With meticulous planning then mass arrests and ‘torture’, Kashmir’s autonomy was lost

[Pakpak]

When Jammu and Kashmir’s governor addressed the world in a press conference on 4 August, people in the Muslim-majority valley were worried.

After decades of bubbling unrest in the most highly militarised region on the planet, they knew the signs were there that something big was happening. But when the governor was asked, he told the media that it was simply “unnecessary panic” created by “rumour mongering”.

He had lied. The next day, the Modi administration announced that Kashmir’s constitutionally enshrined autonomy was being unilaterally withdrawn, and the state was being downgraded and split into two “union territories”.

The news sent shockwaves across India and the region – but in Kashmir itself, a carefully orchestrated communications and travel lockdown allowed the government to claim that the situation remained “normal”.

Now, as the first detailed allegations emerge of torture and abuse by the security forces maintaining the lockdown in the region, The Independent can trace the events that led to the end of Kashmir’s special status.

Rewind to 26 July, and the first sign of the groundwork being laid by the Indian government was a redeployment of an additional 100 companies – around 10,000 soldiers – to a region already saturated with security forces.

The move was issued under the pretence of countering the militancy in the region, even though the number of militant attacks had come down in recent months.

After a few days, another 180 companies were sent to the valley, but this time home secretary Shaleen Kabra gave the excuse that there was specific intelligence of an imminent terror attack around the annual Hindu pilgrimage to Amarnath Temple in the Himalayas.

The order was followed by another advisory notice, issued by the Modi government and again citing the terror threat, asking tourists and pilgrims to leave the valley immediately for their own safety.

Meanwhile, the influx of troops was creating panic and confusion on the streets of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital.

Footage obtained by The Independent shows worried students turning up at their college buildings and accommodation only to discover that they had been commandeered by the army to house the security forces.

Part-time students who attend the Indira Gandhi National Open University on Sundays travelled for hours to reach college on 4 August only to find the gates shut.

Shabana Wani, a 28-year-old woman who travelled almost 70km to attend college that day, said she called her professor. “I asked him about shutting the college, he said they didn’t have any proper orders, they just received the call to close immediately as forces we supposed to take the college.”

At the same time, doctors say, the authorities ordered all major hospitals to conduct an immediate stock-taking exercise. Hospital employees told The Independent they were largely unable to give an accurate count of their supplies in the short span of time provided.

The preparations led to a climate of hostility towards non-locals. Videos show migrant workers from the rest of India flocking to taxi ranks leaving Srinagar with only the luggage they can carry, while non-local students at the National Institute of Electronics and Information and Technology were picked out and taken away from a hostel by forces – possibly for their own safety.

The communications lockdown, in force since 4 August, meant that the scale of the preparations was not appreciated at the time, and only official statements such as those from the governor, insisting everything was OK, were widely circulated.

The announcement on 5 August, that the government was reading down Article 370 of India’s constitution, meant the worst nightmare of many Kashmiris had come true.

An angry backlash was expected. But visiting the most restive districts of southern Kashmir, The Independent heard allegations from residents that security forces resorted to extreme brutality and public humiliation in order to snuff out any unrest at source.

People in Nadapora Parigam, an area of the Pulwama district where a deadly suicide bombing killed 40 paramilitary officers in February, said that local boys were tortured by the security forces on the night of 5 August, hours after the Article 370 announcement was made.

Mohammad Yasin Bhat, 22, said he was dragged out of his bed at midnight by soldiers and brought out of his home to the main road, where he was made to stand naked in line with 11 other civilians.

Mohammad Yasin Bhat was dragged out of bed and beaten by security forces in the Pulwama district (Mohammad Yasin Bhat)
It became apparent that security forces passing through the neighbourhood had been pelted with stones earlier in the day, and the troops were rounding up youths – seemingly at random – to find the culprits.

The officer in charge began by asking Yasin about his views of the Article 370 decision, he said. “I could sense the tension around, so, for my own safety, I said ‘we are happy – it is a good decision’. But I knew he didn’t trust my words,” said Yasin.

Yasin said he and the others were asked to remove their clothes, and then beaten with canes, gun butts and kicks. He says there was no one to help them – the whole village was cordoned off, and troops were at every corner.

During the beating, “many of us fainted”, Yasin said. “They would give electric shocks in our private parts, and start the torture again.”

The family showed pictures of severe bruising on Yasin’s backside and thighs, while other families provided images of other youths who had suffered injuries.

During the beating, one man who asked for water was made to drink muddy drain water from the side of the road, Yasin said. And the final indignity came when, at the end of the beating, the naked men were made to “lie face-down on top of each other in a pile”. “It was harassment, making us feel violated,” he said.

Neighbours gave similar accounts of the incident. One man in his eighties, who asked not to be named, said he watched the beatings from beginning to end and, when the security forces left, came out onto the street to help “rescue all of the victims”.

Yasin’s is not the only allegation of torture by the security forces to have emerged since the current crisis in Kashmir began, and representatives for the Indian army have strongly denied the claims.

In a statement to the BBC, which reported on alleged beatings in Pulwama on Friday, a spokesperson said the Indian army was “a professional organisation that understands and respects human rights” and that all allegations “are investigated expeditiously”.

On the same night of 5 August, at around 2am, armed forces arrived at the residence of Mohammad Maqbool Khan in the New Colony area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Soldiers started banging on the door. Maqbool’s daughter in-law, Shazada Bano, said she rushed to open it in a panic.

“They ordered all of us to come in the courtyard. All of us gathered and they started asking our names,” she said. As soon as they heard the name of Amir Khan, a 27-year-old man who runs an electronics shop, they dragged him outside.

“We tried to stop them, but they said they want him to guide them in locating a few houses for searches, and we believed them. But that wasn’t true at all,” said Shazada.

The next morning when they reached the nearest police station, they found Amir in lockup. Maqbool asked officials the reason for his detention and they replied simply that he “will be released after 15 August” (India’s Independence Day, when a spike in unrest was expected).

That never happened, and on 18 August when Maqbool went to see Amir, the commanding officer told him he had been moved to the central jail in Srinagar.

The family travelled to the city and asked after Amir. They were told he and three other men from their village had been booked under the Public Safety Act – an emergency law that allows the authorities to imprison a person for up to two years without charge or trial.

