RAO FARMAN
In 1988 the re-emergence of another armed revolt which was high profile than of past ones and is still going on, after Home front (1951-1952), NLF(1965- 1967), Al-Fatah(1968-1971)— India has invoked some draconian laws to curb armed resistance struggle in Kashmir,like Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFSPA) as a cover[ calling it a holy law], Indian security forces carried some of the inhuman acts which include, ‘Operation Eagle’, ‘Operation Shiva’, ‘Operation Catch & Kill’, and ‘Operation Tiger’, rapes with a classical example of Kunan Poshpora.
The Kunan-Poshpora incident occurred on intervening night of Feb- ruary 23/24, 1991, Saturday, when units of the Indian army launched a search and interrogation operation in the twin villages of Kunan & Poshpo- ra, located in North Kashmir’s remote Kupwara District. At least 53 wom- en were gang raped by soldiers that night. However, Human Rights or- ganisations including Human Rights Watch have reported that the number of raped women could be as high as 100, but some sources put the number around 23. Former DG, Border Security Force (BSF), E.M Rammohan, on 18th June 2013, Monday, reported by a section of media in Kashmir that 4th Rajputana Rifles of Indian Army then posted in the area is responsible for the Kunan Poshpora episode, the Civil Society and Human Rights bodies in Kashmir demand impar- tial and independent probe of the incident, after which a local court has taken the cognizance.
The illegal detentions, un-required raids to houses of common Kashmiris, at several occasions people were used as human shields by secu- rity forces, torture of children, massacres, fake encounters [unmarked graves], Mass graves have been identified all over Kashmir by human right activists believed to contain bodies of thousands of Kashmiris of enforced disappearances. A state human rights commission inquiry confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 2730 bodies un- covered in 4 of the 14 districts, 574 bodies were identified as missing locals in contrast to the Indian govern- ment’s insistence that all the graves belong to foreign militants.
The British parliament comment- ed on the recent discovery and ex- pressed its sadness and regret of over 6,000 unmarked graves. Christof Heyns, a special rapporteur on extra- judicial executions, has warned India that “all of these draconian laws had no place in a functioning democracy and should be scrapped.” [Source: Scott-Clark,Cathy “The mass graves of Kashmir,”
The Guardian ,London, 9 July 2012] Hundreds of innocent Kashmiris are languishing in Indian Jails , punished for the crime, not committed by them, even when some are released after 10 or 12 years, being punished for innocence , one fails to understand that how a state compen- sates their long confinement , after their release, some of them were married , their children and wives have suffered a lot . became an order of the day, as a result large scale hu- man rights violations carried by both Indian security forces, said Human Rights Activist Ahsan Untoo.
The ongoing violence has claimed more than 0.080 million lives in Kashmir, almost 0.008 million peo- ple mainly youth got disappeared in the custody of Indian security forces [ although government version is quite lesser in size] and some women married to them are called as half- widows,[over 1500], on the other side Social Welfare Department says that if a male person disappears for a con- tinuous period of 7 years in custody or in militancy related incident, his chil- dren are considered as orphans and wife as destitute.
The abysmal situation in Kashmir has created the battalions of orphans, who need to be heard and taken care of, similarly, from 2010 youth upris- ings, paramilitary forces in Kashmir have been using pellet guns to control mobs—such crowds normally com- prise youth especially teenagers— as per official reports, use of pellet guns by security forces turned several youth completely blind, 12 have lost eyesight partially and 165 received grievous injures, since the inception of this weapon—there is a constant demand from Human Right activist for banning pellet guns in Kashmir. The cycle of human rights violation in Jammu Kashmir has not reached to the end but government claims that the graph has gone down, however, the security forces involved in the HR violations are roaming free, which disturbs the common stock of people.
