In Kashmir these days even the dead cannot he buried without government permission. How many people can join a funeral is decided by Indian authorities. In Kashmir the Indian Constitution the world’s longest constriction provides the rules for government. But the ruler’s soldiers of the Indian military forces are above the law by government fiat.
It is now a routine military exercise for these soldiers to crackdown on civilian areas. In a crackdown the soldier’s cordon off populated areas block roads impose curfew and force their way into people’s homes without warning. Crackdown is now a dreaded word in every Kashmiris vocabulary. It happens everywhere in urban areas in villages at any time of day and night. The soldiers always carry weapons their uniforms often have no markings. They give no reasons produce no search warrants reply to no questions. The soldiers order all males out of homes and herd them like cattle in open areas without food or water for hours while soldiers search homes. Houses are often ransacked by soldiers and they also pilfer cash and valuables. The women are abused.
When the soldiers leave they round up and take along selected young men. Why and where the “young men are taken is not told The young men so kidnaped are lodged in “torture cells” to elicit information from them under duress on matters of detail which they do not possess. The technique of torture and terror employed are uniquely unparalleled in outraging the conscience of mankind.
The Kashmir Forum for Human Rights a local human rights group headed by an ex-Judge has investigated scores of deaths of innocent young Kashmiri men at the hands of their captors the Indian soldiers. The cause of death is not explained by the captors. Some dead bodies have their abdomens slit open and stitched. Have the bodies been postmortem? Who does the postmortem or under whose orders is not disclosed. There are allegations that vital organs like kidneys are removed.
Since records of the arrested are not provided and the deaths are hushed up it is hard to know how many young people have “disappeared”. In August of 1991 alone 58 dead were listed by two local papers Daily Submission and Alsafa.
The family members of the disappeared endure paralyzing suffering. Their emotions alternate between hope and despair. They wait and wonder some will never receive any news.
The legal process is a tiresome ordeal which yields negligible results.
The courts are the hand tools of the captors caged in preset frames The object of petitioning in these courts is lost in the legal quibbling in abstract doctrines of “Sovereign Act” “the interests of the security of State” “the disputed questions of fact” the theories of “alternate remedy” the “legislative exclusions” of judicial review and the like In the process the legal battle ends in fruitless fatigue and waste of time.
Removed from the protective precincts of law the victims are at the mercy of their captors. If death is not the final outcome and they are eventually released the victims suffer the physical and psychological consequences of dehumanization in the torture chambers. Hundreds become disabled for life some are maimed some made infertile and some become mentally retarded.
The family of the disappeared agonize not knowing where their loved one is if alive. They are aware furthermore that if they persist to seek information other young men of the family can be taken away too so they must suffer in silence.
A Kashmiris hope is that people upon reading this account will ask of their community leaders and elected representatives to ask the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. General Assembly to intervene Kashmiris hope that this and other information received by the U.N. Human Rights Commission could serve as a “reliably evidenced” report sufficient to move to refer these grave violations of human rights in Kashmir to the United Nations General Assembly for necessary action according to the procedures set out for this purpose.
For two years Kashmiris have endured brutal military oppression curfews and crackdowns. There are now an estimated 9000 Kashmiri young men in torture cells spread all over India more than 800 have been tortured to death. More than 160 dead bodies have been fished out of the lakes and rivers in Kashmir. How much more must the Kashmiris endure before the world community will turn its attention to and force India to stop state-sanctioned murder of the citizens of Kashmir? Please help.
Extrajudicial Execution of Kashmir Civilians in Indian Custody In August 1991.
Reported by Kashmir Forum for Human Rights in Daily Submission Srinagar dated September 3, 1991.
- Mohammad Ashraf Ahnager son of R/O Mohammad Sultan resident of R/O Umarhere Arrested on August 141991. Dead body released through Ram Munshi Bagh police station on August 17, 1991
- Ghulam Mohiudin Gania S/ OMohamad Gani R/O Rewatpora Trahgam arrested on August 81991. Dead body found in a nearby forest.
- Ghulam Hussan Malik R/ O Kreri. Arrested on August 13, 1991. Dead body returned on August 16, 1991.
- Mohamad Ayub R/O Batwara arrested on June 23, 1991. Dead body was recovered from alake on June 27, 1991.
- Ghulam Rasool Malik S/O Abdul Aziz Malik R/O Ladwan Kupwara arrested on August 19, 1990. Killed in interrogation camp at Court Balwal in Jammu.
- Javid Iqbal S/O Ghulam Mohamad Bhat R/O Dragjam arrested on August 24, 1991. Dead body was returned on August 24, 1991.
- Faroque Ahmad Patloo S/ O Ghulam Rasool Patloo R/O Kadi Kadal Srinager arrested and dead body returned on August 22, 1991.
- (9) Ghulam Mohamad Bhat S/O Abdul Ahad Bhat R/ O Bomai and Khazir Mohamad Mir S/O lsmail Mir R/O Bomai both picked up on Bomgn Woorm Road on August 25 1991. Dead bodies returned next day through Younasu Police Station.
“To God
We belong and to Him
Is our return” Quran S.11.153-156
From: Kashmir Diary 1992
Article extracted from this publication >> December 11, 1992