One of the other youths detained was Shahid Ahmad Bhat, a 25-year-old boy whose father Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat is a pharmacist who lives a few metres away from Maqbool.

But unlike Maqbool, Mushtaq doesn’t even know where his son is being held. “For some time he was in the police station, later they said he has been shifted to Srinagar. At central jail, officials said he is not there. I have no idea where my son is, or if he is dead or alive,” Mushtaq said.

Government officials would not comment on specific cases, but they were not shy about the scale of the arrests carried out since 5 August decision. An official told The Independent that more than 4,000 people have been detained since the announcement, though they could not give an exact number. Many, like Shahid and Amir, face the prospect of potentially years in jail without any recourse to justice.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...utonomy-torture-claims-planning-a9086611.html


Warning: some nasty picturess

 

[AdamM97]

Independent is the latest inclusion to the list of biased media that is controlled by Pakistan.

 

[Nostalgic]

Another one from The Independent:

‘Collective punishment and imprisonment’: What is life really like inside the Kashmir state lockdown?

“Why have you come here?” asked the policeman in Hindi. He was genuinely puzzled and concerned. It was 5.45pm on a sunny Friday afternoon, and I was the only civilian in the middle of Lal Chowk, Srinagar’s large, iconic central square and shopping district. At what should otherwise have been a busy evening, there were no shops open, no shoppers, pedestrians, cars or buses. A few stray dogs lay fast asleep, undisturbed under the shade of the shuttered shops. Otherwise, it was just me and the 30-odd armed paramilitary police of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) dotted around the square, many holding riot shields and standing alongside long stretches of concertina wire. At one end of the square stood a full military bunker and an armoured vehicle with guns poking out of them – pointing in my direction.

Srinagar, and indeed the entire Kashmir valley of seven million people, is under lockdown and saturated with security forces who have blocked off traffic in large parts of the city. There is also a general strike, called by no one, but observed by everyone, so that virtually all schools, colleges, and shops are closed. The internet and mobile phone networks are dead.

This is the middle of tourist season, but the tourists were ordered out by the government along with most migrant workers a few weeks ago. Srinagar’s beautiful Dal Lake, and its iconic shikaras and houseboats are idle, and there’s a deathly quiet.

I came to Srinagar two weeks after a constitutional blitzkrieg by India’s Hindu nationalist BJP government that sought to impose a radical new status, and effectively annexe this disputed territory. Kashmir is part of the ‘unfinished business’ of the partition and decolonisation of British India in 1947 – a Muslim majority princely state whose Hindu ruler acceded to independent India rather than Pakistan under the fog of war. In Kashmir valley, which is over 95 per cent Muslim, Indian rule is manifestly resented, and there is widespread support for azaadi (independence), often erupting into street protests, stone-pelting, and strikes that last for days.

From Lal Chowk, I crossed the road, and walked over towards Maisuma, a densely populated neighbourhood that is home to separatist leader Yasin Malik, and which has been a hotbed of street protests. But the entrance to Maisuma was blocked, and the neighbourhood had been turned into a fortress by the police, as have many parts of downtown Srinagar. There are armed paramilitary cops strung out in thick numbers everywhere, in virtually every street, intersection, bridge and flyover. I’ve travelled to many conflict zones over the years, including Jaffna during the civil war, and I’ve never seen anything quite as oppressive and claustrophobic.

I have been off-grid in Srinagar for two days now, but I still keep reaching reflexively for my phone. For everyone else here, it is day 18 of groundhog day. Every day is just like yesterday: there’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, no phones, no internet, no idea when it’ll end, and the security forces are watching suspiciously from every corner. For weeks now, people haven’t been able to speak to relatives abroad or even the rest of India.

They also have little knowledge of what is going on outside, except through the maddening experience of watching Indian TV news, much of which has become part of an embedded, official disinformation campaign. To be fair, this is not true of all the Indian media, but there are a number of toe-curling propagandist English and Hindi news channels that have taken it as their patriotic duty to broadcast sunshine stories about Kashmir that have no bearing with reality: that life is back to normal and getting better every day; Kashmiris have accepted and welcomed their new fate; and that they appreciate the hard work of the security forces in keeping them safe.

New Delhi’s approach to Kashmir, and indeed to the other ethnic separatist insurgencies in sensitive border areas has long been about asserting firm military domination over a hostile population. But beyond the sticks of counter-insurgency, Indian rule always rested on a number of carrots designed to win popular consent, including economic development schemes, political autonomy under local elections, and a special status within India’s federal structure. It is another matter that these provisions are largely formalistic, have been whittled down over the years, and have generated a pliant pro-India political elite who are viewed with scorn by the public.

For long, mainstream Indian political leaders had grudgingly accepted the inevitability of negotiations with Pakistan and the Kashmiris themselves, in order to arrive at a final status agreement. Kashmir is, after all, no ordinary internal insurgency, but the subject of an international dispute, so that leaving aside the instrument of accession signed by the Maharaja, or Nehru’s failed promise of a plebiscite, India’s de facto control of the Kashmir valley rests on the basis of a military ceasefire line dating from 1948.

Within just the Indian side of that line, the complexities are significant and one has to consider the rival claims of the Dogri-speaking Hindus of Jammu, Kashmiri Muslims of the valley, the Tibetan Buddhists of Ladakh, as well as the displaced Kashmiri Hindus living outside the state. A final resolution of this kind, much discussed and debated over the decades, and the subject of many books, has always been on the cards, but perpetually postponed for some future government to handle, pending greater political will and better relations with Pakistan.

The protracted indecision of no-war, no-peace kept Kashmir on the edge in its present phase since the end of the militancy in the mid-1990s, and a deformed political spectrum evolved into existence in its shadow. Separatists and integrationists, moderates and militants co-existed within relatively predictable parameters of this ecosystem, and people operated within both these spheres in their public and private lives. After seven decades of incorporation into India, everyday acts of resistance to the occupation had come to live alongside, and blend into the everyday necessity to collaborate with it.

