Khalid Iqbal Recently, Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai floated the test balloon that the Indian government was contemplating reduction of the force level in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) by 25 percent in the next 12 months, as a confidence-building measure. The idea has, however, stirred up an interesting controversy in India. While commenting on the Indian governments intent to cut down the troops strength in IHK, Bhartiya Janata Partys (BJP) State President Shamsher Singh said: It is an open fact that Indias administration over Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is based on the presence of the armed forces here. So, if there is troop cut then neighbours like China and Pakistan and Afghanistan wont sit silent...decision of reducing troops in J&K is not acceptable at this point of time. It would be a grave mistake. The General Officer Commanding of Indias 15 Corps, Lieutenant General S.A. Hasnain, declared that decision for the reduction of troops can be taken only after terror infrastructure across the border is demolished. The Indian Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, has also opposed the governments move. He said: We have not yet felt that we have to cut down our forces. If they want to cut down paramilitary and police forces, I wont say anything. The Kashmiris are fighting for their birthright of self-determination by following the principles of United Nations Charter that the link between human rights and self-determination is like body and soul. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has, recently, voiced serious concern over human rights excesses committed by the Indian army and paramilitaries. Extrajudicial executions are common in Kashmir, while impunity has been enabled by the Indian law. The Indian forces have shot a huge number of civilians under the authority of laws like the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. HRW has accused India for failing to put an end to the widespread impunity, which the international body believes fuels conflict in the occupied territory. It maintains: Indian security forces have committed torture, disappearances, and arbitrary detentions, and they continue to execute Kashmiris in faked encounter killings. About prevailing circumstances in Kashmir, HRW Chief said: There is fear all around. Every Kashmiri I meet tells me that they are not sure who will be tortured, arrested, and killed in a fake encounter.No civilised state can have security services that have the right to shoot to kill. He further said: India is a very large power. It needs to set an example by respecting human rights.Its absurd that the worlds largest democracy, with a well-developed legal system and internationally recognised judiciary, has laws on its books that prevent members of its security forces from being prosecuted for human rights abuses....Its time for the Indian government to repeal laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Disturbed Area Act and Public Safety Act, and recommit itself to justice for victims of all abuses, whoever the perpetrators may be. Despite a wand of constitutional and legislative arrangements, the international laws against human rights violations are not self-executing in India. The UN Special Rapporteur, Ms Margaret Sekaggya, after concluding a recent visit to IHK and Indian states of Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam and Orissa, told media men that the human rights of the people were being violated. The Special Rapporteur was appointed by the Geneva based Human Rights Council to assess the condition of human rights defenders in occupied Kashmir. She will soon file a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. While addressing a news conference in New Delhi, she seriously objected to the laws giving Indian security forces wide-ranging powers to arrest, illegally detain and torture Kashmiris. She particularly mentioned that, during her visit to occupied Kashmir, she learnt through the grieved families about the killing, torture, ill-treatment, disappearances, threats, arbitrarily arrests and detention, of their loved ones by the Indian security forces. Despite Indian agencies warning to the locals not to give interviews to the visiting Special Rapporteur, members of the civil society, Kashmir University students and a delegation of the High Court Bar Association held separate meetings with her in Srinagar. During her briefings at New Delhi, India portrayed Kashmiris engaged in the armed struggle against illegal and illegitimate occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as terrorists. They were linked with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to raise international sentiments against them. The Indian agencies did not allow Ms Sekaggya to deviate from the carefully tailored programme, in the name of threat to her life. However, she managed to meet many Kashmiris, who gave her a fair idea of human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Indian army, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies. She maintained that throughout her mission, she heard numerous testimonies about male and female human rights defenders and their families, who have been killed, tortured, ill-treated, falsely charged, abducted, arbitrarily arrested and detained, or their offices raided and files stolen, because of their legitimate work in upholding human rights. Syed Ali Shah Geelani said: If the UN Rapporteur is serious, she should visit the jails and families of the victims of Indian state terrorism, but Indian agencies did not allow her free access there and only those prisoners and families were allowed to interact who projected the Indian viewpoint. Sekaggya particularly insisted for the immediate repeal of two laws viz; the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act. India enforced these inhuman laws in Kashmir, in 1990s, after the massive public uprisings in the state, against the illegal Indian occupation. These special legal provisions contravene most of the human rights provisions laid down in the international human rights instruments to which India is a party, notably the right to life and the right not to be subjected to torture or to arbitrary arrest and detention. The discriminatory laws permit the people to be detained for a period of two years on vaguely defined grounds to prevent them from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state or the maintenance of public order. The broad definition of this act permits the authorities to detain persons without trial for simply asking whether the occupied valley should remain part of India. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives special powers to the army and other central forces operating in IHK. The Act authorises that even a non-commissioned officer can enter a house, search and can arrest without any warrant - can even shoot on mere suspicion. No penal action can be taken against the forces without prior sanction of the central government. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) is yet another discriminatory law, enforced in the occupied state to maltreat the Kashmiris. This cruel act allows the authorities to arrest and detain people just on mere suspicion and the people can be remanded up to 60 days in police custody. Amnesty International has found that the provisions of TADA are a gross violation of the International Human Rights Laws. It is doubtful whether the observations made by the UN Special Rapporteur will carry any weight with the powers that be in New Delhi to take any concrete steps for putting an end to grave human rights abuses, which have gone unabated at least for the past two decades. The writer is a retired air commodore of the Pakistan Air Force. Email: khalid3408@gmail.com