Inquiry confirms Kashmir unmarked graves

Report says more than 2,000 bodies found buried in unmarked graves, believed to be victims of the separatist revolt.

Indian authorities deny human rights violations in Kashmir and say they probe all such reports and punish the guilty

More than 2,000 bodies have been found buried in several unmarked graves in Kashmir, believed to be victims of the divided region's separatist revolt, an Indian human rights commission said in a report.
"At 38 places visited in north Kashmir, there were 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves," the inquiry report published on Saturday by the Indian government's Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC) said.The graves were found in dozens of villages near the Line of Control, the military line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in mainly Muslim Kashmir since a revolt against New Delhi's rule began in 1989.The report, which comes after a three-year inquiry by an 11-member team, is the first official acknowledgement that civilians killed in the two-decade conflict may have been buried in unmarked graves.
It stopped short of confirming that suspicion, long alleged by rights groups, but said: "there is every possibility that ... various unmarked graves at 38 places of north Kashmir may contain the dead bodies of locals".
Indian authorities have consistently denied systematic human rights violations in Kashmir and say they probe all such reports and punish the guilty.

'Thousands disappeared'
India and Pakistan have fought two wars since 1947 for control of the territory, which is divided between them. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training separatist fighters, but Pakistan says it only offers moral and diplomatic support for their cause.

More than 68,000 people have been killed in the uprising against Indian rule. Most have been civilians.
Rights groups have said some 8,000 people have disappeared, and accused government forces of staging gun battles to cover up killings.

The groups also say suspected separatist fighters have been arrested and never heard from again.
The state government has countered that most of the missing were likely Kashmiri youths who crossed into Pakistan for weapons training.In 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in 55 villages across the northern regions of Baramulla, Bandipore and Handwara, after which researchers and other groups reported finding thousands of single and mass graves without markers.Indian officials set up the commission to investigate and also began a separate police investigation, the findings of which have yet to be released.
The commission's 17-page report also urged DNA profiling to identify the bodies, saying the matter should be "investigated thoroughly by an impartial agency'.'

The head of a local rights group welcomed the report as vindicating its research into the graves. "Security agencies accused us of maligning the image of the armed forces,'' said Pervez Imroz of the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice.

Now, "we will seek judicial intervention if the government fails to implement the report's recommendations'.'

Kashmiris observe black Day on Indian I-Day

SRINAGAR: Kashmiris all over the world, especially those living in the Indian occupied Kashmir, observing Black Day on the Indian Independence Day, Geo News reported.

The Indian occupied Kashmir today is overcast with silent agony and pain in protest against the atrocity and barbaric operations perpetrated by the Indian forces, killing thousands of innocents. The valley observing complete strike on the call of the Hurriyet leaders, traffic is less than normal, while security has been beefed up by deploying heavy contingents at vintage points. Additional forces of the police and army drawn especially for today seen all over patrolling the roads and streets and other important installations.

