Two years on

Two years after the status of Indian Occupied Kashmir was changed by the government of Narendra Modi, removing the limited autonomy it enjoyed under the Indian constitution, the miseries of its people continue. According to reports collected by international agencies, over 500 people have been killed in 2020 and 2019. Three thousand people are under arrest, including 200 politicians, and though internet services were restored to the area in August 2020 on the orders of the Indian Supreme Court, there is no let up in efforts to change the demography of the region and to remove further rights from the people of Kashmir. Pakistan has already expressed concern over the possibility of a further change in the status of Kashmir and there has been talk from Indian government ministers of simply annexing it and making it a formal part of India. While the UN has protested and EU parliamentarians have written to the UN and the Indian government, there appears to be little impact on the government in New Delhi.

The human rights abuses in Occupied Kashmir are among the worst in the world. Kashmiris say that at least 10,000 people have been picked up or disappeared since the Indian government’s action of 2019. Others have been harassed and there have been incidents of extrajudicial killings. The photograph of a small boy sitting beside the body of his grandfather, who had been killed by security forces, is a horrific reminder of the misery of the Kashmiri people. There are also reports of mass rape in some areas, and women and girls remain vulnerable to such abuses with Indian security forces remaining posted in many parts of the territory.

The question of when the horror in Kashmir is to end has no immediate answer. Pakistan continues to raise its voice in the UN and at the other forums. But so far, while the European Union has made clear its objection, as has the UN, there appears to be no change in Indian policy. Indeed, political analysts predict that situation may grow worse as Kashmiri resistance steps up action in an effort to regain autonomy and to prevent a demographic change in Kashmir which would make the Kashmiris living in the territory a minority and effectively strengthen India's hand in the region.