The military siege and gross human rights violations including killings, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture, and destruction ,snatching of property and govt services witnessed a surge to an alarming proportion since India’s BJP government illegally repealed special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir on August 05, 2019. A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service,  on the completion of five years to the Indian government’s, brutal, illegal and unconstitutional move revealed that Indian troops have martyred 907 Kashmiris including 17 women and thirty young boys during the period. It said that senior Hurriyat leaders, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai and Altaf Ahmed Shah were among 223 of Kashmiris who died in fake encounters and the custody of Indian police. It said that at least 2459 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force including firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by Indian troops, paramilitary and police personnel on peaceful demonstrators and mourners in the territory. The report pointed out that the killings since 05 August 2019 have been higher than those in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019. It said, most of the victims were killed in fake encounters and in custody in the garb of violent cordon and search operations in the length and breadth of the territory.

It said, many youths were arrested from their houses and then eliminated after being labeled as mujahideen or over-ground workers of resistance organizations. It added that most of the arrested youth were booked by the Indian authorities under black laws like Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The report pointed out that the killings by the troops since 05 August 2019 have rendered 69 women widowed and 190 children orphaned. It said, the troops damaged over 1124 houses and structures and molested or disgraced 134 women and arrested 24904 people including at least thirty-three women or girls during cordon and search operations and house raids across the occupied territory in the period. The report maintained that the life of Kashmiris has been particularly made economically, politically and socially miserable since India repealed the special stratus of the territory. The move, the report added, was aimed at changing the Muslim-majority status of the occupied territory into a minority. As the entire occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been turned into an open-air prison for its inhabitants, thousands of Hurriyat leaders and activists, religious and political leaders, businessmen and civil society members and youth were arrested after or before 5 August 2019 and they still continue to remain in different jails of India and IIOJK.

Prominent among them are; APHC chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Aasiya Andrabi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Yousuf, Muzafar Ahmad Dar, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Mushtaqul islam, Ameer Hamza, Maulvi Bashir Irfani, Bilal Siddiqi, Zafar Akbar Butt, Muhammad Yusuf Falahi, Muhammad Rafiq Ganai, Hayat Ahmed Butt, Umar Adil Dar, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Muhammad Shafi Shariati, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Adv Zahid Ali, Firdous Ahmed Shah, Saleem Nanaji, Fayaz Hussain Jaferi, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Zahoor Ahmed Butt, Abdul Ahmad Parra, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Showket Hakeem, Mehrajidin Nanda, Waheed Ahmad Gojri, Mehmood Toopewali, Feroz Adil Zargar, Dawood Zargar, Noor Muhammad Fayaz, , human rights activists, Khurram Parviaz, Indian parliamentary member Engineer Rasheed and journalists.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan