VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Fourteen Kashmiris were arrested for not standing for the Indian national anthem
On July 6, 2023, fourteen people were arrested for not standing during the national anthem at an official event in Srinagar. The individuals were sent to Central Jail, Srinagar.
Observations of Martyrs’ Day were not permitted in IAK
表現の自由の権利の侵害
インド国歌斉唱時に起立しなかったカシミール人14人が逮捕された
2023年7月6日、シュリーナガルの公式行事で国歌斉唱中に起立しなかったとして14人が逮捕された。 人々はシュリーナガルの中央刑務所に送られた。
IAKでは殉教者の日の行事は許可されていなかった.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR July 1, 2023 - July 31, 2023
SUMMARY
In July 2023, Indian authorities continued to commit grave human rights violations in Indian administered Kashmir (IAK). Indian forces killed at least twelve people in IAK, including an infant Rohingya refugee. The Jammu & Kashmir administration continued to crack down on free expression, including by continuing to terminate public sector employees who purportedly hold dissenting or disfavored views and eliminating celebrated Kashmiri literature from university curricula. The administration also continued to target human rights defenders and dissenters in IAK, including through the cancellation of passports. The administration continued to escalate forced demographic change in the region, including through the announced distribution of public land to 199,000 people.
Numerous Kashmiri journalists, human rights defenders, political activists and dissenters continue to be arbitrarily detained. Indian authorities continue to use the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as tools for persecution, including through preventative, prolonged and repeated detentions. In a case emblematic of the repression of Kashmiri journalists, Aasif Sultan, arbitrarily detained on August 27, 2018, remains illegally imprisoned. As of the date of this publication, Sultan has been detained for 1,814 days. In a case emblematic of the repression of Kashmiri human rights defenders and civil society, Khurram Parvez, arbitrarily detained on November 22, 2021, remains illegally imprisoned in a maximum-security facility in New Delhi. As of the date of this publication, Parvez has been detained for 631 days.
Due to ongoing repression by Indian authorities, key developments in the human rights situation in IAK have likely gone unreported.
Note: Indian authorities often label any victim of state violence or violations (and not just armed resistance fighters) as a “terrorist” or “militant” and any dissenter in IAK as a “terrorist,” “secessionist” or “militant.” If a violation occurs near the Line of Control (LOC), the victim is typically labeled a “foreign terrorist,” “intruder” or “infiltrator.” If the victim is not affiliated with any organized dissent, they are often labeled “overground workers” (or “OGWs”), “hybrid militants” or “hybrid terrorists.” If the individual is a journalist, scholar or human rights defender, they are often labeled a “narrative terrorist” or “white collar terrorist.” These unsubstantiated labels are used to justify violations against civilians, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, raids and the forcible taking of property.
VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE
At least 11 people were extrajudicially killed by Indian forces near the LOC in July 2023
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On July 11, 2023, the Indian army killed one unnamed, alleged “terrorist” along the LOC in Nowshera, Rajouri district. On July 17, 2023, the Indian army and Jammu & Kashmir police killed two unnamed, alleged “infiltrators” along the LOC in the Poonch district. On July 18, 2023, Indian forces killed four unnamed, alleged “militants” and two unnamed, alleged “infiltrators” in Krishna Ghati, Poonch district. On the night of July 24, 2023, Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) killed an individual who they alleged was a smuggler near the LOC in the Ramgarh sector. On the night of July 30, 2023, the BSF killed an alleged “intruder” near the LOC in the Arnia sector.
Indian authorities assaulted Rohingya refugees and killed Rohingya infant in IAK
Approximately 271 Rohingya refugees are arbitrarily detained by Indian authorities in Hiranagar jail in Jammu. Dozens of Rohingya detainees recently participated in a hunger strike and protest against the conditions of their detention and to demand their release. Indian officials responded by assaulting and
tear-gassing protestors. On July 20, 2023, Indian officials handed the corpse of a 43-day old Rohingya infant to relatives. The infant, the child of two Rohingya detainees, was killed through the inhalation of tear-gas and Indian authorities’ failure to provide adequate medical treatment. The bereaved parents, who hold valid UN refugee cards, remained handcuffed at their baby’s funeral.
The Indian military deployed new “counter-insurgency” commando forces in Kashmir
The Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), an elite “counter-insurgency” commando force has been deployed for “counter-terrorism” operations in IAK. They are being trained in urban and rural warfare and the Kashmiri language. IAK is the most intensely militarized region in the world in which militarization and legal impunity have resulted in widespread, grave human rights violations over decades. Periodic escalations of troops typically result in escalations in grave human rights violations.
Infrastructure to further enhance Indian militarization in IAK neared completion
The Chenab Rail Bridge will further facilitate India’s military occupation of and the movement of Indian troops and supplies into IAK. A former commander of the Indian army called it "a real game changer for…military capability." The BJP has long celebrated the bridge as critical for promoting “national integration,” by which they mean the denial of the rights of the people of IAK, the disempowerment and marginalization of the region’s Muslims and their domination by non-local Hindus. In addition to furthering violations of their social and political rights and increasing risks of grave violations associated with militarization, the Chenab Rail Bridge has resulted in various other violations of locals’ rights, including loss of agricultural land, loss of economic opportunity, loss of way of life, forced displacement, destruction of property, destruction of the environment, deforestation, erosion, biodiversity loss, physical insecurity consequential to flood and geotechnical/earthquake risk, exacerbation of water stress and lack of compensation/lack of access to justice.
VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Fourteen Kashmiris were arrested for not standing for the Indian national anthem
On July 6, 2023, fourteen people were arrested for not standing during the national anthem at an official event in Srinagar. The individuals were sent to Central Jail, Srinagar.
Observations of Martyrs’ Day were not permitted in IAK
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Since 2019, Kashmiris have been forcibly prevented from commemorating Martyrs’ Day on July 13, the major public remembrance of the longstanding pro-democracy, pro-rights struggle in Jammu & Kashmir, and of those who have lost their lives in that struggle. On July 13, 2023, even Indian-client politicians continued to be prevented from commemorating the day. The July 13 holiday has been commemorated since 1931 in Jammu & Kashmir, when 22 people were killed outside of Central Jail, Srinagar protesting the authoritarian, Hindu supremacist repression of the Hari Singh regime. After decades of repression and resistance, the July 13, 1931 massacre was a politically critical one in a series of mass mobilizations and massacres in Jammu & Kashmir, leading to Hari Singh’s regime being pressured into allowing the majority, marginalized and disenfranchised Muslim population to organize a formal political party. As part of its ongoing, accelerating project of erasing and rewriting Kashmiri history, Indian authorities canceled the Martyrs’ Day holiday in January 2020 and replaced the holiday with a new holiday commemorating the birthday of the autocratic, feudal, Hindu supremacist ruler responsible for the July 13 massacre, Hari Singh.
Jammu & Kashmir administration terminated three more public sector employees for allegedly being a “threat to the security of the state”
On July 16, 2023, the administration terminated Faheem Aslam, Murawath Hussain Mir and Arshid Ahmed Thoker. Aslam was the Public Relations Officer of the University of Kashmir, Mir was a revenue officer and Thoker was a police constable. In the last few years, at least 52 people have been terminated from public sector jobs in IAK, including several earlier this year and two prominent physician human rights defenders last month. In each case, these terminations occur without due process or meaningful recourse. They are part of a systematic campaign targeting people suspected of holding dissenting or disfavored views, even if the disfavored sentiment is allegedly held by relatives or associates. In IAK, the government is the largest employer, and public sector employment is widely sought as economically rewarding and prestigious. For many Kashmiris, public sector employment is the only viable opportunity to work in the field for which they are qualified.
Indian officials threatened to ban YouTube channel for using a map that did not show Kashmir as India
Indian officials threatened to ban Engineering Facts, an Indian YouTube channel, for incidentally showing a map of India that did not show Kashmir as part of India in a video about hydrogen fuel.
Indian filmmakers flocked to Kashmir in support of Indian government’s production of disinformation regarding IAK
Pursuant to a new 2021 film policy, the Indian government provides expedited permissions and other incentives to filmmakers who shoot in Kashmir. In order to obtain such incentives, filmmakers must officially declare that their film will not include any inappropriate material, such as “false claims” about Kashmir or “defamation” of India, as judged by Indian officials. In India, filmmakers must submit their script or screenplay for official review. Films judged to promote the feeling of “One Nation, Best Nation” (Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat) – i.e., normalizing India’s occupation, annexation and colonization of IAK – are eligible for subsidies. The new film policy is a complement to other anti-expression, pro disinformation policies in IAK, including the Orwellian Media Policy-2020, through which Indian authorities have censored independent journalists and ended independent journalism in IAK.
REPRESSION TARGETING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
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The Indian government suspended the passports of up to 200 Kashmiris, especially targeting human rights defenders
In a further escalation of Indian authorities’ war on Kashmiri dissent, Indian authorities suspended the passports of up to 200 Kashmiris, including students, lawyers and journalists. Those targeted received notices that their passports had been “impounded” allegedly because they were deemed a “national security threat.” Those targeted include Kashmiris in IAK and outside of IAK and India. Kashmiris from IAK have no ability to obtain a passport other than an Indian passport. Kashmiris are routinely denied
passports or passport renewals and their travel documents are routinely canceled for alleged dissent. In 2021, Indian authorities authorized denying Kashmiris passport issuance and renewal, as well as government services and employment, on the basis of an adverse police report for dissent. Kashmiri journalists have especially been targeted by Indian authorities’ denial of Kashmiris’ right to travel, even when holding a valid India passport, in what experts have described as “systematic harassment.”
The Jammu & Kashmir administration continued to prevent the operation of High Court Bar Association
On July 15, 2023, the administration invoked Section 144, which prohibits meetings of more than 4 individuals, to prevent the Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) elections from taking place. The JKHCBA has been the primary professional organization providing legal aid to victims of human rights violations in IAK. For the last several years, the JKHCBA has been prevented from operating and its senior leadership has been targeted for persecution, including through raids, defamation, arbitrary detention and judicial harassment. All other Kashmiri civil society institutions defending human rights have also been rendered inoperative, including the Kashmir Press Club, the largest elected trade body representing journalists in IAK, and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, the most prominent and widely respected human rights organization in IAK.
REPRESSION TARGETING SCHOLARS AND VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Indian authorities have removed the literature of poet Agha Shahid Ali and novelist Basharat Peer from the Master of Arts in English curriculum at Cluster University and University of Kashmir. The widely and internationally acclaimed censored works speak to the impact of violence in and on Kashmir. Indian officials claim such “resistance literature” leads to “secessionist” ideology. This is an escalation of the ongoing official manipulation of curricula and texts to conform to a state-supported, Hindu supremacist, militant ethnonationalist agenda. It is also an escalation of the suppression of academic freedom in IAK, which has recently included the targeting of Kashmiri scholars, subjecting Kashmiri scholars to coercion, abuse, and intimidation, prohibiting academic institutions in IAK from holding international events discussing IAK without prior government approval, forcing Kashmiri academics to disclose details of their personal assets while prohibiting them from traveling abroad without prior government approval, requiring Kashmiri academics to obtain prior approval to invite non-Indians to campus, investigating Kashmiri academics for the “pernicious influence of secessionism,” purging Kashmiri academics with dissenting views from their posts and undermining the independence of institutions of higher education in IAK by subjecting them to direct Indian government control.
ARBITRARY DETENTION, RAIDS, AND COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT
Indian officials arrested and detained numerous additional individuals based on purported connections to “terrorism”
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On July 5, 2023, Indian forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in Nowpora Jageer, Kreeri, Baramulla, Kashmir. Indian forces arrested Mohammad Seediq Lone, a resident of Nowpora Jageer, Kreeri, who they labeled a “militant associate.” Cordon-and-search operations are a frequent form of collective punishment in IAK in which an entire community or neighborhood is detained and which frequently result in grave violations.
On July 9, 2023, Jammu & Kashmir police detained a group of people attending a seminar at a Srinagar hotel for allegedly seeking to “revive” pro-self-determination groups in IAK, specifically the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, a pro-self-determination political party, and the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a coalition of pro-self determination political parties in IAK.
On July 14, 2023, Jammu & Kashmir police preventively detained Ameer Hamza, a resident of Quilmuqam, Bandipora, Kashmir, under the PSA, allegedly for “his continuous involvement in anti national activities.” On the same day, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Mushaib Fayaz Baba, a 20-year old resident of Shopian, and Hilal Yaqoob Deva, a 35-year old resident of Shopian, in connection with an alleged “terror conspiracy.”
On July 15, 2023, Jammu & Kashmir police arrested three Kashmiri pony guides in Sheshnag, Kashmir seeking to offer pony-riding services to Hindu pilgrims participating in the militarized, state-run Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage for simply “scuffling.”
