In total contrast to its democratic ideals, the Indian government has deployed a range of tactics to ensure no reporting critical of its actions comes out of the India-administered Jammu and Kashmir region, say the authors of an investigative report Silencing Journalism and Human Rights in Kashmir published by London-based Stoke White Investigations (SWI).
An independent research group, SWI says it has compiled at least 2000 testimonies of Kashmiris between 2020 and 2021. The individual accounts accuse New Delhi of various crimes, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, kidnapping, torture and sexual violence.
On August 5 2019, the BJP-led government in the centre revoked the nominal autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir amidst a military curfew, internet shutdown and media gag in the territory that has been a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. For New Delhi, the move was necessary as it claimed the special status hindered economic development and had become a “root-cause of terrorism” in the region.
The SWI says that it has documented more than 2,000 cases – all of serious nature. The most glaring ones included 450 cases of torture, 1500 victims of pellet gun shootings, 100 enforced disappearances and 30 accounts of sexual violence.
According to the SWI report, the buck stops at General Manoj Mukund Naravane, a former chief of Indian armed forces, India’s Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and eight other senior military officials, who as per the SWI should be held accountable for serious rights violations in India-administered Kashmir.
SWI says India’s “culture of impunity” has shielded all the accused from facing the court of law.
“Nearly three decades have passed and not a single member of the Indian military has been prosecuted for unlawful conduct in J&K, despite growing evidence against the armed forces. To make matters worse, the police as well as the Indian army prevent victims from reporting crimes committed by their personnel to the local police station,” said the report.
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