
used for cooking rice are wider at
the bottom with a neck which is
narrower and about one-third of
the size of the pot. The lid was
put in place, a duster was tied
round the mouth and the pot was
lifted to the edge of the water
wherein it was intended to let the
excess of gruel drip.
As the man did all this quietly,
his glance turned in the direction
of water where he saw the
reflection of the pot. Wider at the
bottom and narrow at the mouth
with a duster tied round, it had a
distant resemblance to a female
form in the seated posture as
viewed through the befogged
eye of an opium smoker and with
a feeling of mild surprise he
remarked, "Hast thou come too?"
He meant, of course, his wife in
the characteristic Kashmiri
headgear. His companions, who
were eager for a break in the spell
of silence, did not ask him how
his wife had come but seized the
opportunity and shouted, “He
will stand us a course of pilau." A
good deal of hilarity followed.
They spent their time in the
garden, lolling on the lawns.
They did justice to the rations
they had carried, but more so
they smoked to their heart's
delight. While one of them was
nodding drowsily after a heavy
meal, a fly sat on his eyelid
without his being aware of it. A
companion of his took it for no
less dreadful a being than an
KASHMIR INSIGHT
eagle out to pick his eyes out.
Eager to save the nodding friend
from harm he picked up one of
the shoes and shot it at the
dangerous enemy perched on the
tender organ of the man who was
nodding. The latter felt dazed
and sparks flew out of his head
but was congratulated by the
other, "I have saved you from
inevitable ruin."
The sky was bright and blue and
no one amongst them was eager
to go back home. The sun flushed
the west and peeped from the
placid Lake. Flocks of crows,
starlings and sparrows flew
across the sky, lured by the
blooming west. Before long the
moon emerged from behind the
Nishat Garden and in course of
time everything was painted
silver. Every vagrant thought of
his lair and even the opium
smokers decided upon going
home.
No boat was visible in the
direction in which they went. But
it was silver, silver everywhere
and who would need a boat in
such an atmosphere! When they
reached near the edge of the
water, only one of them doubted
that it was not a continuation of
land. The others had no such
doubt and to reassure him that
what they said was correct they
lifted the thin skull cap off his
head and hurled it on the water
ahead of them. The skull cap, of
course, floated on water which
convinced the other that they
were equally safe. Two of them
led the van and in a few moments
they found themselves steeped
in water, especially the one
loaded with pots. But the cold
douche washed the vapours of
opium off their heads and they
promptly retraced their steps
and saved themselves but could
not salvage the pots!
JULY 2018 31
Feedback
Civilian killings
Dear editor, indiscriminate firing
of bullets, pellets and teargas
shells on protesters by the Indian
troops has become a routine
matter in occupied Kashmir. The
recent killings of civilians
including a teenage girl in
Kulgam, Islamabad, Shopian,
Baramulla and other areas of the
territory clearly reflect the Indian
government’s policy to suppress
the Kashmiris’
voice with
absolute force and
military might. It
seems that after
i m p o s i n g
Governor’s Rule in
occupied Kashmir,
India has given a
green signal to its
forces’ personnel
to eliminate the
Kashmiris without
any distinction of
age and gender. It
appears that New
Delhi’s policy or
one should say its message to the
Kashmiris is that anybody who
raises his/her voice against the
Indian occupation over Jammu
and Kashmir or resists it, will be
dealt with firmly. It indicates that
India wants to instil fear among
the people of occupied Kashmir.
But it should understand that
killings, arrests, torture,
harassment and other brutal
tactics would not be able to stop
the Kashmiris from demanding
their inalienable right to self-
determination and they would
continue their ongoing freedom
movement till it reached its
logical conclusion.
Thanks
Saeed Ansari
Sopore
Kashmir freedom struggle
Dear editor, the month of July
holds a special importance in the
history of Jammu and Kashmir.
On 13th of July in 1931 twenty-
two unarmed peaceful protesters
were gunned down by the forces
of Maharaja Hari Singh outside
Srinagar Central Jail while they
were demanding release of one
Abdul Qadeer, who had dared to
condemn the autocratic ruler of
Kashmir - the Dogra Maharaja.
On 19th July in 1947, the genuine
representatives of majority of
Kashmiris unanimously passed
the resolution of Kashmir’s
Accession to Pakistan during a
meeting of the All Jammu and
Kashmir Muslim Conference in
Aabi Guzar area of Srinagar. The
resolution called for the
Accession of the State of Jammu
and Kashmir to Pakistan in view
of its existing religious,
geographical, cultural and
economic proximity to Pakistan
and aspirations of millions of
Kashmiri Muslims. Every year,
the Kashmiris observe 19th July
as Accession to Pakistan Day to
reaffirm their commitment that
they will continue their struggle
till Kashmir becomes part of
Pakistan.
In this long struggle for Kashmir’s
accession with Pakistan,
hundreds of thousands of
Kashmiris have rendered their
lives and others have been forced
to become captives in their own
land. Since the partition of Indian
subcontinent in 1947, over
100,000 Kashmiris have been
martyred by the Indian troops,
KASHMIR INSIGHT
but despite all hardships, the
Kashmiri people are determined
to achieve their cherished goal at
all costs.
Thanks
Jamil Ahmed
Islamabad
Genocide in Kashmir
India has been committing
