New crackdown begins in held Kashmir

A new crackdown against residents of held Jammu and Kashmir has been launched in the wake of coronavirus spread. Now people are being terrorized and arrested without being Covid-19 positive; rather, they are being held under the garb of pandemic. It should be noted that the people of the occupied Valley are under a lockdown since August 5, 2019 when Article 370 was abolished and hundreds of thousands of more Indian troops were flooded in to terrorise and control the already-subjugated people.

According to one Indian media report, “Jammu and Kashmir are faced with the same challenge as the rest of the world, yet the dearth of infrastructure and manpower in the healthcare sector here makes the task more challenging. As the whole Valley is in a lockdown, memories are strong of another unprecedented lockdown, imposed after the former state was stripped of its special status and bifurcated into two Union Territories on August 5.”

It said that “to ensure the efficiency of lockdown, authorities have been taking the hardliner approach that they have taken since August 5. People have reported having been beaten up by policemen even after furnishing a magisterial permit.” It added that police had lodged 337 FIRs against people who have allegedly violated the lockdown. Moreover, about 627 people have been arrested in a one week.

The report quoted Gowhar Geelani, a veteran journalist, as saying: “The incidents capture the horrors of violence against civilians in Kashmir at the hands of police personnel ensuring a lockdown. They do not have a humane approach, but with a militaristic one.”

This coincides with the introduction of new laws for held Kashmir that will alter the demographic status of the Muslim-majority region. According to the new draconian laws, people residing for a period of 15 years in occupied Kashmir or those who have studied for seven years and appeared in Class 10-12 examinations in educational institutions of the region can become permanent residents. Also, the children of central government officials who have served in Indian-administered Kashmir for a total period of 10 years can get domiciles. More than 99 percent of such officials are non-Muslims and have unfriendly attitude towards the local residents over whom they have ruled and subjugated them to atrocities. A retired senior government official Kapil Kak, who has challenged the abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court, told international media in an interview that it was "a permanent resident by stealth. It should worry the Kashmiris…The effect of this notification would be felt in [the] Jammu [region] because there are not many people who have come into Kashmir in the last 15 years."

The draconian measure alarmed the OIC, whose Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission said the agency condemned the promulgation of illegal ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Order 2020’ by India which was an attempt to alter demographic and geographic status of the occupied territory. It stressed that the latest Indian action was a violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, OIC and UN Security Council resolutions. The commission demanded of India to stop human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, abolish draconian laws and give Kashmiris their right to self-determination.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the new law, calling it a violation of all international laws and treaties. Saying the timing of the move was ‘particularly reprehensible’, he said the action sought to exploit the international focus on the Covid-19 pandemic to further the Bharatiya Janata Party’s abominable Hindutva agenda.

Meanwhile, director of advocacy at the Vienna-based IPI said in a statement that "Journalism in Jammu and Kashmir is under a dramatic state of repression." He reiterated what is known worldwide: "The state is using a mix of harassment, intimidation, surveillance and online information control to silence critical voices and force journalists to resort to self-censorship."

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a statement recently urged the authorities to stop harassment of journalists in the region. "In these critical times in Jammu and Kashmir, police must stop harassing and questioning journalists and allow them to do their jobs without fear of reprisal," said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ's senior Asia researcher in New York.

"The Indian government should lift all remaining internet restrictions and let journalists get back to work." It should be noted that many journalists have been forced to work without internet or only with restricted internet with slow speeds. The propaganda about opening the internet is false as speeds provided are so slow that one is unable to open sites or send e-mails and pictures.

The Indian held Kashmir is under a lockdown for quite some time; now the already bad conditions have drastically worsened in the last one month or so.