All this would come into question very suddenly as of 5 August. Buoyed by electoral success in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his henchman, Home Minister Amit Shah finally decided to end years of indecision by imposing a solution of their making. Shah, who is possibly the most powerful and dangerous man in India today, announced in parliament – with no prior warning or consultation – that the state of Jammu and Kashmir would no longer exist. As of 31 October, it would be carved up into two parts, its special status would be cancelled, and the state would be downgraded into a union territory, with considerably less powers, and more centrally governed from New Delhi.

At a stroke, the decades-long debate over autonomy or negotiations, and the productive ambiguity of various future options was brought to an end. India has unilaterally imposed a final solution in which there would, in fact, be no negotiations with the Pakistanis or Kashmiris about anything. Kashmir will not have more autonomy, but less so and be more closely monitored and controlled.

Amit Shah’s bill, announced for the first time ever in parliament on 5 August, passed through the upper house the same day, the lower house the next day, and was signed into an Act by the president three days later, while most of Kashmir was under lockdown and its leaders in jail. Barring a judicial challenge, it will become the new reality on 31 October. The 12 million people of Jammu and Kashmir were informed of this fate after the fact, and learned of it through television news.

Modi and Shah have timing on their side. Domestically, they are in command of the political landscape, and at the peak of their powers after a resounding election victory to a second term. The abrogation of Kashmir’s special status, enshrined in article 370 of the constitution has played well to the gallery and has been so popular in the rest of India that it has divided the opposition. The only possible threat they face is a legal challenge in the supreme court, but the chances of that are slim given its present composition.

Internationally, with Trump still in post for the next year, and Europe mired in Brexit, the calculation is that there will be no serious pressure brought to bear on India. Putin’s Russia has supported India. China has made a largely tokenistic protest. Pakistan, on the other hand, has responded in complete outrage, and Imran Khan is in many ways, being forced to respond to a massive tide of public pressure by talking tough and taking whatever measures he can against India. This too, is not necessarily a problem for Modi and Shah, for whom the idea of locking horns with Pakistan in a hostile status quo is the default comfort position.

Anticipating the fury that would erupt on the streets, Shah ordered all non-Kashmiris – tourists and workers – out of the state in early August, deployed thousands of fresh security forces to control the inevitable civilian outrage, and locked up between two to four thousand people in preventive detention.

What was really extraordinary though was that it was not just the usual suspects in the separatist and pro-Pakistan leadership of the Hurriyat Conference who were detained, but also the entire ‘moderate’ pro-India leadership, who have been New Delhi’s interlocutors and who have governed the state on its terms for decades. The former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have suffered the indignity of being taken into indefinite custody and held incommunicado themselves. At the time of writing, they remain confined in Srinagar’s Centaur Hotel without any internet or phone connections.

Kashmir is no stranger to long drawn-out general strikes. The last one, which stretched out for several months, was in 2016, after the security forces gunned down a young Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani. But in 2019, there are no separatist leaders to call a strike – they are all in jail. Neither is there any email or mobile phones to communicate and spread the word. Yet there is a general strike going on, which is widely observed voluntarily, day after day. There aren’t many demonstrations or much stone throwing yet, but there is absolutely no mistaking the suppressed fury on the streets, waiting to erupt in some form. Kashmir has been angry in the past, but this time, it is more widespread, more profound, and more reckless than before.

Everyone knows this is collective punishment and imprisonment, carried out by Hindu nationalists who make no bones about the fact that they hate Muslims and want to drive them out. With the moderates locked up and publicly disgraced by their erstwhile patrons, the options presented to Kashmiris are now are much simpler – they are the extremes of total capitulation or total defiance.

This is exactly what Shah Faesal, a young Kashmiri politician who was previously in India’s prestigious civil service corps tweeted: “You can either be a stooge or a separatist now. No shades of grey”. And it doesn’t take much to get people to say this in different ways, whenever the opportunity presents itself. Journalists, hotel receptionists, old friends, doctors, airline staff, off-duty poets, taxi drivers, and shopkeepers sitting outside their shuttered shops all said it with passion and conviction. Even Kashmiri policemen say it, but they whisper it, in the same tone of perplexed but desperate defiance. “Why are they doing this to us? … India is leaving us with no option ... What else do we have to lose now? … We will never give up or accept this …”

After a long hot day standing on the edge of Lal Chowk, the policeman also wanted to talk. He quickly became animated, holding his rifle in one hand and the riot shield in another. People didn’t understand what the CRPF had to go through. He was from Chattisgarh, some 1500km away, and he too was a victim of the communications blockade. He hadn’t been able to speak or text his family since he was deployed to Srinagar three weeks back, and his mother would be worried, glued to the news channels every hour for the latest on Kashmir. “They don’t have any idea what it’s like here, but in a way, that’s good,” he says. ”Go back to Delhi, sir. Things look okay here now, but this is just the beginning.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/indep...ckdown-prison-curfew-modi-india-a9084981.html

 

[Gullycricket]

But But people like Rhony will say this is for their own good and we are making them Indian

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#India</a>'s Abu Ghraib moment: "At the end of the beating, the naked men were made to 'lie face-down on top of each other in a pile...It was harassment, making us feel violated'" <a href="https://t.co/Jxc35SGYLr">https://t.co/Jxc35SGYLr</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kashmir?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#kashmir</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/modi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#modi</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/humanrights?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#humanrights</a></p>— Michael Deibert (@michaelcdeibert) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelcdeibert/status/1168264060166725634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[kk1992]

But But people like Rhony will say this is for their own good and we are making them Indian

Similar to what slave owner said to colored people during slavery.

Hindu hegemony hoping minority to say 'yassa massa"

 

[rhony]

But But people like Rhony will say this is for their own good and we are making them Indian

They are already Indian. I dont hear any slogans like "convert to Hinduism", "all men should go to Pakistan leaving behind their women in Kashmir". All they did was remove the special status. Nobody is special. There is food, there is water and there is medicine. Lives are not lost. I'm sure restrictions will be eased and will be back on if there is pelting. It's the responsibility of GOI to maintain peace and order and save lives. It's not the responsibility of UN or not Pakistan's. Looks like a long term plan with good preparation and ready for repurcussions. Things will pick up albeit slowly. There should NOT be bloodshed. Innocent lives should be spared, stone pelters should be punished, terrorists should be eliminated, fake 2 faced politicians should be disbanded. All of this takes time.

