PUBLIC HEARING KASHMIR
Grassroots Media Initiative
Date: Feb 21, 2007 11:20 AM
Subject: PUBLIC HEARING KASHMIR
Public Hearing
Mothers, wives, sisters of the Disappeared from Kashmir Depose before the People
Jantar Mantar
February 22, 2007
10am-4pm
In the last few weeks investigations by the J & K police on the demand of the people of Kashmir have established that several innocent Kashmiris were kidnapped and murdered by sections of J & K police and Indian security forces. The disfigured dead bodies of the murdered persons were buried as "Pakistani militants killed in encounter". Now, it has been established that the government policy of giving financial reward and promotions to police and security personnel who produced a better kill list of militants/terrorists has encouraged these kidnappings and murders. Moreover, the fact that Jammu and Kashmir has been declared a 'Disturbed Area' and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in force there (thus empowering the personnel of the armed forces "to shoot to kill on suspicion") has produced a culture of impunity that has further encouraged these murders.
Since 1989, an estimated 150,000 Kashmiris have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir. An overwhelming majority of these people were killed by the Indian forces in Kashmir. Since 1990 and the imposition of AFSPA, the Indian Armed forces intensified the practice of killing of people immediately after their arrest. Under various operations - "Operation Tiger", "Operation Eagle" and "Operation Shiva", the members of the army and paramilitary forces cordoned a village or a town and extra judiciously shot and killed or made 'disappear' unarmed civilians – in the name of crack-down operations against the "terrorists". As dead "terrorists" could not talk back - all the dead were declared "terrorists". According to human rights activists and the Association of the Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) about 5000 to 7000 persons remain missing in Kashmir today. Thousands of habeas corpus petitions are pending before the J&K Court but the Security Forces have declined to respond to the Court's summons, leaving Kashmiri citizens without the protection of law and justice.
The Indian media has exposed the shocking crimes of the security forces in Kashmir but a section of the news media has suggested that these are "aberrations" committed by a few "bad elements" in the police and armed forces. Some columnists have warned against the practice of exaggerated claims of human rights abuses and disappearances by so-called human rights activists. However, the cumulative reports of civil and democratic rights groups who have been visiting Jammu and Kashmir during these years, testify to the widespread practice of such killings and disappearances. The fact that the state rewards its soldiers according the number of 'terrorists' they kill, betrays the level of cynicism with which the Indian state regards the ordinary people of Jammu and Kashmir whom it calls its 'citizens'.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the recent Ganderbal killings have galvanized a peoples democratic protest and a determination to seek justice and an end to this shameful and heinous practice of 'kill lists' and large scale disappearances. They have reached out to civil society groups in the rest of India for solidarity and support in the campaign for truth and justice.
Ashok Aggarwal
Kamal Mitra Chenoy
Kamla Bhasin
Nirmala Deshpande
Shabnam Hashmi
Sonia Jabbar
Tapan Bose
Uma Chakravarti
& others
For
Kashmir Solidarity Committee
e-mail: kashmirs...@gmail.com
recirculated by:
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GRASSROOTS MEDIA INITIATIVE
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Contact: Hasrat Arjjumend, Secretary & Director
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GMI promotes application of media & communication in development of poor and eradication of poverty and hunger through capacity building, research and mainstreaming of voices of voiceless.
