UN report on human rights in Kashmir "fallacious, tendentious and motivated

On June 14 last, Office of the United Nations High of the United Nations Secretariat in Geneva, released the so called first-ever report on the human rights situation in Kashmir The 49-page report, which notes multiple violations, particularly from July, 2016 to March, 2018, is nothing but the Pakistani malicious propaganda which has found its way into this report India was quick not only in rejecting it in Toto but slam it in the strongest terms.

Calling it "fallacious, tendentious and motivated." New Delhi questioned the intent behind bringing out a report with "selective compilation of largely unverified information Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat too slammed the report and said that it was motivated India said that the report is aimed at promoting a false narrative and distorting truth. The Indian letter to the President of UN Human Rights body also pointed to the fact that this report undermines UN-led consensus on terrorism and referring to UN-designated terrorist groups as armed groups is an ample evidence of that.

Soon after the report was released the Jordan born Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, UNHRC High Commissioner, posed for a photograph with Faiz Naqushbandi, of the All Party Hurriyat Conference in Pakistan, Sardar Amjad Yousaf Atafu Hussain and Ghulam Hassan As per sources, all the people visible Hussein with the UNHRC High Commissioner are working closely with Pakistan's ISI and its lobby groups in the UNHRC in Geneva. The sources add that the Pak ISI was strongly lobbying for the United Nations report on Kashmir in order to tamish India's image.

A prominent newspaper of Kashmir gave further "said Zeid credence to this report being a handiwork of intense lobbying by the Pak lobby and distorting the ground situation by planting the Pakistani narrative through this report. It wrote that the Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a central equally, an explicit description of human rights violations and an implicit prescription for them, namely, solve the dispute over the State of J&K. It upset Delhi enough so that it did not respond, only reacted Kashmir, meanwhile, has responded with a sense of relief at this first-ever Report sponsored by the apex body of the modern nation-state system. Any assessment of the document must be read for its overt message as well as the implications of it.

In reality, what the report says is devoid of any authenticity and, by its own admission, the report was prepared on inputs received by inputs by Kashmir- based human rights activists, mainly Khurram Parvez and media reports as the agency is not permitted inside the state to carry out its own verification. Moreover, it follows a pattern of legitimising terrorism and dismemberment of India.

"The political dimensions of the dispute between India and Pakistan have long been the focus of attention, but this is not a frozen conflict in history. It is a conflict that has deprived millions of people of their basic human rights and continues to inflict countless suffering to this day, 'said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

For that reason any resolution of the current political situation in Kashmir must involve a commitment to end the cycles of violence and ensure accountability for past and present violations and abuses committed by all parties, as well as providing redress to the victims,said Zeid. 

"For the same reason I am going to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine the possibility of establishing a commission of inquiry to conduct an international, comprehensive and independent inquiry into the allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir, "affirmed the High Commissioner .

The report notes that he OHCHR Office-which, despite the repeated requests made to both India and Pakistan in the last two years, did not receive unconditional access on both sides of the Line of Control-initiated a remote monitoring effort in order to elaborate the report, which covers both the part of Kashmir administered by India and the part under Pakistani administration.

The report says "The main focus of the report is the human rights situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since July 2016, when numerous and unprecedented demonstrations broke out following the death of the leader of an armed group at the hands of the Indian security forces until April, 2018.

The security forces in India made excessive use of force that led to illicit killings and a large number of wounded, the report said, citing estimates by civil society organisations that 145 civilians died at the hands of armed forces, between mid-July 2016 and the end of March 2018 and another 20 civilians would have been killed by armed groups in the same period."

"Impunity for those who violate human rights and lack of access to justice are essential human rights problems in the State of Jammu and Kashmir," the report said, adding that the Special Powers for Armed Forces Act of 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir (AFSPA) and the Public Security Act of 1978 for Jammu and Kashmir (PSA) have "created structures that obstruct the usual course of justice, impede accountability and jeopardise the right to reparation the victims of human rights violations.

The report also points to evidence that armed groups that have operated in Jammu and Kashmir since the late 1980s have committed a wide range of human rights abuses, including abductions and killings of civilians and acts of sexual violence Although the Government of Pakistan denies that it has given any kind of support to these groups, the report reflects that several experts have concluded that the Pakistani army continues to support the operations of those elements that cross the Line of Control

The report also examines a range of human rights violations in the Kashmir Pakistan's administration, violations that, according to the report, are of another calibre or magnitude and of a more structural nature. In addition, the document states, restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and in Gilgit Baltistan have limited the ability to obtain information about the situation.

Among the problems highlighted in the report is the constitutional relationship of these two "special territories' ' with Pakistan AJK has been under Pakistani control throughout its history. The federal authorities of Pakistan also exercise full control over all government operations in Gilgit Baltistan and, according to reports, federal intelligence agencies are deployed in both regions.

