IHK Bulletin

[Neo]

Kashmiris reject autonomy or self rule. They want complete liberation from India

Posted on April 8, 2010

SRINAGAR (IHK): In occupied Kashmir, pro-liberation parties and leaders have said that Kashmiris will not accept anything short of self-determination rejecting the statement of the Indian Home Secretary G K Pillai regarding self-rule, reports KMS.

The Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), talking to the newsmen in Srinagar, said that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved according to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people through tripartite dialogue process including Pakistan India and real leadership of Kashmiris.

He said that the people did not want autonomy or self-rule as they wanted right to self-determination. “India should take concrete steps to resolve the Kashmir dispute by accepting the ground realities,” he maintained.

Urging India to release pro-liberation leaders and activists and revoke all the draconian laws in the occupied territory, he said that Indian troops were committing gross human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani in a statement rejected Pillai’s offers and called it ridiculous. “Pillai’s statement is the reiteration of India’s intransigent stance over Kashmir,” he added.

Recalling the promises made by the former Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination, he said that freedom from Indian occupation was the ultimate solution of the Kashmir dispute. “The people of Kashmir has offered numerous sacrifices over the last six decades not for autonomy or self rule but for complete liberation,” he said.

The Senior Vice Chairman of JKLF-R, Javaid Ahmad Mir, addressing the party activists in Srinagar, expressed concern over the plight of Kashmiri detainees, languishing in different jails in and outside the territory. The spokesmen of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Freedom League in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Kashmir dispute should be resolved according to the resolutions of the United Nations. ‘Nothing acceptable short of freedom’

‘Pakistan Times’ Jammu & Kashmir Bureau

http://pakistanledger.com/2010/04/08...on-from-india/

[Neo]

Shutdown to be observed in occupied Kashmir Tomorrow

'Pakistan Times' Jammu & Kashmir Desk

SRINAGAR (IHK): In occupied Kashmir, complete strike will be observed tomorrow, Tuesday against the conviction of five Kashmiris including Hurriyet leader Farida Behenji by a New Delhi court in a false case against them, reports KMS.

Call for the strike has been given by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani addressing on telephone from New Delhi a meeting organized in Srinagar by the forum patronised by him.

Syed Ali Gilani said, Indian judiciary is playing partisan and biased role and the Kashmiri people are being victimised for demanding their inalienable right of self-determination.

As per details, the forum patronised by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani has called for complete strike on Tuesday against the conviction of five Kashmiris including Hurriyet leader, Farida Behenji, by a New Delhi court in a false case against them.

Decision for the strike call was taken at a meeting in Srinagar with Acting General Secretary of the forum, Feroz Ahmad Khan in chair. Participants of the meeting appealed the traders and transporters to make the call a success.

The meeting was addressed among others by Syed Ali Gilani over phone from New Delhi. "Indian judiciary is playing partisan and biased role. The Kashmiri people are being targeted here while those accused of Gujarat riots are roaming free," said Syed Ali Gilani.

The court on Thursday convicted Farida Behanji, Muhammad Ali Butt, Mirza Nissar Hussain, Javed Ahmed Khan and Farooq Ahmed Khan for their alleged roles in the Lajpat Nagar blast in New Delhi 14 years ago.

The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party in a statement in Srinagar expressed serious concern over the deteriorating health of illegally detained senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, who was shifted from Jammu to Joint Interrogation Centre Humhama in Srinagar, yesterday.

The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoob in a statement said that settlement of the Kashmir dispute was imperative for peace in South Asia.

The government employees in the occupied territory continued their strike for the 9th day on Sunday to protest against the anti-people policies of the puppet administration.

http://www.pakistantimes.net/pt/detail.php?newsId=10213

[Neo]

Held Kashmir shuts down to protest against conviction

OCCUPIED SRINAGAR (April 14 2010): Shops, banks and schools shut in occupied Kashmir on Tuesday after Mujahideen called a strike to protest the conviction of six Muslims for a deadly 1996 market bombing in New Delhi. Police and paramilitary forces were deployed in strength in occupied Srinagar and downtown neighbourhoods were sealed with barbed wire to prevent violent demonstrations, police officer Pervez Ahmed said.

