Indian forces personnel, in their continued violent acts of state terrorism, have martyred 933 children during the last 38 years in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression today, June 04, revealed that 933 children were among 96,497 Kashmiris martyred by Indian forces’ personnel from January 1989 till date. The report said that the killing of civilians by the troops rendered 108,007 children orphaned in the territory during the period.

The report said that thousands of people, including schoolboys and girls, were also injured by pellets, bullets, and teargas shells fired by Indian troops, paramilitary, and police forces. It added that hundreds of persons, including teenagers Hiba Jan, Shahid Fayaz, Owais Ahmed, Aasif Ahmed Sheikh, Insha Mushtaq, Aaqib Zahoor, Ulfat Hameed, Bilal Ahmad Butt, Tariq Ahmed Gojri, and Faizan Ashraf Tantray, had lost eyesight in one or both eyes due to pellet, PAVA, and poisoned teargas shell injuries after 2010 in the disputed territory. 

The report added that hundreds of boys as well as girls aged below 19 have been martyred during cordon and search operations and fake encounters, while a large number of boys under the age of 19 are facing illegal detention under black laws in different jails of IIOJK and India. APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement in Srinagar, said that while the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is being observed around the world, a large number of minors are being abused and mistreated by Indian troops in IIOJK.

He called upon the United Nations, OIC, EU, and human rights and child protection organizations to come forward and save Kashmiri children from Indian violence. “Indian troops not only arrest innocent children but also use them as a weapon of war,” he said. The world community must also play its role in resolving the Kashmir dispute according to United Nations resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, he added.

He said Indian forces have orphaned and injured children in IIOJK over the last three decades, whose parents have been brutally martyred in fake encounters and in custody. The statement said that violence, cruelties, and brutalities against Kashmiri children had been a well-thought-out plan of the Indian government, which was being carried out by the personnel of the Indian forces. “The world must not ignore the suffering of Kashmiri children on ‘Int’l Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression’,” the statement stressed. 

Meanwhile, APHC-AJK leaders, including Mushtaq Ahmed Butt, in their separate statements said that while the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is being observed around the world today, a large number of minors are being abused and mistreated by Indian troops in IIOJK. They called upon the United Nations and human rights and child protection organizations to come forward and save Kashmiri children from Indian violence. 

“Indian troops not only arrest innocent children but also use them as a weapon of war,” the leaders said. The world community must also play its role in resolving the Kashmir dispute according to United Nations resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, it added.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)