The impact of Pakistani counter-terrorism operations on human rights is detailed in the report, which highlights the concerns of the United Nations Human Rights Committee about the "very broad definition of terrorism contained in the Anti-Terrorist Law The report cites a highly respected NGO that discovered that hundreds of people had been. imprisoned under the law in Gilgit Baltistan and that the regulations had been used against neighbours in the area who were raising issues relating to the human rights of the population.

Among its recommendations, the report calls on India and Pakistan to fully respect their international human rights obligations in the Kashmir areas under their respective administrations.

The report urges Pakistan to put an end to the misuse of anti-terrorist legislation to persecute those who carry out peaceful civil and political activities or express dissatisfaction The sections of the provisional Constitution of the AJK that limit the rights to freedom of expression and opinion, and peaceful assembly and association should also be amended. Any political activists, journalists or others convicted of having peacefully expressed their views should be released immediately Also the constitutions of AJK and Gilgit Baltistan should The report also examines a range of human be reformed to put an end to the criminalization area under of Ahmadiyya Muslims.

Human Rights violations of Kashmiri Pandits as mentioned in the report

The report has made a mention of some human rights violations, on page 40, at item numbers 137, 138 & 139 And goes on to say: "A major episode of attacks against civilians by armed groups operating in the Kashmir Valley is that against the minority Hindus, known as Kashmiri Pandits These attacks and threats from armed groups forced hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits to flee Kashmir and seek shelter in Jammu and other parts of India. According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, around 62,000 Kashmiri Pandit families live outside Kashmir and primarily left because of "disturbed conditions prevailing in the Kashmir valley during 1989-90" Other estimates of the number of displaced Kashmiri Pandit families vary.

Similarly, there are varying figures of the number of Kashmin Pandits who were killed by armed groups since an armed insurgency started in the late 1980s According to the Kashmin Pandit Sangharsh Samiti which represents the small Pandit population that has remained in Kashmir, approximately 650 Kashmiri Pandits have been killed by armed groups. Other Pandit groups, especially those based outside Kashmir, claim much higher figures. A 2008 Jammu and Kashmir Police report stated that 209 Pandits had been killed since 1989. In December 2017, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament that according to state government figures, 174 Kashmin Pandits had been killed by armed groups. It added that the state police had filed charges in 30 cases while 142 cases had been reported as "untraced".

Survivors, Kashmiri Pandit community groups and human rights organisations have been calling for independent investigations into the violence against the Pandit community and related displacement. However, no such investigations have been instituted by either the state or central government. In 2017, a Kashmir Pandit group, Roots in Kashmir', petitioned the Supreme Court of India, calling for investigations into the killing of Pandits and their "exodus" from the Kashmir Valley It sought to reopen 215 cases in which over 700 members of the Kashmin Pandit community were killed in 1989-90 The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that more than 27 years have passed no fruitful purpose would emerge, as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture" However, in 2017, the Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe 80 cases of extrajudicial killings committed in Manipur in 1979. reportedly stating that "crimes cannot be overlooked only because of the passage of time On 27 October 2017 the Supreme Court rejected a review petition filed by Roots in Kashmir urging it to revisit its July 2017 order".

Our View

We endorse the assessment by India that the report was prepared at the behest of the Pakistan lobby to delame Indian army and give malicious propaganda by over-ground terrorist sympathisers and conduits, a reason to feel vindicated at the global scene. Anyone familiar with the Kashmir situation after going through the report would make that analysis.

. Why should a report pick up mid July, 2016, and , killing of terrorist Burhan Wani as the beginning of its study of human rights violations and also shamelessly say that the nature of protests changed with this incident. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had dubbed him a leader and Pakistan, also, flagged a Burhan express. It is also suspecting that while it picked up every bad Press that the army received but totally omits gruesome killings by terrorists in the period. It has made use of every 'violation' from sexual violence to administrative detention, excessive use of force, enforced disappearances, use of pellet-firing shotguns, arbitrary arrests, torture, and violation of right to health and education-all based on heresy reports and selective inputs. But it had no audacity or wisdom to speak to Kashmin Pandit groups and inquire about violations of their human rights on a daily basis all these 28 years.

It has been an attempt at a backdoor entry for a defeated Pakistani narrative of grabbing Kashmir with Islamic terrorism and keep the Pakistan-sponsored terrorism industry in good humour and limelight so that the Pakistani evil design gets some more lease of life and its over-ground agents get some morale boost The world, which is fully aware about the dangers of Islamic radicalization to world peace and humanity. must not give any credence to such reports aimed at legitimising Islamic terror in Kashmir.

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Courtesy:-  Samachar Bureau   and Koshur Samachar 2018, July