Rape, siege, curfews, enforced disappearances and black laws violative of basic human rights and liberties, have become the hallmark of Indian governance in practice in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) where morality and tolerance seem to have become extinct as, according to the prestigious Human Rights Watch (HRW), Indian forces use rape and other coercive methods as a weapon of retaliation against Kashmiri civilians.
Unfortunately, all these inhuman practices enumerated above, are going on in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley since the Kashmiri uprising or Intifada of 1988.
Cruelties rather date back to 1947, the year of Independence when the partition of India-Pakistan took place and both these countries got independence from British colonial rule. During those early days of Independence, Indian forces, in collusion with Dogra Maharaja (ruler ) of Kashmir, forcibly occupied some territory against the wishes of the people of Kashmir especially against the wishes of Muslims who were in majority in the Valley inside IOJ&K.
It is recorded in the annals of history as to how Dogra forces brutally killed 22 peaceful Muslim protesters who had gathered at that time to witness the trial of Abdul Qadeer (a strong ‘Kashmir freedom’ voice).
In fact, Indian forces have behaved like true followers of Dogra forces in Kashmir while dealing with Muslims demanding their due right of self-determination through a plebiscite to be conducted as per UN Security Council resolutions.
This demand for plebiscite has always irked the haughty, hubris-ridden leaders of India who have been trying all kinds of tools of coercion and intimidation to suppress this genuine demand of Kashmiri Muslims but, in vain with the result that this collective demand transformed into a freedom movement which is given names like Intifada or uprising.
For Indian authorities, it is a rebellion which must be crushed whatever the measure of naked force has to be employed.
It is a fact that New Delhi governments have most often relied on a jingoistic warlord-ism to tame the ‘rebellious lot’, despite its tall claim of being one of the biggest democracies of the world and a legatee of one of the ancient most civilizations.
This incompatibility is not at all understandable on any globally applicable democratic yardstick. Seemingly, India’s superiority complex or dream of ‘Akhand Bharat’ (Great, Grand India) has overshadowed all democratic ideals and norms.
It is, by now, a reported fact, as noted by human rights organizations, that India has made it a policy to brutalize the vulnerable categories of people.
Many people now opine that notwithstanding the so-called secular nature of Indian Constitution, the class hatred, rooted in supremacy of one caste over the other, still rules the roost.
The treatment meted out to the “lowly ones” like Shoodras and Dalits by those from the higher (and ‘ noble ‘) categories like Brahmins, is now a globally known fact.
People still remember a ‘false flag’ operation stage-managed by Indian forces in which they killed more than three dozens of their own men from one of the hated categories (Dalits). So, they were made scapegoats . And the mission was to malign Pakistan and throw it in bad light on the international front.
The worst hit community that has been at the receiving end since the Kashmiri freedom fighters’ ‘Intifada’, are peace-loving Muslims of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K) especially their womenfolk. Their ‘sin’, according to the ‘superior’ Hindu majority of India, is that they are Muslims who are also hated for their soft corner for Pakistan.
However, the government of Bhartya Janata Party (BJP), now led by Nirandera Modi, has crossed all limits in fomenting social-and-class hatred.
India is, in fact, an odd-country-out in the transformed, more civilized, more tolerant world, given its leaders’ love for brutal suppression of non-Hindus seeking equality in India at par with the influential Hindu ruling lot that is ‘intoxicated’ with supremacy mentality.
The freedom fighters of Kashmir Valley, belonging to Muslim majority, are the worst hit.
All the thinkable and unthinkable tools of suppression have been used to brutalize them with the backing of draconian, black laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which authorizes Indian soldiers to enter any premises in IOJ&K without a search warrant and wreak havoc on the poor, harmless inmates at their mercy.
This has been happening during the incumbency of governments of different political parties. There have been other black laws in force, including Public Safety Act (PSA) that had conferred extra-judicial powers on Indian Army officials to detain innocent Kashmiris for longer periods of time without producing them in the courts of law.
Intoxicated with these ‘immense powers’, around 300 Indian Army personnel resorted to brazen bestiality and gang-raped 150 Muslim Kashmiri girls in the villages of Kunan and Poshpora during a cordon-and- search operation.
And the world has not yet forgotten other such acts of bestiality that are being committed with impunity in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, by the cruel indian forces deployed to the extent of 0.7 million regular army and 0.4 million paramilitary personnel.
Rape and sexual violence have actually been some of the main tools of oppression and suppression, as employed again and again to subjugate and humiliate the peace-loving and unarmed Kashmiri Muslims for demanding the right of self-determination.
Apart from these ghastly occurrences of mass rapes, mass graves have also been found.
According to authentic reports, around 100,000 Kashmiri Muslims have been martyred by Indian beasts who have also abducted thousands of Kashmiris. These enforced disappearances have rendered more than 3,000 women, half-widows and their children, half-orphans (because the forcibly kidnapped men have not returned to their homes despite the lapse of many years).
As if all these instances of injustice and oppression were not enough, the arrogant, anti-Muslim government of Prime Minister Nirendra Modi, revoked the special status of Kashmir by repealing Articles 370 and 35 A of the Indian Constitution, on August 5 last.
These Articles were in line with the UNSC resolutions that envisage ascertainment of Kashmiri people’s will through a plebiscite.
THE BJP government has trampled universal principles of justice and fair play by revoking these articles.
And this tyranny has not stopped at unconstitutional adventures. Modi Sarkar has rather gone to the farthest end by besieging the innocent Kashmiris besides imposing total communication blockade.
In addition to all these atrocities, Indian troops have unleashed a reign of terror and martyred many young ones among Kashmiri Muslims.