ISLAMABAD   -  Foreign  Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday released  a comprehensive dossier, exposing the scale of war crimes, human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, false flag operations and use of rape, as war tool by Indian forces in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“India has been using cluster bombs and chemical weapons in Kashmir,” Qureshi said at a news briefing along with National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari.

While sharing detail of the 131-page dossier in Islamabad, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Hindutva-inspired BJP regime has unleashed a series of atrocities against the people of Indian Illegal Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The dossier consists of three chapters. The first contains war crimes by India, the second contains false flag operations, and the third details Security Council resolutions and India’s attempts to change the geographical location of occupied Kashmir.

He pointed out that due to Indian atrocities, more than 100,000 Kashmiri children were orphaned and 100,000 properties were damaged.

The report revealed that 37 Kashmiris were burnt alive with chemical weapons in occupied Kashmir. More than 3,000 Kashmiri women have been raped of which the youngest was a nine-year-old girl.

 “We have found irrefutable evidence of fake encounters by Indian forces in the region and the country’s clever labelling of freedom fighters terrorists,” Qureshi said, pointing out that there were 90,000 Indian troops in Kashmir which has practically turned the region into an “open-air cell”.

Independent observers and people from across the world are not allowed to enter Kashmir because India wants to keep their barbaric acts a secret, he added.

The FM pointed out that since 2014, India has conducted 15,495 sieges and search operations in occupied Kashmir. At least 13,000 Kashmiris have been illegally detained. Since 2014, over 10,000 enforced disappearances have been reported in the region, while hundreds of citizens have been attacked with pellet guns. The Indian forces have established more than 300 torture cells in Kashmir as well.

The dossier included GPS data coordinated of five Indian-funded and managed ISIS training camps in the region. It also provided details of the 8,652 unmarked mass graves that have been identified in 89 villages of six districts in occupied Kashmir.

 The ministers urged the international community not to show callousness and apathy towards the Kashmiris. They said the world must force India to comply with its international and moral obligations and allow Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in international law and the relevant UNSC resolutions.

 ‘Different legal options’

Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on Sunday said Pakistan was mulling to explore different legal options to take up the issue of gross human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) at the relevant forums.

 Addressing a press conference, she said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other international forums could be approached over the Indian illegal steps aimed at demographic changes in the IIOJK.

 The ICJ had already given its advisory opinion over the issue of Israeli occupation, she said, adding, they were studying certain options which would also be presented before the United Nations.

 She said the Indian occupation forces started using sexual assault as weapon of war against the Kashmiri women during 90s and since then the issue had remained unresolved and uninvestigated.

She referred to the collective sexual assaults in Kunan and Poshpora during February 1991, and said no criminal proceedings were initiated against the culprits.

 The UN resolutions called for the protection of women and children in war and conflict zones and any defiance to these conventions could lead to slapping of sanctions, she said.

 Dr Mazari further demanded of the European Union (EU) to implement its policy doctrine over human rights in the IIOJK as well by immediately holding India accountable for the ongoing gross rights violations.

 What Indian forces were committing in IIOJK were clear violations of 4th Geneva Convention and the international community must take immediate notice, she added.

 PM’s Advisor on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf, to a query, replied that the world had realised what India was committing in IIOJK and nobody now defended what India was doing. “There is a clear shift in the thinking of the international community,” he added.

 Dr Moeed said Pakistan’s stance over the fake news was vindicated with busting of international Indian network and reiterated that Pakistan would continue bringing forth evidences of what India had been doing in IIOJK. He said unveiling of dossier over Indian atrocities and gross human rights violations with evidences also meant paying tributes to the struggle of late Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Moeed Yusuf raised questions on why the EU Disinfo Lab report was not released earlier. “Pakistan has been actively speaking against Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. The world is responding, but not as it should be.”

 The Foreign Minister also demanded that the UN record names of individuals and units involved in war crimes and place sanctions on the individuals and entities.

 “We expect EU, the UK and others to impose sanctions on India under their specific global human rights sanction regimes for perpetrating state-sponsored war crimes.”

Pakistan’s last dossier was shared by Foreign Minister Qureshi and Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar in November last year which gave details how Indian intelligence RAW in collaboration with the Afghan intelligence NDS was running 66 training camps to prepare terrorists working for TTP, ISKP, BLA and smaller outfits.

The document gave gruesome details of the Indian atrocities since 1989 that include over 96,000 extra-judicial killings, around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries, rape of 11,250 women, around 23,000 women were widowed while over 108,000 children were orphaned.

The document also provided details of the 8,652 unmarked mass graves that have been identified in 89 villages of 6 districts in IIOJK.

The total number of unidentified graves discovered in 18 districts of Indian Occupied Kashmir

Another key factor highlighted by Pakistan was the suspected use of chemical weapons by India against the Kashmiris. It pointed that bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by IOFs were completely beyond recognition. The document which showed images of charred bodies and pointed out that the use of chemical weapons was in complete contravention to the ‘Chemical Weapons Convention’ and said that it necessitates “an impartial international investigation.”