The strike across occupied Kashmir valley was called by Syed Ali Geelani. An Indian court last week convicted six Kashmiris arrested in connection with the market bombing, including leading female Kashmiri politician Farida Dar. "The strike is to protest the conviction of six Kashmiris," Geelani said in a statement, accusing the Indian judiciary of being "partisan and biased".

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?i...term=&supDate=

[Neo]

India cracks down on text messages in held Kashmir

OCCUPIED SRINAGAR (April 17 2010): India on Friday banned some phone users in held Kashmir from sending SMS text messages, causing anger on the streets and provoking the wrath of the volatile region's chief minister. In an unexpected announcement, India's telecommunications and information technology ministries banned subscribers with monthly contracts from sending messages, while pre-paid mobile users will be limited to 10 a day.

There was no explanation for the move beyond saying it was "in the interest of the national security." In October last year all pre-paid phones were banned after reports that they were being used by militants, who have waged a 20-year fight against Indian rule and the thousands of security forces in the Himalayan region.

Held Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah termed the ban "harassment." "An officer sitting in the department of telecommunications or home ministry cannot decide what is right or what is wrong for the people of my state," Abdullah told the Press Trust of India news agency.

He said the state government was attempting to bridge the gap between the unpopular government in New Delhi and Kashmiris, and such moves as restricting SMSs were "dampeners." "This harassment needs to be put to an end once and for all," he said.

"The step proves beyond doubt that every Kashmiri is a suspect in the eyes of Indians," businessman Abdul Hamid told AFP in occupied Srinagar. Mobile phones were launched in held Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead. The ban on pre-paid phones was revoked in January this year after protests.

The ban affected 3.8 million users in Kashmir. The sending of bulk SMSs through online portals was also banned under the new rules. Abdullah admitted the state government had asked for a ban on sending bulk SMSs, "which we believe is being used to spread rumours and gossip." "This request has not been understood properly," he said. Anti-India sentiments run deep in held Kashmir, where violence has registered a sharp decline since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?i...term=&supDate=

[Neo]

Indian police arrest human rights leader in Srinagar

Wednesday, 21 Apr, 2010

Indian Policemen detain an activist of The All Parties Hurriyat Conference outside a hotel in Srinagar. —AP Photo World

India cracks down on text messages in Kashmir India cracks down on text messages in Kashmir SRINAGAR: Police in Indian-administered Kashmir said they had detained on Wednesday the organiser of a seminar that was to be addressed by phone by militants.

Ahsan Untoo, the head of Human Rights Forum, a local rights group, was detained in a raid on a hotel an hour before the start of the event in Srinagar.

Senior separatist Javed Mir was also taken to a nearby police station.

“We have detained Untoo and Mir. We will not allow the seminar to take place,” a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The seminar was to discuss the “role of pro-freedom leaders vis-à-vis the Kashmir issue” and all separatist leaders in Indian Kashmir had agreed to participate.

Untoo had said that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the head of a charity widely viewed as a front for banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, would address the seminar.

Ahmed said Untoo was arrested for supporting and promoting the ideology of insurgent leader Saeed. “It’s unacceptable,” he said.

Police also detained four others including Javaid Ahmed Mir, a senior separatist leader.

Untoo said the police action violated his right of freedom of expression as he had organised the conference to discuss unity among separatist groups.

“They (Saeed and Salahuddin) were not the only people to speak, but guests included top human rights defenders and separatist leaders from our side of Kashmir as well,” Untoo told reporters as the police took him away. —Agencies

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...srinagar-ha-05

[Neo]

IHK authorities ban eleven Pakistani TV channels

ISLAMABAD (April 25 2010): In occupied Kashmir, the authorities have directed cable operators of Jammu district to stop telecast of 12 channels, 11 being run from Pakistan and one from Dubai, within two days. According to a report of Kashmir Media Service, notice to stop telecast of 12 channels has already been issued to multi-system cable operators of the district.

