Since the BJP-led Hindutva regime revoked Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019, Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a sharp escalation in military repression, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, destruction and confiscation of civilian properties, denial of services, and intensified cordon-and-search operations.

A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, today, marking six years of the BJP government’s brutal move, revealed that Indian forces have martyred 1,030 Kashmiris, including 21 women and 44 boys, during this period. It stated that senior APHC leaders, including Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Altaf Ahmed Shah, and Ghulam Muhammad Butt, were among 274 Kashmiris who died in fake encounters or in police custody.

The report added that at least 2,551 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force, including firing of bullets, pellets, and teargas shells by Indian troops, paramilitary forces, and police on peaceful demonstrators and mourners in the territory. Top Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani died while under illegal house detention in September 2021, having remained confined for over a decade.

The report pointed out that the killings and atrocities since 5 August 2019 surpass those recorded in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019. Most of the victims, it said, were killed in fake encounters and in custody under the guise of violent cordon and search operations across the territory. Many youths were arrested from their homes and later killed after being falsely labeled as mujahideen or over-ground workers of resistance organizations.

The report noted that the majority of arrested youth were booked under draconian laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The report highlighted that these killings have rendered 76 women widowed and 208 children orphaned. Indian forces—including the Army, Rashtriya Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Special Operations Group, and others—damaged over 1,165 houses and structures, molested or disgraced 137 women, and arrested 29,565 people, including over three dozen women and girls, during 22,385 cordon and search operations and house raids across the occupied territory.

The report stated that life in IIOJK has become politically, economically, and socially unbearable since India’s illegal actions in 2019. The move, it added, was aimed at altering the Muslim-majority demography of the territory and undermining the longstanding demand for a UN-supervised plebiscite. The entire occupied territory has effectively been turned into an open-air prison, with thousands of Hurriyat leaders and activists, political and religious figures, women, businessmen, Ulema, civil society members, and youth arrested before or after August 5, 2019.

Many of them continue to languish in jails across IIOJK and India. Prominent detainees include: APHC Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Yousuf, Muzafar Ahmad Dar, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Mushtaqul Islam, Ameer Hamza, Maulvi Bashir Irfani, Bilal Siddiqi.

Advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Advocate Zahid Ali, Zafar Akbar Butt, Muhammad Rafiq Ganai, Hayat Ahmed Butt, Umar Adil Dar, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Muhammad Shafi Shariati, Firdous Ahmed Shah, Saleem Nanaji, Fayaz Hussain Jaferi, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Zahoor Ahmed Butt, Abdul Ahmad Parra, Showket Hakeem, Mehrajdin Nanda, Waheed Ahmad Gojri, Mehmood Toopewali.

Feroz Adil Zargar, Dawood Zargar, Noor Muhammad Fayaz, Assadullah Parrey, human rights activists Khurram Parvez and Irfan Majeed, Indian Parliament Member Engineer Rasheed, and several journalists. The report lamented that press freedom is under constant threat in IIOJK, where journalists face detention and harassment. The 2020 media policy imposed by the BJP regime has further restricted the flow of information, allowing only reports vetted by the Indian Army, police, and intelligence agencies. 

It stated that India continues to use undemocratic and brutal tactics to fulfill its nefarious objectives in IIOJK. The BJP regime under LG Manoj Sinha has stripped residents of their rights and resources and is actively changing the region’s demography by granting domicile certificates to hundreds of thousands of Indians and non-Kashmiri migrants. The RSS-inspired BJP leadership seeks to erase the Muslim identity of the territory.

The curriculum and historical narratives are being distorted, while Hindi and Sanskrit are promoted at the cost of local languages such as Kashmiri, Urdu, and English. Properties of pro-freedom Kashmiris are being seized under black laws like UAPA to coerce them into abandoning their just struggle. The BJP government, which thrives on military might, has also redrawn constituencies in a way that fragments Muslim votes and favours BJP’s Hindu candidates. 

In its ongoing efforts to marginalize the majority Muslim population, the BJP regime has dismissed over a hundred government employees on fabricated charges and simultaneously increased employment opportunities for non-state subjects, thereby further alienating the local population. Despite the relentless repression, the report emphasized, the people of IIOJK remain steadfast in their demand for the right to self-determination. Indian brutalities have failed to suppress their spirit.

 The report concluded that India must realize it cannot silence the Kashmiri people. It said the BJP government should be held accountable for its crimes against humanity in IIOJK and urged the international community to take notice of the situation and press India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and relevant UN resolutions.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)