PAKISTAN | AN IDEOLOGICAL NATION

By : Nauman Umair Khan

Neither I'm a primary school teacher nor you guys are that wee kids :) but still we need ignition every now and then, don't we? Every now and then we need to be reminded of our true identity, identity that is so pure, so powerful, so spiritual. Spiritual, yes, the spiritual existence of ours dates back to ages unknown but what i wish to remind you of is what you should be reminded of, of an idea that is powerful like any other idea and immortal too. Immortal, yes, our enemy tries to chase us down every now and then, but we suvive, sometimes we resist to exist and sometimes exist to resist, we'll never fall for we're an ideological nation. We, like any other nation, were born in the heart of a poet, our physical birth took place in the words of his poetry, words that inspired a resistance, resistance that inspired a movememnt, movement that inspired a resolution, resolution that did impossible yet inevitable. My forefathers sacrificed b/c they had a hope, a vision. They left everything and eventually lost their lives at the indo pak borders just b/c they had an inspiration pushing them to heights of sacrfice and eventually martyrdom. Yes, our enemy started conspiring against us from the very first day, first it was partition, then 1965, then 1971, then 1999. Apart from these dates which we'll never forget, they did various other nasty things too and still continue to do. But did they win, i guess, they didn't and i say they won't. At partition we were nothing but an idea and we survived, didn't we? Just don't forget that our mothers and sisters were raped, our fathers and bothers were burnt alive but at the same time we musn't forget that it weren't our Sikh brothers, they were just being pawns, the real players were sitting somewhere back. Then we lost Kashmir and few other areas but we survived for we weren't just pieces of land, we were an idea. Then came 1965, the funny dream of our enemy, they truly underestimated us, they forgot our ideological existence, they forgot that ideas don't fear tanks. Had it not been for those unsung soldiers (gumnaam sepahi) and our brothers in arms, we might have lost our physiscal existence. Then came 1971, years of brainwashing and some mistakes on our part gave our enemy an advantage over us, we lost a part of us, yes we did but then it made us stronger in many different ways. Then came the nuke shyt, our enemy thought they will nuke us down in near future but they forgot that ideas are nuke-proof too. We survived those years regardless of internal political turomoil and external threats. And later on we proved once again to our enemy that underestimating us is the worst mistake they can ever make. Then the world changed, fall of two towers induced war on two of our neighbours and this once again gave our enemy an advantage over us, their dream of eliminating our strategic depth was at the brink of realization and rest is classified history :) All i'd say in the end is that please recognize your hidden potential both as individuals and as a nation. You'll never be destroyed, mark my words, for you're an ideological nation. You'll be chased down every now and then but you'll never go down. LONG LIVE PAKISTAN ♥

Indian ire at Fai

ONE can understand why New Delhi welcomed Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai’s arrest: there is perhaps no other American who has done more to bring the cause of Kashmir’s freedom to the notice of a wide range of fellow Americans than this tireless crusader for Kashmir’s freedom.

An irate letter written to then president Clinton by the Kashmiri Women for Communal Harmony, an Indian American women’s organisation, perhaps testified to the effectiveness of Fai’s campaign when it protested against the positive tones in which Clinton had replied to his letter.

On Dec 27, 1993, responding to Fai’s letter, president Clinton said he “shared” Fai’s belief that “we all must look closely at our policies with regard to human rights”, and then added what to KWCH was a provocation, “I look forward to working with you and others to bring peace to Kashmir, and appreciate your input”. This “appreciation” was too much for the KWCH, which sought to add to Clinton’s knowledge by saying that Fai’s Kashmiri American Council was “a stunt” and alleged that the president’s letter had given “respectability” to Fai.

During the first Clinton term, the White House, the State Department and a large number of congressmen both Republicans and Democrats repeatedly asked India to address America’s human rights concerns and enter into talks with Pakistan with a view to a final settlement of Kashmir.

A bewildering variety of activity comprised Fai’s campaign — letters to American leaders, ‘vigils’ outside the White House, personal meetings with congressmen and media personalities, ads in newspapers and demos in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. All this activity was spread over four decades and aroused no suspicion in the American security agencies. Fai’s biggest success came during then Indian prime minister Narasimha Rao’s visit to Washington in May 1994, when an unusually large number of congressmen mobilised themselves on the Kashmir issue. In one week alone, 10 congressmen wrote to president Clinton, urging him to raise the Kashmir issue, India’s defiance of UN resolutions and its violations of human rights during his talks with the Indian prime minister.

Dan Burton, the fiery Republican from Indiana, wrote a letter to secretary of state Warren Christopher, urging him to “express our deep concern about the human rights situation in Kashmir” and to ask Rao to allow the holding of prayers in the Hazratbal mosque, which “continues to be surrounded by military bunkers”.

At the Rayburn Office Building, congressman after congressman, and at least one senator, came to the podium to denounce human rights abuses by India in Kashmir. The occasion was the launching of a book by Prof William Baker, the chief guest being Azad Kashmir prime minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum.

The speeches and the letters to Clinton were uncomfortable for the Indian lobby, because they involved some prestigious names, including Senator Paul Simon, the Democrat from Illinois, who was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House majority whip David Bonior and Dana Rohrabacher a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman Bonior, perhaps the most outspoken of them, referred to the “breaking of the shackles of totalitarianism” throughout the world, and demanded the total withdrawal of Indian troops from India-administered Kashmir. The House majority whip regretted that his country did not really understand what was happening in Kashmir and urged president Clinton to raise the issue with Mr Rao. He was convinced the people of Kashmir were bound to achieve their freedom.