 

[msaaim89]

They are already Indian. I dont hear any slogans like "convert to Hinduism", "all men should go to Pakistan leaving behind their women in Kashmir". All they did was remove the special status. Nobody is special. There is food, there is water and there is medicine. Lives are not lost. I'm sure restrictions will be eased and will be back on if there is pelting. It's the responsibility of GOI to maintain peace and order and save lives. It's not the responsibility of UN or not Pakistan's. Looks like a long term plan with good preparation and ready for repurcussions. Things will pick up albeit slowly. There should NOT be bloodshed. Innocent lives should be spared, stone pelters should be punished, terrorists should be eliminated, fake 2 faced politicians should be disbanded. All of this takes time.

But they aren't Indian, they are Kashmiri. No matter how much you try to force yourself on others, they won't accept you.

 

[Abdullah719]

They are already Indian. I dont hear any slogans like "convert to Hinduism", "all men should go to Pakistan leaving behind their women in Kashmir". All they did was remove the special status. Nobody is special. There is food, there is water and there is medicine. Lives are not lost. I'm sure restrictions will be eased and will be back on if there is pelting. It's the responsibility of GOI to maintain peace and order and save lives. It's not the responsibility of UN or not Pakistan's. Looks like a long term plan with good preparation and ready for repurcussions. Things will pick up albeit slowly. There should NOT be bloodshed. Innocent lives should be spared, stone pelters should be punished, terrorists should be eliminated, fake 2 faced politicians should be disbanded. All of this takes time.

Good preparation, i.e. mass arrests and torture.

Yeah no slogans about converting to Hinduism, but discussion about changing demographics is fine...

 

[rhony]

Good preparation, i.e. mass arrests and torture.

Yeah no slogans about converting to Hinduism, but discussion about changing demographics is fine...

Changing demographics is a conjecture from the Pakistanis. Take Punjab's example. They had Khalistan movement. There was terrorism there. Once the terror was quashed did entire India descend upon Punjab?

This demographic change is important topic in Pakistan because you still have hope for a plebisite one day. I dont think anybody in India thinks that's possible. If there is no plebisite, how important is the demographic change anyway? People move based on opportunity. There are many states in India with better opportunities. I'm sure everybody agrees including the Kashmiris that Pandits need to go back to Kashmir instead of rotting in camps around Delhi. At this point that's the only agenda.

 

[rhony]

But they aren't Indian, they are Kashmiri. No matter how much you try to force yourself on others, they won't accept you.

Currently it's a union territory of India. Anybody who lives there is an Indian. If they don't want to be an Indian, I'm sure they will be told what their options are in due time.

 

[the Great Khan]

India doesn't realise the seeds it's sowing. They are planting the seeds of darkness and destruction.

I remember arguing with an Indian Muslim colleague years ago who was convinced that Pakistan would succumb to fascism and it wouldn't happen to India because of its democratic values.

I simply asked him a question. "Can you slaughter a cow for eid" his answer said it all "sure if we get permission from our Hindu neighbours"..u rested my case..

 

[Abdullah719]

Kashmiris allege night terror by Indian troops in crackdown: Associated Press

HEFF SHIRMAL, India (AP) — The Indian soldiers descended on Bashir Ahmed Dar’s house in southern Kashmir on Aug. 10, a few days after the government in New Delhi stripped the disputed Himalayan region of its statehood and launched a crackdown. Over the next 48 hours, the 50-year-old plumber said he was subjected to two separate rounds of beatings by soldiers.

They demanded that he find his younger brother, who had joined rebels opposing India’s presence in the Muslim majority region, and persuade him to surrender or else “face the music.”

In the second beating, at a military camp, Dar said he was struck with sticks by three soldiers until he was unconscious. He woke up at home, “unable to sit on my bruised and bloodied buttocks and aching back,” he added.

But it wasn’t over. On Aug. 14, soldiers returned to his house in the village of Heff Shirmal and destroyed his family’s supply of rice and other foodstuffs by mixing it with fertilizer and kerosene.

Dar’s account of violence and intimidation by Indian soldiers was not unusual. In more than 50 interviews, residents in a dozen villages in Kashmir told The Associated Press that the military had raided their homes since India’s government imposed a security crackdown in the region Aug. 5. They said the soldiers inflicted beatings and electric shocks, forced them to eat dirt or drink filthy water, poisoned their food supplies or killed livestock, and threatened to take away and marry their female relatives. Thousands of young men have been arrested.

Asked by AP to respond to the recent allegations of abuse from the Northern Command, the Indian army’s headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir. Its spokesman based in the main city of Srinagar, Col. Rajesh Kalia, dismissed the villagers’ accounts as “completely baseless and false,” and asserted the Indian army values human rights.

“There have been reports of movement of terrorists” in the areas AP visited, Kalia said. “Some youth were suspected to be involved in anti-national and disruptive activities and were handed over to police as per law of the land.”

India’s top security official, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, said the army has not been involved in the operation in Kashmir. “There have been no atrocities,” he said.

For years, there have been accusations from Kashmir residents and international human rights groups that Indian troops have carried out systematic abuse and unjustified arrests of those who oppose rule from New Delhi in the divided region that is claimed by both India and Pakistan.

But frustration, anger and fear have been growing in Kashmir in the five weeks since the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the region of most of its semiautonomous status on Aug. 5 and imposed a curfew and a communications blackout. Although some restrictions have been eased in the main city of Srinagar, with students encouraged to return to school and businesses to reopen, rural residents complain of what they perceive as a campaign of violence and intimidation that seems designed at suppressing any militancy, rebellion or dissent.

The abuses in the nighttime raids by troops began in early August as New Delhi took its action on Kashmir, according to interviews with at least 200 people. The change in status nullified decades-old constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir some political autonomy and land inheritance rights. It also downgraded the state into two federally governed territories. The actions have been challenged in India’s Supreme Court.

In the village of Parigam, the family of baker Sonaullah Sofi was asleep when army troops raided his home. The soldiers took his two sons into a street, hitting them with gun butts, iron chains and sticks, Sofi said.

“Helpless, I heard my sons scream as soldiers started beating them up mercilessly in the middle of the road,” Sofi said.