The channels, on which ban has been imposed by the occupation authorities include PTV Home, PTV World, QTV, ARY, Geo TV, Dawn News, Express, Waqt, Noor TV, Hadi TV and Aaj , all being run from Pakistan and Peace TV, from Dubai.

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?i...term=&supDate=

[Neo]

India urged to prosecute soldiers for IHK killings

* HRW says army should hand over soldiers to police for trial in civilian court

SRINAGAR: The Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged India to prosecute soldiers accused of killing three men during an alleged fake gunbattle in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK).

The Indian military said the victims were rebels who were killed when it foiled an infiltration by militants along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

But the victims’ families said they were innocent civilians who had been abducted by the army three days before the supposed battle on April 30.

The army has suspended an officer and removed another from his command pending enquiries into the killings.

“If the army is serious about punishing those responsible for this latest incident, it will transfer the suspects to the police for trial in a civilian court,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, a senior researcher at the Human Rights Watch.

“Given the army’s poor record in holding its soldiers accountable, there is no reason to believe that a military court can be trusted to deliver justice,” she said. Ganguly said the killing of the three men underscored the urgency for the Indian government to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The act gives soldiers wide powers to shoot, arrest and search suspects, and is widely detested by the people of IHK. afp

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

India’s Kashmir atrocities

All nations that repress the genuine aspirations of their populations do it through Machiavellian means. In India’s case, a reference to Arthashastra would be more appropriate. Since the armed uprising in Kashmir for a legitimate demand, which India has managed to avoid acceding to since independence, thousands of families have suffered brutalities at the hands of Indian security forces, particularly the Indian Army, which is not averse to using extra-judicial means to curb opposition. While officials may find it expedient to turn a blind eye to excesses of the state arm in Indian-held Kashmir, human rights organisations of India and the local Kashmiri leadership have constantly urged the government for an inquiry into the alleged misuse of delegated authorities by the Indian Army and police.

Although Kashmiris and their international supporters have been raising a voice against Indian repression, increasingly there are voices within India that are now joining the chorus. According to Delhi-based rights organisation People’s Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR), the government should probe into the forced disappearance of the 8,000 Kashmiris who have been missing for many years. It not only questioned the claim of the Indian Army of killing 36 militants along the LoC, it also hinted at the likelihood of those being innocent civilians killed for the sake of rewards and medals. If these allegations are indeed correct, it is enough reason for India to be ashamed and initiate an impartial inquiry into the incidents. The identification of 2,373 graves containing 2,943 bodies in 55 villages of three districts by the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPT) in its report in December 2009 did not ruffle the feathers of the Indian government. “Had the authorities taken the report seriously and investigated the matter, occurrence of such crime could have been prevented,” PUDR said. In the presence of repressive state policies, there can be no hope for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Such repressive measures only serve to deepen the resentments of Kashmiris against the Indian state, which, despite specific constitutional guarantees, has failed to protect the human rights of Kashmiris. It is not, then, surprising that the recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Kashmir was met with a complete strike. If New Delhi is sincere in reconciling with the alienated Kashmiris, it would be well advised to conduct an impartial probe into the excesses of its security forces. Here the call of PUDR to democratic minds in India to break their silence and express solidarity with the families of the missing persons is not out of place. The silence of the common Indian citizen towards the state’s atrocities against Kashmiris drives them further away from mainstream Indian society. This also has a direct negative bearing on India’s efforts to normalise relations with Pakistan.

Now that tensions between India and Pakistan are considerably reduced and much of the homework has been done on a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue, India will have to put its house in order. Pakistan has always extended Kashmiris moral support for their just cause. India must understand that a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue will lead to bringing back normalcy in the subcontinent. Good relations between the two nuclear South Asian neighbours would bode well for the whole region. Kashmir is a political issue and should be resolved politically.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

Kashmir shuts down protesting Indian occupation: Want freedom, Pakistan

June 13, 2010

SRINAGAR: Even as the government ordered two parallel investigations into the death of a Srinagar boy on Friday, protests continued here for third consecutive day. Scores of people were injured in clashes as the police imposed “undeclared curfew” in several areas on Sunday.

