India grossly violating UDHR in IIOJK

As World Human Rights Day is being observed across the globe, today, illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continues to reel under violent and brutal Indian occupation and political injustice. A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of World Human Rights Day today said that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, was indeed a milestone, but Kashmiris human rights continued to be violated with impunity. It said that among the 30 basic human rights enlisted in the UDHR, not even one exists in the IIOJK. The report said that Indian forces had been violating the UDHR in the occupied territory for over 7 decades and mercilessly killing, arresting, torturing, harassing, and humiliating peace- and freedom-loving Kashmiris of every age and gender for demanding their right to self-determination. The report pointed out that Indian forces, including army, paramilitary, and police personnel, in their unabated acts of state terrorism and atrocities have martyred 96,279 Kashmiris, including 7,322 in custody and fake encounters since January 1989 till date. It said that these killings rendered 22,968 women widowed and 107,941 children orphaned. It said that the troop, paramilitary, and police personnel molested or disgraced 11,259 women and destroyed and damaged 110,509 residential houses, shops, and other structures. It maintained that Indian troops, paramilitary, and police personnel subjected over 8,000 people to custodial disappearance during the period. The report said, “846 Kashmiris, including 17 women, have been martyred since the repeal of the special status of IIOJK by the Hindutva BJP Indian government on August 5, 2019 in the occupied territory.” It said that the troops molested and disgraced 129 women during the period. The report said that the occupation authorities did not allow people to hold religious gatherings like Muharram and Eid Milad-un-Nabi (SAW) processions and Eid prayers in Jamia Masjid and Eidgah in Srinagar during this period. The report said Hurriyat leaders, youth, journalists, ulema, and activists, including APHC Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Aasiya Andrabi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Naheeda Nasreen, Fehmeeda Sofi, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Yousuf, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, and human rights defender Khurrum Parviaz, continue to remain in detention in New Delhi’s infamous Tihar jail in fake cases registered against them. Over four thousand of people, including Hurriyat leaders and activists Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Molvi Bashir Irfani, Bilal Siddiqi, Zafar Akbar Butt, Muhammad Yusuf Falahi, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Rafiq Ganai, Hayat Ahmed Butt, Omar Adil Dar, Feroz Ahmed Khan, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Noor Muhammad Fayaz, Fahim Ramzan, Rafiq Ahmed Shah, Showkat Hakeem, Advocate Zahid Ali, Dr Muhammad Shafi Shariati, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Firdous Ahmed Shah, Jahangir Ghani Butt, Saleem Nanaji, Sajad Hussain Gul, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Sarjan Barkati, Hassan Firdousi, Adil Siraj Zargar, Dawood Zargar, Aarooj Ahmed, Owais Ahmed, Aijaz Ahmed Shaikh, Burhan Ahmed Sofi, Irfaf Ahmed Khan, Bilal Ahmed Butt, Eng Rashid and journalist Aasif Sultan, lodged in different jails of IIOJK and India under black laws, are the worst victims of political vendetta and on fabricated charges. The report maintained, “The authorities have kept senior AHPC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house detention, and he has not been allowed to offer Friday prayers or address public meetings.” The report said, “This is a high time for the world community to come forward, in a big way, and impress upon India to stop its state terrorism in IIOJK and give the Kashmiris their birthright to self-determination.” Meanwhile, Hurriyat leaders, in their separate statements, have appealed to the United Nations and international human rights organizations to send their teams to take stock of the worst human rights situation in the occupied territory.