genocide of the Kashmiris for the
past almost seven decades in a
planned manner.
It is muzzling the
peaceful voices of
the Kashmiri
people through
its military
might. Killing of
innocent people,
c u s t o d i a l
disappearances,
extrajudicial
murders, rape of
women and
destruction of the
public properties
by the Indian
troops and police
personnel is order of the day in
occupied Kashmir. Indian forces’
personnel are committing the
worst kinds of human rights
violations - in fact crimes against
humanity - with impunity in the
occupied territory due to the
unbridled powers given to them
under draconian laws like Armed
Forces Special Powers Act, Public
Safety Act and Disturbed Areas
Act.
The world community needs to
realise the fact that peace would
continue to elude South Asia until
the Kashmir dispute was settled
as per the aspirations of the
Kashmiri people. It must take
cognisance of Indian state
terrorism in occupied Kashmir
and initiate measures to resolve
the Kashmir dispute to save the
Kashmiris from the brutalities of
the Indian forces.
Thanks
Ali bin Qasim
Muzaffarabad
JULY 2018 32
Bueaty: thy name is
Dal Lake - the Jewel of
Kashmir’s Crown
Dal Lake is a lake in Srinagar, the
summer capital of Indian
occupied Kashmir. The second
largest lake in the territory, it is
integral to tourism and
recreation in Kashmir and is
nicknamed the “Jewel in the
crown of Kashmir” or “Srinagar's
Jewel”. The lake is also an
important source for commercial
operations in fishing and water
plant harvesting.
The shoreline of the lake, about
16 kilometres, is encompassed by
a boulevard lined with Mughal
era gardens, parks, houseboats
and hotels. Scenic views of the
lake can be witnessed from the
Mughal gardens, such as
Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh
(built during the reign of Mughal
Emperor Jahangir) and from the
colourful houseboats cruising
along the lake.
The lake is spread over an area of
18 square kilometres and is part
of a natural wetland, which
covers 21.1 square kilometres,
including its floating gardens.
The floating gardens, known as
“Rad” in Kashmiri, blossom with
lotus flowers during July and
August. The wetland is divided
by causeways into four basins;
Gagribal, Lokut Dal, Bod Dal and
Nagin (although Nagin is also
considered as an independent
lake). Lokut Dal and Bod Dal particular, as their summer
each have an island in the centre, resort. They developed the
known as Rup Lank (or Char precincts of the Dal Lake with
Chinari) and
Sona Lank
respectively.
The lake
precincts
experience
temperature
s in the range
of 1 to minus
11 Degrees
Celsius in
winter and
12 to 30
Degrees
Celsius in
sprawling Mughal-type gardens
the summer season. The lake
and pavilions as pleasure resorts
freezes when temperatures drop
to enjoy the salubrious cool
to about minus 11 Degrees
climate. After the death of
Celsius during severe winter.
Aurangzeb Aalamgir in 1707 that
The lake is popular as a visitor led to the disintegration of the
attraction and a summer resort.
Mughal Empire, Pashtun tribes
Fisheries and the harvesting of in the area around the lake and
food and fodder plants are also
city increased and the Durrani
important on Dal Lake. Weeds Empire ruled the city for several
from the lake are extracted and
decades. In 1814, a significant
converted into compost for the part of the Kashmir Valley,
gardens. It also including Srinagar, was annexed
serves as a flood by Raja Ranjit Singh to his
lung of the kingdom, and the Sikhs grew in
Jhelum River. influence in the region for 27
Swimming, years.
boating, snow The British rulers, attracted by
s k i i n g - the cool climate of the Kashmir
particularly Valley, also made Srinagar their
when the lake is capital during the summer
frozen during months amidst the backdrop of
the severe the majestic snow-covered
winter - and Himalayan ranges. Although the
canoeing are Dogra Maharaja of Kashmir
amongst some restricted the building of houses
of the water sports activities in the Valley, the British
practiced on the lake. circumvented this rule by
History commissioning lavish
Dal Lake is mentioned as houseboats to be built on Dal
Mahasarit in ancient Sanskrit Lake. The houseboats have been
texts. During the Mughal period, referred to as “each one a little
the Mughal rulers of India piece of England afloat on Dal
designated Kashmir, Srinagar in Lake.”
KASHMIR INSIGHT JULY 2018 29
 Atrocities by Indian troops
(January 1989 to June 30, 2018)

Total killings 95,050

Custodial killings 7,111

Civilians arrested 144,193

Structures destroyed/damaged 108,822

Women widowed 22,879

Children orphaned 107,717

Women gangraped/molested 11,077

Including custodial killings

Source: Kashmir Media Service (www.kmsnews.org)

 Forgotten pledges

“... With all deference to this Parliament, I would like to say that the ultimate decision
will be made in the minds and hearts of the people of Kashmir and not in this
Parliament or at the UN.

“If, however, the people of Kashmir do not wish to remain with us, let them go by all
means; we will not keep them against their will, however painful it may be to us. We
want no forced marriages, no forced unions.

“I want to stress that it is only the people of Kashmir who can decide the future of
Kashmir. It is not that we have merely said that to the United Nations and to people of
Kashmir.”
(Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru’s statement in
Indian Parliament, August 7, 1952)

All Parties Hurriyet Conference Azad Jammu And Kashmir

P. O. Box No. 2617, GPO Islamabad.
Ph: 0092-51-4861457, Fax: 0092-51-4861458 (Islamabad)
0092-5822-432344 (Muzaffarabad)
Email: kashmirinsight@yahoo.com