Congressman Rohrabacher not only supported the cause of the people of Kashmir, he paid tributes to Pakistan for its role during the Cold War, especially during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

On May 19, the KAC got a full-page ad published in The Washington Post. Entitled, ‘What Prime Minister Rao will not tell President Clinton’, the black-bordered ad dwelt on the situation in India-administered Kashmir and focused on the human rights situation.

The outcome of the Clinton-Rao meeting was a disappointment for India, for in his very opening statement Clinton called for talks between Pakistan and India to solve the Kashmir issue. Calling for ‘talks’ normally should provoke no government. But so closed has been the Indian mind on Kashmir that Indians squirm at the mere mention of Kashmir.

That the Indians were prepared for some rough moments during the White House talks became clear when an Indian newsman asked Rao whether Clinton had twisted his arm. To a burst of laughter, and showing his arm to the newsmen Rao said, “My arm is absolutely intact. The president didn’t even touch it”. Clinton was, of course, tactful. He expressed the usual warmth reserved for a visiting head of government, spoke of values that united America and India but then replied “differences remain” when an Indian newsman asked him whether there was an identity of views between the two leaders.

The joint statement issued after the talks contained on the American side’s insistence the following fifth point: “The two leaders agreed on the need for bilateral negotiations between India and Pakistan to resolve outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, as envisaged in the Simla agreement.” Without Pakistan being there, Clinton insisting on a Kashmir solution in a bilateral US-India statement was quite a success for Fai. It is true that others also helped, including first and foremost the Pakistan embassy headed by Dr Maleeha Lodhi, various Pakistani associations and the American Muslim Council, led by Abdul Rahman Alamoudi (arrested in September 2003). But no one played a greater role in highlighting Kashmir’s cause than Fai, assisted by a fellow Kashmiri the late journalist Khalid Hasan.

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Decade on, Shazia seeks father’s whereabouts

Srinagar : For past over a decade, Shazia Anwar of Doolipora Vilgam in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has been searching for whereabouts of her father, Syed Anwar Shah, who went missing in 2001.

 Life took an ugly turn for Shazia after her father left for routine work and went missing. “After he did not return till evening, we grew anxious and searched for him at all possible places, but failed locate him. We lodged an FIR, but the cops too failed to locate his whereabouts,” said Anwar’s wife, Naseema Begum who along with her daughter, Shazia participated in a sit-in organized by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) at Pratap Park here. 

 Pertinently, the APDP organizes monthly sit-in here to press for whereabouts of their relatives who went missing in custody of various security agencies since 1990.
 Naseema said Shazia was only a year old at the time of the incident. “Over the years, Shazia accompanied me to jails and interrogation centres. She used to wake up in night and ask for her father’s whereabouts. In the initial years, I used to tell her that he would return, but gradually the reality dawned upon her,” she said.  

 “I approached everybody including police and civil officials for tracing my husband, but except assurances and promises, I got nothing,” says Naseema.
 Disappearance of the sole breadwinner has made the going tough for the hapless family. Presently putting up in two rented rooms at Safa Kadal, Naseema’s brother-in-law sells clothes on handcart to support the mother-daughter duo.  

 Naseema tied nuptial knot with Anwar in 2000. “We were living a happy life despite living in abject poverty. Birth of daughter added more joy to our lives, but his disappearance shattered my life,” she says. “We wouldn’t rest until we trace his whereabouts. We want to know whether he is dead or alive?,” Naseema said as Shazia looks on. 

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Embarrassment for Indian Army and Police - Man killed in Poonch encounter not a Militant

Jammu:  In what could be a major embarrassment for the police and Army, it now turns out that one of the so-called 'Lashkar militants' killed in an encounter less than 24 hours ago, was not really a militant but a civilian resident of Poonch.

Army sources now say that their whole operation was based on an input from two men - one from the Special Operation Group of the police and the other from the Army with some 'malafide' intention. Based on their information, the Army launched the operation and killed him.

Both the men have been arrested, but the questions that now arise are how did this encounter continue for close to 12 hours? And what about the weapon that Army claimed to have found on him?

Independent inquires have been ordered by the police and the Army into the incident.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has, meanwhile, strongly condemned the killing of the civilian saying the guilty should be arrested. He also said that the Army and the police were misled.

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