From A.A. Salaria

MUZAFFARABAD: “They are strapped on racks, their limbs and arms are pulled out and crushed, their ribs are snapped, and their bodies are seared and scarred with cigarette-burns and red-hot iron bars. Sometimes, they are hung upside down with the if heads immersed alternately in ice-cold and boiling water. They are forced to swallow gallons of water and not allowed to urinate for long hours. High-voltage bulbs are kept dangling before their eyes and they are kept awake round-the-clock”.

A cassette smuggled from Srinagar showed the ghastly details of torture of prisoners in held Kashmir. The voice in the cassette is of a leading freedom fighter, who does not want his name to be divulged for obvious reasons. He goes on to describe the incidents of torture of young Kashmiris in various jails, Scores of them, the voice drones on, giving their names and addresses, have already perished in the torture cells while hundreds have been maimed for life.

 

MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT: The freedom fighter narrates a pathetic and mysterious incident in Srinagar. Defying curfew restrictions he said, a mob of about two lakh Kashmiris, including women and children, took out a procession. They were carrying placards and shouting religious and anti-Indian slogans.

The Indian troops without any warning opened fire. Hundreds of demonstrators in the front rows died on their feet, after the mob had dispersed, the army trucks were brought and the bodies were loaded on them with the Indian soldiers squatting over the heaps.

When the trucks had reached the wasteland where the corpses were to be dumped, a mysterious sound started coming from the heap in one of the trucks. The soldiers were terrified and ran away. Later, when the Officer-in-command arrived on the scene and supervised the unloading of that truck, it was discovered that the body of a 6-yearaldavounded child presumed to be dead, had been flung into the heap of corpses. The child had since breathed his last probably because of bleeding and suffocation. His body had grown stone-cold, but his lips were still moving reciting Kalma-Tayyiba — ‘There is no god but God!’

Meanwhile, in an open letter addressed to world leaders, human rights organizations, _ United Nations, USA and USSR, Pope John Paul, Amnesty International and leading: newspapers of the world, Mr Hashim Qureshi of JKLE had made a fervent appeal to all champions of human rights to take notice of the atrocities being perpetrated in Indian-held Kashmir. Another freedom-fighter, Dr Mohammad Ayub Thakur, has stated in a recent Press conference that 425 persons, including women and children, have been martyred within the last few days. He has estimated the numbers of Kashmiris imprisoned at 6000 while over 500 are being tortured in the torture cells. Electric and water supply to Muslim mohallahs has been cutoff. With the imposition of rigorous Press restrictions, all foreign journalists have been expelled, the telephone, telegraph and telex facilities have been withdrawn from the public. Even the local journalists are not issued curfew passes for visiting trouble spots or scenes of violence.

Despite the reign of terror, the Kashmiris are facing the challenge with unprecedented courage and are determined as ever to carry on the struggle to the hitter end.

DEFIANT BREED: In a report, captioned “People have lost their fear”, published in a recent issue of India Today, an Indian journalist, who is on a visit to the Valley, gives a graphic description of the present situation.

“A few miles on the road and the silence of graveyard can suddenly yield to a cacophony of war cries. Both the silence and the commotion testify to one common fact — the state of siege under which the militant movement holds the Kashmir Valley.

In the past, you fired one shot in the air and they disappeared. Today you kill one demonstrator then the second, and yet the mob keeps coming at you. Finally you withdraw. This is a defiant new breed of Kashmiris.” Talking of the militants’ hold on the people, the report says, “A besieged law enforcement officer __ wonders ‘whose government it is any way. When the state imposes curfew, there is widespread defiance. When the militants call for hartal, no one stirs out.”

An overwhelming majority of the population, including non-Muslims, is with the freedom-fighters, who virtually rule the region. Very few dare to disobey them.

The uprising in the held areas has spilled over to the liberated territory. The entire region is in a state of ferment

Unable to cope with the situation, India is, as usual, trying to raise smoke-screen to camouflage the issue by leveling baseless charges against Pakistan. This campaign by and large, has succeeded in hoodwinking international opinion. Its emissaries have been very active abroad and its Foreign Secretary, shuttling from country to country, has maneuvered to neutralize USA and most of the member countries of SAARC, NAM and the Arab League. They have, at the same time, managed to obtain an endorsement of Indian stand on Kashmir from the Soviet Union. It has been a triumph of Indian diplomacy.

On the other hand, the performance of Pakistan on the diplomatic front has been lackadaisical. The Government’s _ missions abroad have failed to pull their weight on this issue.

RADIO MUZAFFARABAD: The only significant contribution being made from this side is by AJK Radio Station, Muzaffarabad, It is transmitting messages of hope and encouragement to the freedom fighters, boosting their morale and infusing new spirit in their struggle for freedom.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 18, 1990