AI India launches drive to end Kashmir blackout

ISLAMABAD: The Amnesty International (AI) India on Thursday launched a global campaign “Let Kashmir Speak” to highlight the draconian communication blackout in Indian occupied Kashmir, terming it an “outrageous protracted assault on the civil liberties of the people”.

“The blackout has now been a month old and cannot be prolonged any further by the Indian government as it has grossly impacted the daily lives of Kashmiri people, their emotional and mental well-being, medical care and access to emergency services,” said Aakar Patel, head of AI India, in a statement. “Depriving a population of eight million of its right to freedom of expression, opinion and movement for an indefinite period is akin to taking the region back to the dark ages. The ‘Naya Kashmir’ cannot be built without Kashmiris. The country is yet to hear from Kashmir after a month of being repeatedly been told by the Indian government that all is normal. This is not normal. Let Kashmir speak,” he added.

Patel said the current shutdown was against Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India was a party. He mentioned that sketchy reports coming out of the region had highlighted unattended medical emergencies, mass arrests and detentions, children and youth being picked up in the middle of the night, torture of civilians, indiscriminate use of tear gas, rubber bullets and pellet guns at protestors.

He said the attempts to restrict the freedom of press, like in the case of journalist and author Gowhar Geelani who was arbitrarily stopped at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, from boarding his flight to Germany, had further compounded the effect of the communication blackout.

“According to a recent Kashmir Press Club statement, at least three senior Kashmiri journalists were asked to vacate government accommodations as soon as possible, which is nothing but harassment aimed at coercing journalists to toe a particular line.”

The government’s attempts to create a public opinion of “normalcy” in Kashmir while curbing the freedom of independent press had usurped the voice of the people, the AI India head said, adding: “This is no more a clampdown on just the communication systems of Kashmir, but a clampdown on the hearts and minds of the Kashmiris”.