The report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) released last month pointed towards massive human rights violations by the Indian state, Indian army deployed in Kashmir and by denying access to basic amenities, food, health, education, security, and employment opportunities to not only people of Kashmir but also the minorities across India.
The HRW report highlights significant HR problems such as custodial killings and police abuses; failure to implement policies to protect vulnerable communities; impunity for abuses committed by Indian security forces in J&K.
There are restrictions on efforts of NGOs working for human rights; social unrest and protests in resource rich areas on equality; no-improvement in health care and education; no accountability regarding perpetrators of serious abuses; resistance by the Indian defence establishment to repeal or revise the Armed Forces Special Powers Act; forcible disappearance of thousands of Kashmiri people; HRC in J&K found 2,730 bodies in unmarked graves at 38 sites.
The Indian army and paramilitary forces resist investigations and prosecutions; Maoists are arrested, tortured and killed and there is no accountability; BSF killed 900 Indians and Bengladeshis on border and no soldier has been prosecuted; women violence and rape cases are on rise; hundreds of thousands do not get drugs for pain relief; India’s reluctance at UNSC and HRC to voice concerns on Human Rights violations in other countries; and the US and EU privately urge India to improve its human rights record but in public remain silent, which shows world community’s duplicity over a grave Human Rights issue.
But when it comes to the issue of Balochsitan, the US Senate’s subcommittee by design highlights the HR issue in Balochistan and calls for its independence.
The question is why do they ignore when the Indians cross all limits in the occupied Kashmir or against the minorities across India, and why they come out with all their guns open against Pakistan? Isn’t it a matter of vested interests, and nothing else?
ABUL HASAN SYED
Rawalakot, AJK
