A Kashmiri delegation staged a protest outside the UN office in Geneva, condemning the systematic human rights violations committed by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the protest, held on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, highlighted the plight of torture victims and their families. The event was attended and addressed by Altaf Hussain Wani, Sardar Amjad Yousaf, Adv. Parvez Ahmed Shah, Shamim Shawl, Dr. Waleed Rasool, Ms. Gazala Habib, Ms. Haiqa, and others.
Highlighting the plight of torture victims and their families, the speakers said that thousands of innocent Kashmiris, including men and women, have been subjected to third-degree torture in prisons, interrogation, and detention centers. The Indian government, they said, has remorselessly been using torture as an ‘instrument of control’ to suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination. Referring to the structures of violence stretched all across the Kashmir valley and beyond in the form of military camps, they said that these military camps were virtually turned into torture centers where innocent Kashmiris were beaten, given electric shocks, and forced to eat dirt or drink filthy water.
Terming systematic abuse by the Indian armed forces as a grave existential threat to the local population, they said brutal and inhuman torture techniques employed by Indian troops, paramilitary forces, and police personnel have left thousands of Kashmiris disabled for life. This egregious reality of Kashmir, they said, has unfortunately escaped the attention of local and international observers.
The speakers urged the UN to intervene and pressure India to stop the bloodshed, release political prisoners, and repeal draconian laws that the apartheid regime has been using to suppress political dissent and silence legitimate political voices in the UN-recognized disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. They also demanded reparations for victims and a fact-finding mission to investigate torture cases in IIOJK. The delegation appealed to the UN to hold India accountable for its crimes in Kashmir.—KMS