Govt shares dossier on ‘war crimes’ in IIOJK

131-page document contains reports of 32 human rights watchdogs and 14 reports by Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said Pakistan had completed its dossier on the Indian forces’ human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Addressing a press conference alongside National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, the foreign minister said the country would share this dossier with the international community to expose the Indian government, which had deployed 900,000 soldiers in the occupied territory to oppress its residents.

The 131-page dossier contains reports of 32 human rights watchdogs and 14 reports by Pakistan in an apparent bid to ensure impartiality, the minister told reporters.

According to Qureshi, the dossier listed "solid proof" of extrajudicial killings through fake encounters and false flag operations by the Indian army.

The document also underscored how the Indian government had linked Kashmir's legitimate struggle for independence to terrorism, he added.

The minister demanded that the international community, including the United Nations and its relevant human rights machinery and civil society organisations, fulfil their obligations towards Kashmiris by playing their part to “end the Indian rule of tyranny and oppression”.

“We expect the United Nations to compel the government of India to allow free access to special procedure mandate holders of the UN Human Rights Council for independent investigations of human rights violations.”

The dossier covers accounts of 3,432 cases of war crimes in which 1,178 troops have been found to be involved, including one major general, four inspectors general, seven deputy inspectors-general, five brigadiers, 31 colonels and 188 majors and captains.

The minister also demanded that the UN record the names of individuals and units involved in these war crimes and impose sanctions on them.

“We expect the EU, UK and others to impose sanctions on India under their specific global human rights sanction regimes for perpetrating state-sponsored war crimes.”

The document stated that as Indian brutalities in IIOJK had largely remained unreported, “a comprehensive dossier… has been compiled which underscores that Modi government continues to obliterate Kashmiri indigenous identity due to differences in religion, culture, ethnicity and political views”.

The dossier read that “human rights violations have reached epic proportions” after the Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power.

Since 1989, over 96,000 extra-judicial killings, around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries were recorded. Moreover, 11,250 women were raped, around 23,000 widowed and over 108,000 children orphaned.

The document also provided details of the 8,652 unmarked mass graves that have been identified in 89 villages of IIOJK.

Read more ‘Over 3m fake domiciles issued to non-Kashmiris to change IIOJK demography’

Another key factor highlighted by Pakistan was the suspected use of chemical weapons by India against Kashmiris. It was pointed out that the bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by the Indian troops were completely beyond recognition.

The document read that the use of chemical weapons was in complete contravention to the ‘Chemical Weapons Convention’ and that it necessitated “an impartial international investigation”.

The dossier further maintained that Kashmiris were also being used as human shields by positioning women and children in the line of fire during encounters, making them sleep at military camps, forcing them to dig minefields and tying youth to military jeeps.

Pakistan said India had resorted to the use of snipers and cluster ammunition to target innocent Kashmiris living along the Line of Control.

As many as 16 Kashmiris, including a nine-year-old, had been killed by Indian snipers.

New Delhi has also been violating the international ban on the use of cluster ammunition, it stated.

In July 2019, India deliberately targeted 14 villages along the Line of Control with cluster ammunition that caused four deaths and 14 injuries.

The minister urged the international community not to show “callousness and apathy towards the Kashmiris”. He said the world must force India to comply with its international and moral obligations and allow Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in international law and the relevant UNSC resolutions.

Pakistan also demanded that the Indian government must immediately stop human rights violations against innocent Kashmiris; proceed against the perpetrators highlighted in the dossier and bring them to justice; halt demographic change and apartheid by lifting military and digital siege; release all political prisoners; and allow unhindered access of UN to IIOJK.

The dossier also shared the GPS coordinates of five ISIS training camps. It said one such camp was located in Gulmarg, three in Rajasthan and one in Uttarakhand. “The latitudes and longitudes of these ISIS camps have been included in the dossier,” the minister said.

Pakistan also highlighted Indian attempts to change the demographic structure of the IIOJK.

It said contrary to the Geneva Convention, after the introduction of the new ‘Domicile Law’ in March 2020, India has already granted over 4.2 million domiciles (31.5% of the 13 million population of the territory).

The document pointed out that a delimitation commission was constituted in March 2020 with the singular purpose to enhance Hindu representation and likely installation of a Hindu chief minister.

Following the amendments in property laws, all Indians were now entitled to purchase land in the disputed territory with the sole objective of converting the proportion of the large Muslim population into a minority.

The dossier pointed out that six draconian laws – Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act; Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, Jammu & Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, Prevention of Terrorism Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act 2019 – empowered the Indian troops to declare anyone a “terrorist and arbitrarily detain without any charge for a period of up to seven years”.

The report noted that Indian forces were subjecting Kashmiris to the worst kinds of torture. “[A total of] 432 case studies revealed that Indian forces inflicted torture as a tool of intimidation and coercion.”

Since 2014, more than 30,000 people have faced 31 forms of torture, including water-boarding; forced starvation, sleep deprivation and burning of bodies.

The report also identified 239 torture cells across the occupied region – the majority of which have been established in northern Kashmir with 65 camps in Baramula and 53 in Srinagar.

Of these 144 were controlled by the Indian Army, 52 by police, 19 by the Indian Special Operations Group and 24 by other agencies.

Read full dossier here