On July 25, 2023, Jammu & Kashmir police and the Indian army’s Rashtriya Rifles (29th battalion) arrested Dayem Majeed Khan and Ubair Tariq, residents of Panjigam, Bandipora, Kashmir, at a checkpoint for allegedly being “militant associates.”
On July 26, 2023, the Jammu & Kashmir police arrested Dr. Rubani Bashir and two unnamed, alleged “overground workers” at a checkpoint in Ashmuji, Kulgam, Kashmir claiming they were a “terror module.” Dr. Bashir is a PhD scholar and a resident of Ashmuji.
Indian authorities continued to systematically raid Kashmiri homes under the pretext of “terrorism”
On July 11, 2023, the NIA raided five locations in Anantnag, Shopian, and Pulwama, Kashmir, allegedly in connection with a “terror conspiracy” case and forcibly took personal devices and data. On July 13, 2023, the NIA conducted raids at five locations in Awantipora, Shopian and Pulwama, Kashmir, which they claimed were the residences of “hybrid militants and OGWs.” On July 18, 2023, State Investigation Agency (SIA) carried out raids at 10 locations in Shopian, Kulgam, and Anantnag, Kashmir, including the residences of Danish Hamid Thoker and Ubaid Padder of Chakoora, Shopian and Abrar Farooq Wani of Heff, Shirmal. On July 20, 2023, the NIA raided another five locations in Kashmir which they claimed were residences of “hybrid terrorists and OGWs.”
POLITICAL DISEMPOWERMENT AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE
Three bills to further disempower Muslims in IAK introduced in Indian parliament
One bill would give preferential Scheduled Caste status to the Valmiki community, a pro-BJP constituency in Jammu & Kashmir. Another bill would give preferential Schedule Tribe status to Gadda Brahmins, Kolis, Paddaris and Paharis, pro-BJP constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir. As discussed in our
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March update, these bills structurally advantage pro-BJP interests in Jammu & Kashmir and continue to further the political and economic disempowerment of Muslims in IAK and particularly the majority Kashmiri Muslim community – the community that has been most ardent in defending human and democratic rights in IAK, including the right to self-determination. The Valmiki and Pahari communities, in particular, have been the focus of BJP efforts to disproportionately and discriminatorily empower its core constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir.
A third bill would reserve three seats for pro-BJP Hindu groups – two specifically for ethnic Kashmiri Brahmins (or Pandits) and one for Hindus who historically resided in Pakistan-administered Kashmir – in the Jammu & Kashmir legislature. The Indian-appointed chief executive of Jammu & Kashmir would appoint those members. The Jammu & Kashmir legislature, historically a non-representative body convened through unfree, manipulated elections and intended to legitimate illegal occupation and annexation, has not functioned since 2019 and has since been subject to various processes, including blatant gerrymandering, that have furthered the structural disempowerment of Kashmiri Muslims.
New Jammu & Kashmir administration program announced to further forced demographic change in IAK
On July 5, 2023, Manoj Sinha, the Indian-appointed chief executive of Jammu & Kashmir, announced a program to grant five marlas (roughly 1,350 square feet) of land in IAK to each of 199,000 beneficiaries by 2024. This policy furthers previous policies facilitating and incentivizing forced demographic change
in the region in favor of non-local Hindus, which policies also include the pretextual expropriation of Kashmiri Muslim property in IAK and measures advancing their disempowerment.
ECONOMIC DISEMPOWERMENT
On July 6, 2023, residents of downtown Srinagar protested the government’s installation of smart meters, which will increase their cost for electricity use. Echoing longstanding grievances regarding India’s colonial exploitation of Kashmiri resources, one protester said: “This power is generated on our rivers. The government is sending it to outside states. Then they increase tariffs here to buy power. How can we pay Rs 3,000- 5,000 bill for smart meters.”
STATE SURVEILLANCE
India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), a force responsible for grave and widespread violations in IAK over decades, has for the first time begun a house-to-house data collection campaign in Kashmir, reportedly on the instructions of India’s Home Ministry. Physical surveillance is widespread and systematically practiced in IAK, by bureaucrats as well as hundreds of thousands of military and police personnel empowered to stop and search people with impunity and raid homes and places of business, as well as through an extensive network of informants. In addition to physical surveillance, Indian authorities have extensive digital data collection and surveillance systems in IAK, including CCTV and facial recognition systems, spyware like NSO Group’s Pegasus and social media surveillance through dedicated police resources and vigilante groups.
