Last year ( 1998) son of a Kashmiri political activist was arrested by the members of an Indian security agency. He was tortured harshly. Reports of his torture somehow leaked and were published in the local press. Once the detaining agency came across these reports in the media it enhanced severity of the torture. The boy was asked to counter the media reports. He was threatened that unless these reports were denied, the intensity of his torture will go on increasing. The harassed boy asked his family to rebut these reports so that he is relieved of the ever increasing acts of torture. The family had no option but to contradict the media reports relating to the plight of their son. If the family members of an influential politician can experience such a third degree treatment in custody one can imagine about the fate of others.
This is not a single incident of its kind. Everyday, Kashmiris come across hundreds of such incidents in which victims of brutalities are forced to remain silent about their sufferings. Some families which dare to bring the violation of human rights against their members to the notice of the local or international human rights groups get victimized. Modus oprandi of such victimization is attacks on other members of the family. These attacks are made by the agency directly or indirectly through its agents. There are so many cases in which notice of a family’s report was taken by some state agencies, courts or some international bodies. Within a day another member of their family was picked up and killed in retaliation by the agency against which the report had been lodged. Through these techniques Indian Authorities suppress the human rights reporting on the part of the victims.
Victimization of activists:
Jalil Andrabi was an advocate and a social worker. Besides this he was an activist pursuing the cause of human rights victims within and beyond the borders of India. Once he went to Geneva and highlighted the problems of Kashmiri human rights victims. On his return from abroad he was killed in custody. Prompt reporting on the part of his wife highlighted the role of state agencies in his murder. His killing conveyed a strong message to the human rights activists in the valley and had chilling impact upon their activities. So many competent and capable persons associated with human rights reporting migrated from the valley. Those who couldn’t afford to migrate dissociated themselves from this work. Human rights activism which had acquired dimensions of a mass movement in early nineties got frozen. Human rights scenario of Kashmir was overshadowed by the feelings of fear and harassment. A fraction of it gets reported, nevertheless.
Incompetence of pseudo-activists ;
Those who are involved in the human rights reporting in Kashmir are not capable of doing justice with this work. Some have opted the work as profession and not as a mission. Finding the work a bit rewarding every Tom, Dick and Harry has overnight become a human rights activist. Leaders of various political forums are unable to understand the niceties of this work. They assign the job to any one of their liking whether the person has any exposure to the field or not. Apathy on the part of those who can deliver is also responsible for monopolization of this field by the mediocre. Capable persons are prone to security risks. Whereas the incompetent have a little risk of becoming target of government agencies. State believes that the substandard communications on the part of such people are of little importance. They do not damage its reputation. Government allows incapable people to travel beyond its borders. By doing so it gets credit of being too liberal to allow even its opponents to travel abroad. At the same time it facilitates bad representation of Kashmiris overseas. Capable persons on the other hand are neither allowed to work within Kashmir nor allowed to travel abroad. Most of the reports relating to human rights abuses compiled from the valley look like Roz-Namchas (daily dairies ) of a local police station. This includes even those reports that were prepared with the assistance of some retired high court judges. The judges being educated in forties and not accustomed to up dating their knowledge are as unfamiliar with this field as any other ordinary person.
State government does not lag behind the secessionist political forums in making a mess of the human rights reporting. State assigned the job of heading its human rights commission to a retired judge. Human rights being comparatively a new subject and still in process of being introduced in the curriculum of Indian Universities does not have sufficient number of experts in India. Being a retired judge does not make one expert of this field. Making such people investigators of human rights abuses does not bring relief to the victims of tyranny.
Role of state-sponsored “NGOs” :
In spite of these impediments if some information gets communicated to the international forums , India minimizes its impact by utilizing the services of some state sponsored “Non Governmental Organizations”. These so called NGOs are mostly run by Kashmiri Pandits. Some Muslims are also associated with them to add an element of credibility to these outfits. When they find no Muslim to work for them, Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah proceeds to Europe to undertake this job. These mercenary NGOs go to each and every international forum to project the Indian version of the happenings in Kashmir. Most often they malign the victimized Kashmiris and the genuine freedom fighters. The state managed migration of Kashmiri Pandits is attributed to the so-called intolerance of the fundamentalist Muslims. Even the massacres and devastation of localities committed by Indian security forces are portrayed as acts of the militants. Some persons working for these outfits identify themselves as supporters of independence to add credibility to their misinformation campaign.
Several agencies of the government work under the garb of T.V. Serial companies. Feature films are made to malign Kashmiri Muslims and sold to some popular T. V. channels of Europe and America. Last year(1998) a film relating to Bhuddist culture of Ladakh was telecast in Europe. Toward the end of the feature film it was mentioned that the culture is in process of extinction because of the ethnic cleansing of the area perpetrated by successive governments of Kashmir after 1947. It was alleged that all the Muslims living in Ladakh are originally from Kashmir. They have been settled there to evict Buddhists from their exclusive reserve. Muslim phobia of Europeans makes them receptive to this type of propaganda and they believe it to be genuine projection of the happenings in Kashmir. Those belonging to the so called NGOs and the government sponsored agencies have no fear of retaliation from the state agencies. Hence they remain vocal. Those representing Kashmiri masses on the other hand remain scared.