The document with a five-page Executive Summary highlighted the areas where the Indian Occupation Forces were ruthlessly violating all international laws and conventions.

It gave detailed figures about Indian atrocities since 1989 including; war crimes by Indian Occupation Forces, turning of Kashmir into the world’s largest open prison, mass graves, torture, violence against women and children, enforced disappearances, use of pellet guns, use of snipers and cluster ammunition against civilians, military siege since August 5, 2019, Kashmir freedom struggle, ISIS funding, fake encounters, change in demographic composition and expectations from international community.

The dossier said Kashmiris were also being used as human shields by positioning women and children in the line of fire during encounters, making them sleep at military camps forcing them to dig minefields and tying youth on military jeeps.

The dossier said India had resorted to the use of snipers and cluster ammunition to target innocent Kashmiris living along the Line of Control. As many as 16 Kashmiris had been killed by Indian snipers, details of 10 victims have been included in the dossier.

One of the victims of sniper fire was only 9 years old. Ayyan Zahid resident of District Kotli who was killed by an Indian sniper on 18 February 2019.

The document includes 12 annexures including letters related to human rights abuses, a list of major fake encounters, reports and letters by EU, UN rapporteurs. It also contained a section depicting the genesis of the indigenous Kashmir Freedom Movement and how the brewing movement got triggered on 19 April 1931 when the Dogra rulers denied permission for Eid Sermons. It also mentioned a Times of London Report of Oct 10, 1948, which detailed how the Dogras “exterminated” 237,000 Muslims.

Quoting the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’, the dossier said the number of enforced disappearances in Kashmir range between 6,000 to 10,000. About 2,500 women, whose husbands “disappeared” were being treated as ‘Half Widows’ and were experiencing extreme distress. Since 2010, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (WGEID) has approached the Indian Government nine times to arrange a visit but has always been declined.

Pakistan also demanded of the Indian government to immediately stop human rights violations of innocent Kashmiris, proceed against perpetrators highlighted in the dossier and bring them to justice, halt demographic change and apartheid by lifting military and digital siege and release of all political prisoners, Allow unhindered access of UN, independent journalists & human rights and Civil society organizations to IIOJK.

The dossier shared the GPS coordinates of five ISIS training Camps. It said evidence pointed that one such camp was located at Gulmarg, three in Rajasthan and one in Uttarakhand. “The latitudes and longitudes of these ISIS camps have been included in the Dossier.”

Pakistan also highlighted the Indian attempts to change the demographic structure of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir and said contrary to the Geneva Convention, after the introduction of the new ‘Domicile Law’ in March 2020, India has already granted over 4.2 million domiciles (31.5% of 13 million population).

The document pointed that a delimitation commission was constituted in March 2020 with the singular purpose to enhance Hindu representation and likely installation of Hindu Chief Minister. Following the amendments in property laws, all Indians were now entitled to purchase land in the disputed territory with the sole objective of converting the proportion of the large Muslim population into a minority.

The dossier pointed six “draconian laws”; Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act; Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, Jammu & Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, Prevention of Terrorism Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act 2019 empower the Indian Occupation Forces to declare anyone as a terrorist and arbitrarily detain without any charge for a period up to 7 years.

It quoted the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report of 2018 which clearly points that “Special laws have created structures that obstruct the normal course of law, impede accountability and jeopardize the right to remedy for victims of HRVs”.

The report said the Indian Occupation Forces were subjecting the Kashmiris to the worst kinds Of torture. “432 case studies revealed that IOFs inflicted torture as a tool of intimidation and coercion.

Since 2014, more than 30,000 people have faced 31 forms of torture including water-boarding; forced starvation, sleep deprivation and burning of bodies

The report also identified 239 torture cells across the IIJOK; the majority of which have been established in Northern Kashmir with 65 camps in Baramula and 53 in Srinagar. Of these 144 were controlled by the Indian Army, 52 by police, 19 by the Indian Special Operations Group and 24 by other agencies.

Since 2000, over 80 major fake encounters have been reported in IIOJK in which more than 160 innocent Kashmiris have been martyred. 15 pieces of irrefutable evidence in the form of audio conversations are also included in the Dossier.

According to the details, in a joint operation on December 30, 2020, IOFs and Police killed 3 innocent Kashmiris in Srinagar while General H Sahi, Commander of the Kilo Force, and Inspector General Police Vijay Kumar made false claims and declared them as terrorists. Later, the slain individuals were identified as locals.

Again, on July 18, three Kashmiri youth were killed by IOFs during a fake encounter at Shopian and were declared as Pakistanis.

In December 2020, IOFs admitted that Captain Bhoopendra of 62 Rashtriya Rifles and 2 civilians had deliberately killed three innocent Kashmiris and planted weapons on them to secure prize money worth Indian Rupees 2 million.

The evidence presented in the document clearly illustrates that Indian false-flag operations were based on fabrication.

The “Nagrota Fake Encounter of 2020 was another example of BJP-RSS theatrics,” which carried similarities to Nagrota Encounter of 2016, the dossier pointed.