VIOLATIONS OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Indian authorities sealed two Islamic seminaries in IAK
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Indian authorities sealed two Islamic seminaries, Madrasa Taleem ul Quran and Madrasa Asraful Aloom, in IAK. The seminaries had over 100 students enrolled, most of whom came from poor families and received free education, food, and accommodations. Officials pretextually invoked violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) (a foreign-funding regulation) to shut down the seminaries. The leadership of the seminaries have consistently denied authorities’ allegations and even fought the closure in court, winning a court judgment. These closures also impact Kashmiri Muslims’ right to access education, which has been adversely affected in recent years through various measures including the forcible closure of hundreds of schools, new “domicile” rules which deny locals their rights to access educational opportunities in IAK and communications shutdowns which interfere with students’ ability to study, research, access educational opportunities and take exams, among other things. Indian authorities have widely used the FCRA to pretextually persecute civil society and non-governmental bodies disfavored by the state, both in IAK and India.
Kashmiri Shi’a Muslims were permitted to commemorate Muharram for the first time in 34 years
This year, the Jammu & Kashmir administration permitted Shi’a Muslims to publicly commemorate Muharram freely for the first time since 1989. While Indian authorities celebrated this as demonstrating “normalcy” in IAK, it in fact shows the widespread nature of the repression targeting Muslims in IAK, whose religious rituals are subject to the whims and agendas of Indian political authorities, without recourse or redress. Another example of this persecution is the administration’s prohibition of Muslim’s performance of Eid prayers in Srinagar’s Eidgah, the traditional and designated communal place for Eid prayers in Srinagar, since 2016.
TAKING OF PROPERTY AND DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
Jammu & Kashmir administration continued to dispossess indigenous communities in IAK
The Jammu & Kashmir administration continued to dispossess and evict indigenous communities from forest dwellings in IAK, practices which even violate Indian laws illegally imposed on Jammu & Kashmir. Since 2019, some policies promoting the expropriation of land from and dispossession of Muslims in IAK have specifically targeted vulnerable communities, including forest-dwelling, nomadic and semi nomadic groups. A new bill has been proposed for India’s parliament that would further legalize the dispossession of forest-dwelling communities in IAK, including by exempting many government activities from requiring otherwise applicable environmental approvals, including strategic projects within 100 kilometers of the LOC, defense-related projects and public utility projects.
LACK OF ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND IMPUNITY
Indian Supreme Court refused to allow Yasin Malik to participate in his own defense
On July 21, 2023, Mohammed Yasin Malik, a leading pro-self-determination political activist and longstanding advocate for non-violent resistance IAK currently serving a life sentence for “secessionism” and “terrorism” in a maximum-security Delhi prison, was escorted by armed security personnel to India’s Supreme Court to defend himself in an ongoing prosecution. The justices treated Malik’s legal right to defend himself as a grave security breach, highlighting the lack of access to justice for Kashmiri defendants in Indian courts. Malik has been held in solitary confinement since 2017. He was denied a fair trial when he was convicted of “secessionism” and “terrorism” and sentenced Malik to life imprisonment in May 2022. The NIA recently renewed its efforts to have Malik judicially executed.
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Indian judiciary continued to promote preventative detention of Kashmiris without legal oversight
In Mohammad Younis Mir Vs Union Territory of J&K & Anr., Justice M A Chowdhary of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court affirmed prior rulings legalizing the pretextual deprivation of Kashmiris liberty by the Indian executive without any scrutiny. In the subject case (as in many involving Kashmiri detainees), preventative detention was based on vague, non-existent grounds. However, the Indian judiciary has ruled that it will not examine the purported grounds for preventative detention provided by the executive, even if facially false or non-existent. In Justice Chowdhary’s words: “Those who are responsible for national security or maintenance of public order must be the sole judges of what the national security, public order or security of the State requires.”
Indian court refused to implement human rights commission ruling in an abduction and execution case
In Ghulam Rasool Sofi Vs State Of J&K., Justice Sanjay Dhar of the Jammu & Kashmir high court held that recommendations of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) were non-binding and legally unenforceable. In the subject case, a father demonstrated through a long-fought process at the SHRC that his son was abducted and executed by Indian forces who then declared him a “militant” and claimed he was killed in an “encounter” (in an example of the widespread, systematic practice in IAK known as a “fake encounter killing”). The SHRC had recommended that the state pay ₹100,000 (approximately US$1,200) to the family in compensation. The state refused. Indian courts and other institutions have long refused to provide access to justice to Kashmiri victims, instead legalizing impunity for atrocity crimes and grave human rights violations in IAK. Nonetheless, thousands of Kashmiri families have fought for justice through Indian courts, only to be systematically refused.