This is not a single incident of its kind. Everyday, Kashmiris come across hundreds of such incidents in which victims of brutalities are forced to remain silent about their sufferings. Some families which dare to bring the violation of human rights against their members to the notice of the local or international human rights groups get victimized. Modus oprandi of such victimization is attacks on other members of the family. These attacks are made by the agency directly or indirectly through its agents. There are so many cases in which notice of a family’s report was taken by some state agencies, courts or some international bodies. Within a day another member of their family was picked up and killed in retaliation by the agency against which the report had been lodged. Through these techniques Indian Authorities suppress the human rights reporting on the part of the victims.
Victimization of activists:
Jalil Andrabi was an advocate and a social worker. Besides this he was an activist pursuing the cause of human rights victims within and beyond the borders of India. Once he went to Geneva and highlighted the problems of Kashmiri human rights victims. On his return from abroad he was killed in custody. Prompt reporting on the part of his wife highlighted the role of state agencies in his murder. His killing conveyed a strong message to the human rights activists in the valley and had chilling impact upon their activities. So many competent and capable persons associated with human rights reporting migrated from the valley. Those who couldn’t afford to migrate dissociated themselves from this work. Human rights activism which had acquired dimensions of a mass movement in early nineties got frozen. Human rights scenario of Kashmir was overshadowed by the feelings of fear and harassment. A fraction of it gets reported, nevertheless.
Incompetence of pseudo-activists ;
Those who are involved in the human rights reporting in Kashmir are not capable of doing justice with this work. Some have opted the work as profession and not as a mission. Finding the work a bit rewarding every Tom, Dick and Harry has overnight become a human rights activist. Leaders of various political forums are unable to understand the niceties of this work. They assign the job to any one of their liking whether the person has any exposure to the field or not. Apathy on the part of those who can deliver is also responsible for monopolization of this field by the mediocre. Capable persons are prone to security risks. Whereas the incompetent have a little risk of becoming target of government agencies. State believes that the substandard communications on the part of such people are of little importance. They do not damage its reputation. Government allows incapable people to travel beyond its borders. By doing so it gets credit of being too liberal to allow even its opponents to travel abroad. At the same time it facilitates bad representation of Kashmiris overseas. Capable persons on the other hand are neither allowed to work within Kashmir nor allowed to travel abroad. Most of the reports relating to human rights abuses compiled from the valley look like Roz-Namchas (daily dairies ) of a local police station. This includes even those reports that were prepared with the assistance of some retired high court judges. The judges being educated in forties and not accustomed to up dating their knowledge are as unfamiliar with this field as any other ordinary person.
State government does not lag behind the secessionist political forums in making a mess of the human rights reporting. State assigned the job of heading its human rights commission to a retired judge. Human rights being comparatively a new subject and still in process of being introduced in the curriculum of Indian Universities does not have sufficient number of experts in India. Being a retired judge does not make one expert of this field. Making such people investigators of human rights abuses does not bring relief to the victims of tyranny.
Role of state-sponsored “NGOs” :
In spite of these impediments if some information gets communicated to the international forums , India minimizes its impact by utilizing the services of some state sponsored “Non Governmental Organizations”. These so called NGOs are mostly run by Kashmiri Pandits. Some Muslims are also associated with them to add an element of credibility to these outfits. When they find no Muslim to work for them, Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah proceeds to Europe to undertake this job. These mercenary NGOs go to each and every international forum to project the Indian version of the happenings in Kashmir. Most often they malign the victimized Kashmiris and the genuine freedom fighters. The state managed migration of Kashmiri Pandits is attributed to the so-called intolerance of the fundamentalist Muslims. Even the massacres and devastation of localities committed by Indian security forces are portrayed as acts of the militants. Some persons working for these outfits identify themselves as supporters of independence to add credibility to their misinformation campaign.
Several agencies of the government work under the garb of T.V. Serial companies. Feature films are made to malign Kashmiri Muslims and sold to some popular T. V. channels of Europe and America. Last year(1998) a film relating to Bhuddist culture of Ladakh was telecast in Europe. Toward the end of the feature film it was mentioned that the culture is in process of extinction because of the ethnic cleansing of the area perpetrated by successive governments of Kashmir after 1947. It was alleged that all the Muslims living in Ladakh are originally from Kashmir. They have been settled there to evict Buddhists from their exclusive reserve. Muslim phobia of Europeans makes them receptive to this type of propaganda and they believe it to be genuine projection of the happenings in Kashmir. Those belonging to the so called NGOs and the government sponsored agencies have no fear of retaliation from the state agencies. Hence they remain vocal. Those representing Kashmiri masses on the other hand remain scared.
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