Some facts about Indian occupation of Kashmir

Unfortunately, India does not take into account the fact that the Kashmir issue is recognized as a disputed territory by the international community. Some known facts about the Kashmir issue are given below.

First, the history of the Kashmir dispute is well known domestically and internationally. In January 1948, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 39 establishing the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate and mediate the dispute. The UNSC Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948, mandated a plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir. Later, subsequent UNSC resolutions reiterated the same. The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) arrived in the mission area in January 1949 to supervise the ceasefire. But the ceasefire violations by India have continued over the years.

Second, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) passed a resolution in 1993 in Geneva, proclaiming Kashmir’s accession to India as bogus, null and void. India has never produced the original copy of the Instrument of Accession on an international forum, claiming in 1995 that the original document was lost or stolen. Thus it shows the Maharaja may have never signed an Instrument of Accession with India, which remains a propaganda scam and a myth.

Third, Kashmir is an issue that troubles even noted Indian intellectuals with conscience. Not too long ago, speaking at a seminar on Kashmir, organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil society in Srinagar, Arundhati Roy, an Indian writer, had admitted that soon after independence in 1947, India became a colonising power. She declared: “Kashmir has never been an internal part of India. It is a historical fact. India fought in Nagaland, Manipur, Punjab and Kashmir. It projects itself as the biggest democracy in the world and emerging economic power but at the same time it oppresses its states and the people of diverse cultures.”

Fourth, the Indian brutalities in held Kashmir are well documented. A glimpse of it is reflected in the report on Human Rights violation published by the All Parties Hurriyet Conference in October 2012. It highlights that from 1989 to October 15, 2012, 93,801 Kashmiris were killed, 120,392 were arrested and 10,042 women were gang-raped or molested. This was so while the Indians maintained about 700,000 troops in the valley for its defence and to maintain law and order. But actually these troops under the garb of maintaining law and order were out there to subjugate the populace through the use of brute force.

Another example was the WikiLeaks that revealed the US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by the Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir. According to the reports, US diplomats in Delhi were briefed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees. The embassy reported the ICRC concluded that India "condones torture" and that the torture victims were civilians as militants were routinely killed. It claimed tens of thousands of lives, including large numbers of civilians who were targeted by security forces. In 852 cases, the detainees reported ill-treatment, the ICRC said. A total of 171 described being beaten and 681 said they had been subjected to one or more of six forms of torture. These included 498 on which electricity had been used, 381 who had been suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had muscles crushed in their legs by prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose legs had been stretched by being "split 180 degrees", 234 tortured with water and 302 "sexual" cases, the ICRC reportedly told the Americans. "Numbers add up to more than 681, as many detainees were subjected to more than one form of ill-treatment," the cable said.

As such, it is not surprising that since 1993 India has not allowed in the valley the UN’s special rapporteur for torture and has also not ratified the UN Convention against torture.