ISLAMABAD - A human rights organization says that a total of 355 people lost their lives to Indian state terrorism in Kashmir in 2018.
The deceased included a 10-year-old boy, a pregnant woman, two-mentally challenged men, a senior journalist and three PhD scholars, according the report released by the International Forum for Justice and Human Rights (IFJHR).
As many as 95 cordon and search operations took place in Kashmir in the year in which 120 houses were destroyed, reported the Kashmir Media Service (KMS) citing the report.
It said in all 355 Kashmiri Muslims and 95 Indian forces’ personnel lost their lives in the year 2018.
The report stated that Musharraf Fayaz (10) died after getting injured in an explosion in Shopian in January, while a pregnant woman, Firdousa, lost her life to troops’ bullets.
Senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was also shot dead outside his office at the Press Enclave.
The report said November happened to be the bloodiest month with 49 killings. It marked April 1, as the deadliest single day, when 20 people were killed, while over 200 were injured in the occupied valley.
“This year we saw 120 houses were razed to the ground. A house is a person’s life long investment. Nobody will invite combatants to his house. We have filed petitions in this case, but there has been no reply. There is no policy to rehabilitate them. Justice bodies should take cognizance of it,” IFJHRJK Chairman Ahsan Untoo said in a media interview in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, the President of Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights, Dr Syed Nazir Gilani has strongly condemned the continued killings by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir and has demanded of the world powers to take action against Indian brutalities.
Dr Nazir Gilani in a letter addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said, Indian forces used gun powder to blow up a residential house in village Bon Hajin in Rajpora area of District Pulwama on Saturday 29th December 2018 and killed three Kashmiris.