Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Monday criticised the remarks made by a former general of the Indian Army advocating rapes and murders in Occupied Kashmir, saying that Indian Army officials had become the “agents” of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
بھارتی فوجی بی جے پی کے کارندے بن چکے ہیں۔عالمی برادری بھارتی فوج کے ایسے ذہنی بیماروں اور انسانیت کے مجرموں کے خلاف سخت درعمل کا اظہار کرے۔
— Firdous Ashiq Awan (@Dr_FirdousPTI) November 18, 2019
The tweet came after a retired Maj Gen SP Sinha appeared on a TV show on an Indian news channel, in which he can be heard saying: “Death in return for death, rape in return for rape.”
According to Scroll.in, Sinha had asked for “death in return for death, and rape in return for rape” in order to “avenge the atrocities against Kashmiri Pandits during their exodus from Kashmir in 1990”.
In the clip, the moderator is seen trying to calm down the heated exchange, which involved the panelists and audience members. During the two-minute video, another panelist says he is walking out over Sinha’s remark.
For years, human rights groups have accused Indian troops of intimidating and controlling the population of occupied Kashmir with physical and sexual abuse and unjustified arrests. Indian government officials deny this, calling the allegations “propaganda”.
Abuses alleged by rights groups since 1989 have included rape, sodomy, waterboarding, electric shocks to the genitals, burns and sleep deprivation.
The United Nations last year called for an independent international investigation into allegations of rights violations like rape, torture and extrajudicial killings in Kashmir.