While the police blamed stone-throwers for the death of Tufail Ahmad Mattoo, 18, during anti-government protests, residents and relatives accused the police and the CRPF of knocking him down.

On Sunday, youth took on the police and engaged them in stone throwing at Bemina and Batmaloo.

At least a dozen people were injured and the situation remained tense. Authorities imposed severe restrictions in most of the downtown areas under five police stations.

Heavily armoured vehicles with gun totting policemen patrolled the streets and barricades were erected on several roads blocking civilian movement.

Though the police denied having imposed curfew, residents claimed that the CRPF asked them to “stay indoors or face bullets”.

Life came to a standstill in entire Srinagar as a shutdown was observed to protest Mattoo’s killing.

Meanwhile, a high-level team of doctors, constituted by the government, is studying autopsy reports and will ascertain whether a shell, bullet or a stone hit Mattoo.

A police team headed by Deepak Kumar, Deputy Inspector-General, Kashmir range, has also begun an investigation. Inspector-General, Kashmir zone, Farooq Ahmad said “exemplary punishment would be given to the erring personnel if found involved.”

While the police formally arrested Hurriyat hardline leader Syed Ali Geelani and sent him to the Srinagar Central Jail, his faction has called a strike for Monday in the Valley to protest Mattoo’s killing.

“The police sought judicial remand for Geelani after he was taken away from the Humhama station,” official sources said. He had been kept in jail for longer period in view of the deteriorating situation in the Valley.

In another development, the condition of another youth, Mohammad Rafiq Bangroo of Safa Kadal, deteriorated at S.K. Institute of Medical Sciences here, where he was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit. Hospital sources said Bangroo had been hit by a teargas shell in the head.

[Neo]

Premier Manmohan Singh’s befitting reception in Srinagar

June 10, 2010

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was accorded the only befitting reception in Srinagar on Monday that a leader of an occupying power deserved to get when he ventures to pay a visit to the beleaguered people: A complete closure of business houses, shops, educational institutions, banks and what have you – turning the bustling valley into an eerie, deserted vastness. There was a curfew-like situation in the various towns to underscore the Kashmiris’ strong sense of revulsion at the visit. At quite a few places, the people remained undeterred by the security measures in force for the occasion and pelted stones on the police and even clashed with them, and shouted anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

On all approaches to the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences, where he went to deliver an address on Monday, literally thousands of security personnel stood on both sides of the roads, furnishing further proof of the fear of severe public reaction to the visit and the low ratings in which the Kashmiris hold a visiting Indian leader. Should one hope that the philosophical looking Manmohan feels compelled to reflect on how the situation fitted in with the claim of the largest democracy in the world? And would he put a stop to the brutalities and oppression to which Kashmiris are routinely subjected, and honour India’s commitment to hold a free and fair plebiscite under UN auspices?

Nothing short of that could improve Indo-Pakistan relations that Dr Singh seems to be longing for “in India’s own interest”, as he put it in his speech. The assurance to better human rights situation is a mere hoax as long as the black laws remain on the statute book. The condition of eliminating the imaginary threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil does not square with the ground realities nor with the overriding demands of the larger questions at stake: the occupied people’s birthright to decide about their future and normalisation of relations with Pakistan for peace and prosperity in the region. As his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani has said, the peace process should be delinked from terrorism. Serious and meaningful talks on all outstanding issues are of utmost importance, with resolution of the Kashmir dispute, the centrepiece of enmity between the two countries, getting the first priority.

Exposing the hypocrisy of American overtures of friendship to Pakistan and blind leanings towards India is the US view, put across most recently by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake when he stated, that the real question is to get some progress on the trial of the Mumbai suspects that are in Pakistan’s custody. He does bother to hear its response that India has not provided any credible evidence of their involvement.

Under the circumstances, there are no prospects of a positive outcome of the scheduled talks and, thus, no point in holding them.

Premier Manmohan Singh’s befitting reception in Srinagar