Soon, soldiers brought 10 more young men to the village square, seeking names of anti-India protesters, said Muzaffar Ahmed, Sofi’s 20-year-old son, recounting the Aug. 7 incident.

“They hit our backs and legs for three hours. They gave us electric shocks,” Ahmed said, lifting his shirt to show his burned and bruised back. “As we cried and pleaded (with) them to let us go, they became more relentless and ruthless in their beating. They forced us to eat dust and drink water from a drain.”

Since the crackdown began, at least 3,000 people, mostly young men, have been arrested, according to police officials and records reviewed by the AP. About 120 of those have been slapped with the Public Safety Act, a law that permits holding people for up to two years without trial, the records showed.

Thousands of others have been detained in police lockups to be screened for potential to join protests. Some have been freed and asked to report back a few days later. Some are only held in the daytime, released at night to sleep at home, while their parents are told to bring them back the next day.

Ahmed, the baker, said the soldiers finally left at dawn, leaving them writhing in pain. He and his elder brother along with at least eight others were then bundled into a single ambulance and taken to a hospital in Srinagar.

The conflict over Kashmir has existed since the late 1940s, when India and Pakistan won independence from the British empire. The countries have fought two of their three subsequent wars over Kashmir, and each administers a portion of the region.

New Delhi initially grappled with largely peaceful anti-India movements in its portion of Kashmir. However, a series of political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown on dissent escalated the conflict into a full-blown armed rebellion against Indian control in 1989 for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistan rule or independent of both. Since then, about 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which India sees as a proxy war by Pakistan.

The region is one of the most heavily militarized in the world, patrolled by soldiers and paramilitary police. Most Kashmiris resent the Indian troop presence and support the rebels.

Now, a new generation in Kashmir has revived the militancy, challenging New Delhi’s rule with guns and social media. In February, a Kashmiri suicide attacker rammed a van full of explosives into an Indian paramilitary convoy, killing more than 40 people and wounding more than two dozen. Modi said at the time that government forces have been given “total freedom” to deal with militants.

For years, human rights groups have accused Indian troops of intimidating and controlling the population with physical and sexual abuse and unjustified arrests. Indian government officials deny this, calling the allegations separatist propaganda.

Abuses alleged by rights groups since 1989 have included rape, sodomy, waterboarding, electric shocks to the genitals, burns and sleep deprivation.

The U.N. last year called for an independent international investigation into allegations of rights violations like rape, torture and extrajudicial killings in Kashmir. India rejected the report as “fallacious.”

Parvez Imroz, a prominent rights lawyer, said the new reports of abuse in the security forces’ ongoing campaign were “disturbing.”

Fear and anger are palpable in the villages that dot the vast apple orchards, especially after sundown, when the soldiers come.

Abdul Ghani Dar, 60, said soldiers have raided his home in the village of Marhang seven times since early August, adding that he sends his daughter to another location before they arrive.

“They say they’ve come to check on my son but I know they come looking for my daughter,” Dar said, his eyes welling with tears.

Residents of three other villages said soldiers had threatened to take girls away from their families for marriage.

“They’re marauding our homes and hearths like a victorious army. They are now behaving as if they have a right over our lives, property and honor,” said Nazir Ahmed Bhat, who lives in Arihal.

In early August, soldiers came to the home of Rafiq Ahmed Lone while he was away.

“The soldiers asked my wife to accompany them for searching our home. When she refused, she was beaten up with gun butts and sticks,” Lone said. While she was being beaten, the soldiers killed their rooster, he added.

https://apnews.com/52b06a124a5a4469984793d3c208733d

In this Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, photo, a Kashmiri baker Sonaullah Sofi lifts the shirt from his son's back to show torture marks allegedly caused by Indian army soldiers at their bakery in southern village of Parigam, Indian controlled Kashmir. The main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir presents a mostly deserted and subdued look, woven in a maze of razor wire. But drive out into the rural hinterland and residents in village after village narrate horrors of regular nightly raids by Indian army soldiers. Sofi's family was asleep when army troops raided his home. The soldiers took his two sons into a street, hitting them with gun butts, iron chains and sticks, Sofi said. “Helpless, I heard my sons scream as soldiers started beating them up mercilessly in the middle of the road,” Sofi said. ( AP Photo/Aijaz Hussain)

In this Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, photo, a Kashmiri baker Sonaullah Sofi displays a photograph of his son after he was allegedly tortured by Indian army soldiers at their bakery in the southern village of Parigam, Indian controlled Kashmir. The main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir presents a mostly deserted and subdued look, woven in a maze of razor wire. But drive out into the rural hinterland and residents in village after village narrate horrors of regular nightly raids by Indian army soldiers. Sofi's family was asleep when army troops raided his home. The soldiers took his two sons into a street, hitting them with gun butts, iron chains and sticks, Sofi said. “Helpless, I heard my sons scream as soldiers started beating them up mercilessly in the middle of the road,” Sofi said. ( AP Photo/Aijaz Hussain)

In this Monday, Aug. 26, photo, A Kashmiri man Mohammed Abdullah, center, sits with family members at their home and talks to reporters about his grandson who was picked up in a nocturnal raid recently and shifted to a jail in India’s northern city of Agra, in southern Karimabad village, Indian controlled Kashmir. The main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir presents a mostly deserted and subdued look, woven in a maze of razor wire. But drive out into the rural hinterland and residents in village after village narrate horrors of regular nightly raids by Indian army soldiers. The abuses in the nighttime raids by troops began in early August as New Delhi took its action on Kashmir, according to interviews with at least 200 people. The change in status nullified decades-old constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir some political autonomy and land inheritance rights. (AP Photo/Aijaz Hussain)

In this Monday, Aug. 26, photo, A Kashmiri man Mohammed Abdullah sits with his daughter at their home and talks to reporters about his grandson who was picked up in a nocturnal raid recently and shifted to a jail in India’s northern city of Agra, in southern Karimabad village, Indian controlled Kashmir. The main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir presents a mostly deserted and subdued look, woven in a maze of razor wire. But drive out into the rural hinterland and residents in village after village narrate horrors of regular nightly raids by Indian army soldiers. The abuses in the nighttime raids by troops began in early August as New Delhi took its action on Kashmir, according to interviews with at least 200 people. The change in status nullified decades-old constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir some political autonomy and land inheritance rights. (AP Photo/Aijaz Hussain)

