Extra-judicial killing of three innocent Kashmiris

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday called for a transparent judicial inquiry, under international scrutiny, into the extra-judicial killing of three innocent Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on July 18 this year, as the Indian occupation forces had admitted the crime.

The Indian occupation forces had martyred 25-year old Imtiyaz Ahmed, 20-year old Mohammad Ibrar, and 16-year old Abrar Ahmed in so-called ‘cordon and search’ operation in Shopian on 18th July, 2020. The young Kashmiri boys had come from Rajouri to work in apple orchard as labourers, Foreign office spokesperson in a press release said. Two months after the killing, the Indian occupation Army itself had admitted that the three innocent Kashmiri labourers were killed extra-judicially ‘a hallmark of Indian occupation forces’ state-terrorism in IIOJK.

In a statement issued on September 18, the Indian Army accepted that the powers vested under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) were exceeded. “The international community must take immediate cognizance of the 18 July 2020 episode in IIOJK as well as other acts indicative of the RSS-BJP regime’s genocidal tendencies and hold it accountable for continuing crimes against the Kashmiri people,” the spokesperson said.

To cover up the ‘cold blooded’ murder of these innocent Kashmiris, the Indian occupation Army had claimed that the three were unidentified terrorists.” To further hide their crime, instead of handing over the human remains to the families of the victims, the occupation forces had buried them in a graveyard marked for ‘foreign terrorists.’

Pakistan has been consistently sensitizing the world community, including the United Nations and the international human rights organizations, about India’s serious crimes against the Kashmiri people. “The Indian Army’s statement of 18 September is an acknowledgement that Indian occupation forces are guilty of war crimes in IIOJK,” the spokesperson said. The BJP leadership must realize that they were directly responsible for crimes against the Kashmiri people. No illegal and inhuman acts such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) can provide impunity against the crimes that were being perpetrated in IIOJK.

“India should be well-aware that use of brutal force, including extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture in custody, use of pellet guns, burning and destruction of Kashmiris’ houses to inflict collective punishment, cannot break the will of Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination,” the press release said.

As the world community is aware, since its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 in IIOJK, India has taken its brutalization of innocent Kashmiris to a new level. More than 300, mostly young, Kashmiris have been extra-judicially killed by the Indian occupation forces in fake ‘encounters’ and staged ‘cordon-and-search’ operations in IIOJK during the past one year, it was added.