The SHRC, which was terminated by the Indian government in 2019, offered thousands of Kashmiri victims an opportunity to at least be heard. After years of fighting through the SHRC’s processes in the face of official failures to investigate, refusals to cooperate, suppression of information, and intimidation of and reprisals against victims, all of the cases before the SHRC died with that institution in 2019.
PUBLIC STATEMENTS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND REPORTS
On July 1, 2023, Sampat Prakash, a longstanding Kashmiri labor and human rights activist, died. Prakash’s passing was mourned by a wide cross-section of Kashmiri society. However, because of his pro-rights stance, he was marginalized by Kashmiri Pandits (although a Pandit himself). Prakash was famously the named plaintiff in a foundational 1968 case that challenged his arbitrary detention for pro rights organizing, pursuant to which the Indian Supreme Court contravened its own precedent to legalize India’s annexation of Jammu & Kashmir. Background about his life can be found here.
In connection with the Jammu & Kashmir administration’s recent claims to have identified those responsible for Maulvi Farooq’s May 1990 assassination, the Scroll published “An Assassination, a Massacre and the Forgotten Victims of a Kashmir Tragedy” recalling the May 21, 1990 Hawal Massacre. During Farooq’s funeral, the CRPF used live fire to kill 70 mourners. The Hawal Massacre is one of dozens in IAK since 1989. 66-year-old Abdul Rashid Baba, whose brother was killed in the Hawal Massacre was quoted as saying: “They announced that they had arrested two missing persons [who had killed Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq], who will now face justice. What about justice for us?”
On July 6, 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and other UN experts published a communication sent to the Government of India expressing their “most serious
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concern at the allegations of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Mohammad Ahsan Untoo and that his detention appears to be part of a strategy to disrupt, intimidate, detain and punish those engaging in journalism and human rights advocacy...in retaliation for his legitimate human rights activities.” Untoo, a
longstanding human rights defender and victim of illegal imprisonment and torture for working to defend Kashmiri victims, was arrested January 13, 2022 and arbitrarily detained at Kot Bhalwal Jail, Jammu. The rapporteurs also expressed concern about “the use of the UAPA, a counter-terrorism law, against human rights defenders as a justification for arbitrary arrest and ill-treatment” and “persistent allegations of poor conditions of detention, patterns of issuing additional charges to prevent a detainee from being released, and at the practice of preventing a detainee from appearing in court due to no charge sheet being filed.”
On July 20, 2023, Razia Sultan, the 11-year old daughter of Mohammed Yasin Malik, made a public appeal to be permitted to visit her incarcerated father (who the NIA is seeking to have killed).
Relevant scholarship was published in July 2023. Historian Hafsa Kanjwal published Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building Under Indian Occupation with Stanford University Press, examining the state-building practices of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the second Prime Minister of post-Partition Jammu & Kashmir from 1953-1963. The book considers how these practices worked to build, entrench and sustain the architecture of colonial occupation by examining “two major paradoxes: India’s emergence as a colonial power in Kashmir during its own process of decolonisation, and Kashmir’s economic development under India’s occupation.” Political scientist Mohd Tahir Ganie published the article “Conflict and Narratives of Hope: A Study of Youth Discourses in Kashmir” examining the place of hope in Kashmiri youth narratives post-2008 in the peer-reviewed journal Irish Studies in International Affairs.
Poet, political anthropologist, activist, and professor Ather Zia was interviewed about the “sanctioned ignorance” in India about Kashmir. International relations professor Somdeep Sen published an analysis in Jacobin of recent Indian governments’ intensification of India’s anti-democratic repression in IAK with the complicity of Indian intellectuals by applying Palestinian sociologist Mark Ayyash’s concept of “toxification” to IAK.
A number of human rights experts publicly criticized the French government’s inclusion of Narendra Modi as its guest of honor on Bastille Day with specific reference to the human rights crisis in IAK, including Alice Mogwe and Juliette Rousselot. Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, also publicly criticized the decision.