In this Monday, Aug. 26, photo, a Kashmiri woman points her finger to a bullet mark allegedly caused by firing by an Indian army soldier who recently raided her home to arrest her young son in southern Karimabad village, Indian controlled Kashmir. The main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir presents a mostly deserted and subdued look, woven in a maze of razor wire. But drive out into the rural hinterland and residents in village after village narrate horrors of regular nightly raids by Indian army soldiers. The abuses in the nighttime raids by troops began in early August as New Delhi took its action on Kashmir, according to interviews with at least 200 people. The change in status nullified decades-old constitutional provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir some political autonomy and land inheritance rights. (AP Photo/Aijaz Hussain)

FILE- In this Friday, Aug. 30, 2019, file photo, a masked Kashmiri protester shouts freedom slogans in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Frustration, anger and fear have been growing in Kashmir in the five weeks since the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the region of most of its semiautonomous status on Aug. 5 and imposed a curfew and a communications blackout. Although some restrictions have been eased in the main city of Srinagar, with students encouraged to return to school and businesses to reopen, rural residents complain of what they perceive as a campaign of violence and intimidation that seems designed at suppressing any militancy, rebellion or dissent. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File)​

 

[Lonewarrior]

for indians its a fake news.

 

[Majestic_Inzi]

for indians its a fake news.

and when the kashmiris react they blame pakistan. Unbelievable....

How do these army officials sleep at night especially with all the human rights abuse they cause.

 

[msaaim89]

Cowardly army. Attacking civilians and that too at night.

If this is the peak of the indian armed forces, it explains the age long subjugation.

 

[kk1992]

for indians its a fake news.

You won't see them clicking on this thread and condemning it, rather will try to find ways to justify it.

 

[Lonewarrior]

You won't see them clicking on this thread and condemning it, rather will try to find ways to justify it.

we call them Spin Doctors for that.

 

[IndianHero]

I am really sorry to hear his ordeal and I would like condemn the actions of our army.

But the article also says his brother joined "rebels" , in other words militants (in sane world) who target & kill innocent civilians ! If they are only rebels they shouldn't kill innocent civilians right ? So clearly this is one-sided story isn't ? Terrorism has destroyed lives of ordinary kashmiris !

For ex: Few days back a truck driver (innocent) killed by stone pelters or terrorists sympathisers.


U will not see sons of geelanis, syed sallauddins joining these "rebels" instead they provoke & make innocents join these organisations

 

[Lonewarrior]

I am really sorry to hear his ordeal and I would like condemn the actions of our army.

But the article also says his brother joined "rebels" , in other words militants (in sane world) who target & kill innocent civilians ! If they are only rebels they shouldn't kill innocent civilians right ? So clearly this is one-sided story isn't ? Terrorism has destroyed lives of ordinary kashmiris !

For ex: Few days back a truck driver (innocent) killed by stone pelters or terrorists sympathisers.


U will not see sons of geelanis, syed sallauddins joining these "rebels" instead they provoke & make innocents join these organisations

maybe his bro joined the rebels, but he didnt. so what crime he did ?

 

[IndianHero]

maybe his bro joined the rebels, but he didnt. so what crime he did ?

Nothing ! That was the reason I condemned the torture done to him.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Countries have used fighter jets, helicopter gunships, armed drones, missiles to attack terrorists. Killing innocent people. At that time it was anti terror ops.

 

[Waseem]

and when the kashmiris react they blame pakistan. Unbelievable....

How do these army officials sleep at night especially with all the human rights abuse they cause.

The evil brain behind most of these brutalities is hinduvta terrorist Ajit Doval who also linked Kashmir issue with Pakistan and apparently all the mess in Kashmir is not because India decided to take away rights of Kashmiris but it's because Pakistan sent fighters to Kashmir They consider Kashmir integral part of India but when a Kahsmiri reacts to Indian brutality, it's because of Pakistan??? Amazing how they manage to sell these lies to Indian public who have been brainwashed to an extent where they believe nothing but their own govt.

 

[Majestic_Inzi]

The evil brain behind most of these brutalities is hinduvta terrorist Ajit Doval who also linked Kashmir issue with Pakistan and apparently all the mess in Kashmir is not because India decided to take away rights of Kashmiris but it's because Pakistan sent fighters to Kashmir They consider Kashmir integral part of India but when a Kahsmiri reacts to Indian brutality, it's because of Pakistan??? Amazing how they manage to sell these lies to Indian public who have been brainwashed to an extent where they believe nothing but their own govt.

Hindus are not thick just deep hatred for muslims. Eventually kashmir will be free..

 

[Waseem]

Hindus are not thick just deep hatred for muslims. Eventually kashmir will be free..

I am literally shocked how so many educated Indians are in love with this hate filled goon Modi who literally has NOTHING to offer except creating more divisions amongst Indians (let alone India and Pakistan). He could be a good politician as you often find him being dramatic using his mother and exploiting religious sentiments but NEVER came across as mature & competent leader. The only positive I can find is that he belongs to an average family and it's an achievement he made this far.

 

[PakLFC]

Yet we have Indian people saying all is good and well? What's wrong with these fools? Now they will say these pics were doctored by the ISI or the entire valley are terrorists.

 

[blackanhyellow]

I am literally shocked how so many educated Indians are in love with this hate filled goon Modi who literally has NOTHING to offer except creating more divisions amongst Indians (let alone India and Pakistan). He could be a good politician as you often find him being dramatic using his mother and exploiting religious sentiments but NEVER came across as mature & competent leader. The only positive I can find is that he belongs to an average family and it's an achievement he made this far.

From my Indian friends, my understanding is that majority of Indians support BJP due to there not being any other alternative. The only other major part was congress, and people are tired of them. They were ruling for a long time and there was a lot of corruption and incompetence.

They also said (I dont know if this part is true) that even many muslims voted for BJP.

 

[cricketjoshila]

I am literally shocked how so many educated Indians are in love with this hate filled goon Modi who literally has NOTHING to offer except creating more divisions amongst Indians (let alone India and Pakistan). He could be a good politician as you often find him being dramatic using his mother and exploiting religious sentiments but NEVER came across as mature & competent leader. The only positive I can find is that he belongs to an average family and it's an achievement he made this far.

How did you decide what Modi has to offer Indians? How did you decide his competency and Maturity?

Are you a Resident of India?

 

[msaaim89]

Yet we have Indian people saying all is good and well? What's wrong with these fools? Now they will say these pics were doctored by the ISI or the entire valley are terrorists.

They won't say anything because they don't care about Kashmiris.

 

[Abdullah719]

'They gave me electric shocks in a dark room': Screams in the night in occupied Kashmir

The soldiers came after midnight, Abid Khan says, his hands trembling, one of around two dozen young men in just one part of occupied Kashmir who say they have been tortured by the Indian army.

The alleged abuse, residents say, is aimed at creating a climate of fear after India stripped the long-restive, blood-soaked Himalayan region of its autonomy on August 5.

Khan, 26, from Hirpora village in Shopian district, says he was dragged out and blindfolded along with his brother, who has learning difficulties, on August 14.

“They gave electric shocks to my brother right on the road outside. I heard him scream painfully,” Khan told AFP, showing marks on his arms, legs and buttocks.

Once inside the nearby Chowgam army camp, Khan said soldiers stripped him naked, tied up his legs and wrists, suspended him and beat him with rods.

The camp major, Khan said, accused him of inviting Riyaz Naikoo from Hizbul Mujahideen — one of several armed groups fighting Indian rule — to his recent marriage.

An uprising in occupied Kashmir has killed tens of thousands since 1989, mostly civilians.

“I kept repeating that was not true,” Khan said. “Then they gave me electric shocks again on my genitals and wounds. One of them said 'I will make you impotent'.”

After being released at dawn and barely able to stand, Khan says he kept vomiting for 10 days and only managed to start moving around again after 20 days.

“I can't eat properly anymore,” he said. “I don't go into the room my wife sleeps in anymore [...] It's better to die with a bullet than undergo such torture.”

'People-friendly'

New Delhi says its Kashmir lockdown since last month, with mobile service and the internet still snapped in most areas, is to prevent “terrorists” from stirring up trouble.

India's national security advisor has denied that the military has committed any atrocities, a statement echoed by Col Rajesh Kalia, an army spokesman in Kashmir.

“All counter-terrorist operations are conducted in the most professional and people-friendly manner. Allegations of manhandling levelled against the army are completely baseless,” Kalia told AFP.

But people in Hirpora say they often hear screams from the army camp at night.

Three other villagers told AFP they were also tortured. In total, around two dozen young men in the villages of Shopian told similar stories.

“The army is making examples of two or three young men from each village,” said one resident of Shopian who has compiled a list.

The pattern is often of soldiers raiding homes, taking identity cards and mobiles and telling young men to report to the camps to retrieve them.

One 21-year-old, who declined to be named but shared with AFP photos of his wounds, said he has reported to the Pahnoo camp three times since August 27 and was abused each time.

An officer accused him of giving food to Kashmiri fighters and then offered him money for information, he said. Another time, he was grilled about a former classmate who is now a fighter.

“They gave me electric shocks inside a dark room for about two hours,” the man said, showing scars on his forearm.

'Come back with names'

Obaid Khan, also 21, from Gugloora village said he had to go to the same camp to retrieve his ID and phone on August 26.

“Eight soldiers kept beating me with rods for a long time. Before they let me go, they asked me to come back with names of stone throwers in my village,” he said, referring to protesters who clash with security forces.

Sajjad Hyder Khan, a local official in Pinjoora village, told AFP he has seen a list of 1,800 people detained by police and soldiers from Shopian alone, one of the four districts in the southern Kashmir Valley.

Not far from his home in Shopian town, five soldiers in black with “COMMANDO” on their sleeves and carrying assault rifles were going house to house, seeking details of residents.

“In my humble subdued voice, all I can say is that the pressure is there in order to prevent people from protesting,” said Khan, the Pinjoora official.

And it has worked.

The official added: “There has been no stone pelting on the soldiers since August 5.”

https://www.dawn.com/news/1505539/t...room-screams-in-the-night-in-occupied-kashmir

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“They have unleashed savagery here. They even knocked down trees. We have been terrorised.”<br><br>New reports of torture have emerged from India-administered Kashmir following the removal of the region’s autonomy <a href="https://t.co/tOpQUV3K8n">pic.twitter.com/tOpQUV3K8n</a></p>— TRT World (@trtworld) <a href="https://twitter.com/trtworld/status/1174035290815467521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"I thought it would be my last night."<br><br>New reports of torture are emerging from Kashmir everyday.<br><br>Stripping people naked in the street, brutal beatings with rods, sticks and cables, electric shocks & being hung upside down for prolonged periods.<a href="https://t.co/qEcH7EHZSd">https://t.co/qEcH7EHZSd</a></p>— Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) <a href="https://twitter.com/arjunsethi81/status/1178638831513419776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[kk1992]

Last 70 years with torture and marginalization couldn't stop Kashmiri stop fighting for their struggle.

Does anyone believe that, a religious nut, RSS member, the Indian PM would?

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Reyaz Ahmed, Shopian: Beaten with batons, water forced down throat, electric shock to genitals and toe, hung upside down. Hospital documents show beating in gluteral region, multiple bruises over body, nausea vomiting at the time of arrival at hospital <a href="https://t.co/NGEmbuZhBr">https://t.co/NGEmbuZhBr</a> <a href="https://t.co/4Odf2qUQXh">pic.twitter.com/4Odf2qUQXh</a></p>— Niha Masih (@NihaMasih) <a href="https://twitter.com/NihaMasih/status/1178694236855603200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Abdullah719]

'In Kashmir, Army Relays Tortures on Loudspeakers, Slaps UAPA on Stone-Pelters'

Jaipur: An 11-member team comprising advocates, trade unionists, human rights activists and a psychiatrist visited Kashmir between September 28 and October 4 this year. The trip, largely to gauge the situation in the region since the reading down of Article 370 on August 5, gave the visitors the impression of a ‘determined and systematic effort’ on the part of the Centre being in play, to ‘portray a sense of normalcy in the Valley.’

This, said the team while releasing their findings in a report titled Imprisoned Resistance at New Delhi, was largely due to justify the Centre’s unilateral action of snatching the autonomy of the Kashmiri people.

“The Indian government and the mainstream media have consistently propagated normalcy by showing images of traffic flow in Srinagar that were created artificially to be later recorded by drone cameras,” reads the resultant report.

Communication blockade and restricted mobility

The report made several notes on how movement and communication had been severely clamped down upon in the valley.

“Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation has suspended operations since August 5. Only those with private vehicles are able to travel, that too with much difficulty given the barbed wires at multiple locations. Though landline services were eventually restored, we learnt that very few houses actually have functioning landlines.”

Health facilities only for a few

Besides this, the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in Kashmir were found barely working because of which people had to make the arduous journey to reach Srinagar for treatment. Even after the schools were opened, parents were not willing to send their kids to schools, both in a gesture of protest as well as in fear for the safety of their children.

Curbing freedom of expression

Highlighting the troubled situation of the press in Kashmir, the report put forth that many reporters have been laid off as the news organisations have been unable to pay them salaries.

“There is constant surveillance and policing at the media centre in Srinagar and at the Srinagar Press Club, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in which journalists could not possibly function with any semblance of independence,” a journalist told the team.

“People unanimously communicated their anger and the sense of betrayal felt by them, to a major part, towards the bias and false reporting by the Indian mainstream media, and also towards the silence of the local media over the hardships, human rights violations and tragedies faced by the people, which were not making it to the newspapers,” the report states.

Overpowered by armed forces

The degree of surveillance and control by the Army has unprecedentedly been on the rise since August 5. Armed forces now barge into houses at any time.

“Since August 5, 2019, armed forces have been conducting raids on villages and localities in the city almost every night, and most definitely if there is any protest or incident of dissent on the part of the people. Villagers are sleepless because of the night raids, harassment, humiliation and torture. People said that the forces barge into the village while screaming abuses and throwing stones at the houses,” reads the report.

Illegal detentions under PSA and slapping of UAPA in stone pelting cases

Numerous cases of illegal detentions of minors and adults alike were encountered by the fact finding team.

“There are numerous cases of torture by the armed forces. In some instances, the tortures are made audible through loudspeakers so that other people can hear the victim’s screams. There have also been deaths due to tear gas shelling at protesters. What remains a big question in this situation is, when the armed forces and other bodies of the state are indulging in such violations, where is the innocent victim supposed to go for redressal?” states the report.

Also read: Media Reports Allege ‘Brutal Torture’ by Security Forces in Kashmir

Advocates in Kashmir have boycotted regular court proceedings since most of their elected representatives in the Bar Associations of the High Court and the districts have been arrested and detained under PSA, while others have been threatened with the same fate if they spoke against the Modi government’s unilateral decision on Article 370.

Between August 5 and September 30, more than 330 habeas corpus petitions had been filed.

In many instances, the draconian Public Safety Act is being slapped arbitrarily on people. Local reports suggest that more than 13,000 people have been unlawfully detained and most of them are being transferred outside Jammu and Kashmir, in order to prevent family members and advocates from appearing for them.

An advocate from the TADA court told the team the police is invoking UAPA even in stone pelting cases. He also informed that in many cases, even after the accused secures bail, the Station House Officers don’t execute bail orders and the trials get adjourned since witnesses in most of the cases are unable to reach courts.

Clampdown causing trauma

The team also observed that the blatant abuse of power, violent aggression and extreme forms of abuse (physical, sexual and emotional) unleashed on the Kashmiri people has caused deep and destructive trauma that may take generations to heal.

Not only has it caused extreme suffering and a plethora of mental health disorders of unprecedented proportions, it has also manifested in the seething anger, acute polarisation and paranoia, a complete lack of trust and hardening of attitude towards India.

The way forward

The report also suggested that the Modi government, in order to find a lasting and peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue, “Must recognise that a dispute exists between people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian government; repeal the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990; withdraw all army and para-military forces from civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir; and open a transparent unconditional dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their representatives so as to address their aspirations to determine and define their own destinies through democratic means and to find a political solution that respects the democratic will of the people in accordance with human rights and international law.”

“Between August 5 and 6, 2019, the Modi government issued two presidential orders that…effectively dismantled the limited protection afforded to Jammu and Kashmir in self-governance, territorial integrity and the collective rights to land and livelihood,” it said.

https://thewire.in/rights/kashmir-fact-finding

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Modi isn’t just banning foreign journalists & blocking the internet in Kashmir.<br><br>Local journalists who speak truth to power & document the atrocities there are being viciously beaten by the police.<a href="https://t.co/9ecIXKeeEP">https://t.co/9ecIXKeeEP</a></p>— Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) <a href="https://twitter.com/arjunsethi81/status/1192977352768262144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Mueez]

Ya Allah please help those who are suffering in Kashmir.

Ameen.

 

[Hermoine Green]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Death of religious freedom. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kashmir?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kashmir</a> <a href="https://t.co/vxe9kUPVn9">https://t.co/vxe9kUPVn9</a></p>— FJ (@Natsecjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1193162115848257538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

That fellow who used to post daily from Kashmir has never been back since the clampdown. I forget his user name now, but he was a regular. Hope he is still alive and well.

 

[kk1992]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Death of religious freedom. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kashmir?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kashmir</a> <a href="https://t.co/vxe9kUPVn9">https://t.co/vxe9kUPVn9</a></p>— FJ (@Natsecjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1193162115848257538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The only way for RSS/ BJP sanghi to make Indian bharat again.

 

[Hermoine Green]

That fellow who used to post daily from Kashmir has never been back since the clampdown. I forget his user name now, but he was a regular. Hope he is still alive and well.

There were 2,3 guys. [MENTION=131678]Madplayer[/MENTION] and other one was [MENTION=132658]m.shah[/MENTION] and [MENTION=136874]Yatoo[/MENTION]

 

[waheed_sofi]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I could not recognize Omar in this picture. Am feeling sad. Unfortunate that this is happening in our democratic country. When will this end ? <a href="https://t.co/lbO0PxnhWn">pic.twitter.com/lbO0PxnhWn</a></p>— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/MamataOfficial/status/1221040291383136256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>