850988

article-commentary2019
RAC0010.1177/0306396819850988Race & ClassBhat: The Kashmir conflict and human rights

Commentary
SAGE
Los Angeles,
London,
New Delhi,
Singapore,
Washington DC,
Melbourne

The Kashmir conflict and

human rights
Sabzar Ahmad Bhat

Abstract: The Kashmir conflict is one of the most longstanding and intractable −
between India and Pakistan (over Kashmir) and between India and the people of
Jammu and Kashmir (in Kashmir). The dynamic nature of the conflict affects the
lives of millions of people, across political, social, economic and cultural spheres.
Taking off from the analyses provided in ‘Memory and hope: new perspectives
on the Kashmir conflict’ Race & Class 56, no. 2 (2014), the author looks at the
massive scale of human rights violations. As he details the toll for 2018, he argues
how one should not view the conflict as simply that between India and Pakistan
over territory, but as continued and continual violations of the people of Kashmir.

Keywords: human rights violations, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir

conflict, Pakistan, Partition, plebiscite, United Nations

Conflict background
The Kashmir conflict has existed for over seventy years, since the British colo-
nial rulers left and the Indian subcontinent was apportioned between India and
Pakistan, yet the Kashmir conflict continues to be unsolved.1 And it is the major
source of tension between the two countries. The impact of the conflict on the

Sabzar Ahmad Bhat is a research scholar at the Centre for Studies and Research in Gandhian
Thought and Peace, School of Social Science, Central University of Gujarat, India.

Race & Class

Copyright © 2019 Institute of Race Relations, 1­–10
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2  Race & Class 00(0)

Indo-Pakistani relationship cannot be overestimated, with both countries view-

ing each other through a negative lens, as described by Shaheen Showkat Dar, an
expert on conflict resolution:

The Indians are viewing Pakistanis as ‘Muslims’, ‘raiders’, ‘terrorists’, ‘anti-

Indian’, ‘lifelong enemies’, and Kashmir as an ‘integral part’ of India. The situ-
ation in Pakistan is a mirror-image response. They see Indians as, ‘non-Muslims
(Kafirs)’, ‘occupiers’, ‘imperialists’, ‘anti-Muslim’, ‘eternal enemies’, and
Kashmir as a ‘jugular vein’ of Pakistan. The unresolved Kashmir conflict has
created hostile attitude. 65% of Indians have an adverse opinion about Pakistan
and consider it the greatest threat to their country. Likewise, 75% of Pakistanis
consider India more serious threat than Al-Qaeda and Taliban.2

Both India and Pakistan control a portion of Jammu and Kashmir, which is
divided along the Line of Control (LoC). They have fought four wars and devel-
oped nuclear weapons as a result of the Kashmir conflict. The conflict has both
endogenous as well as exogenous sources. The exogenous sources include the
enmity between Pakistan and India, the ineffective role of the United Nations
Security Council, and Pakistan-based militant organisations like Jaish-e-
Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The endogenous sources, on the other hand,
include the politics of Kashmir, economic backwardness, administrative failure,
corruption and unemployment.3
In addition, the government of India has consistently officially stated that
Kashmir is an integral part of India. However, Pakistan blames India for acquir-
ing Kashmir through ‘fraud and violence’. There have rarely been any compro-
mises from these opposing views over the last seventy years, resulting in greater
violence and grave human rights violations in the region.4
Further, the United Nations’ promised plebiscite for the Kashmiri people to
decide their political future was never held.5 In the same vein, Victoria Schofield
points to the fact that: ‘the Kashmiri conflict remains both a struggle for land as
well as about the rights of people to determine their future’.6 As the people of
Kashmir have struggled for the right to self-determination to decide their politi-
cal future, their human rights have been continually violated.

Human rights in Kashmir

The Kashmir Valley, once known for its amazing beauty, now hosts the bloodiest
and most densely militarised control zone on the globe. With more than 80,000
people killed in Indian counter-insurgency operations, the killing fields of
Kashmir resemble those of Palestine and Tibet.7 Schofield points out:

Statistics are difficult to verify and are frequently contested, but it is believed
that over the past 30 years an estimated 80,000–100,000 have died, mostly
young men. At least 10,000 have disappeared which potentially leaves an
 Bhat: The Kashmir conflict and human rights 3

equivalent number of half-widows – women who cannot remarry, as well as

mothers who are bereaved. There are thousands of orphans. Thousands have
been tortured, women raped. The psychological impact of the trauma which
people have faced has barely been measured, let alone treated.8

In addition, there are an estimated 7,000 mass and unmarked graves in different
parts of the Kashmir Valley.9 And the Kashmiri Hindus (also known as Kashmiri
Pandits) have suffered enormously due to the onset of conflict in the Kashmir
Valley, which has ultimately forced them to leave their homes.10
Shubh Mathur, who works closely with victims and survivors of human rights
violations in Kashmir, believes that:

Since 1989, when the movement for Kashmiri independence took the form of
an armed insurgency, more than half a million Indian troops have been
deployed there, making it one of the most highly militarized regions of the
world. Some estimates place the number of troops deployed as high as 800,000.
With a ratio of one soldier to every ten civilians, Indian counterinsurgency has
progressed as a classic dirty war, where the army treats the civilian population
as the enemy. The troops are deployed not only on the contested borders but
across the civilian areas. In this situation, human rights abuses occur on a mas-
sive scale: torture in the vast military camps and interrogation centers that
sprawl across the Valley, rape, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, the use of
civilians for forced labor and as human shields, destruction of crops and homes,
arson, arming pro-Indian militias to terrorize the population.11

Consequently, the Indian army’s response to the Kashmiri movement for the
right to self-determination has been characterised by its brutality and fierceness.
The report prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights on 14 June 2018 stated that:

In responding to demonstrations that started in July 2016, Indian security

forces used excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high num-
ber of injuries. Civil society estimates are that 130 to 145 civilians were killed
by security forces between mid-July 2016 and end of March 2018, and 16 to 20
civilians were killed by armed groups in the same period. One of most danger-
ous weapons used against protesters during the unrest in 2016 was the pellet-
firing shotgun, which is a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun that fires metal
pellets.12

The report continues:

Impunity for human rights violations and lack of access to justice are key
human rights challenges in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Special
laws in force in the state, such as the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir)
4  Race & Class 00(0)

Table 1.  2008–2018 killings in Kashmir due to conflict.

Year Armed Forces and Police Militants Civilians Yearly total

2008 151 363 157 671
2009 117 244 99 460
2010 102 201 167 470
2011 71 101 56 228
2012 36 75 32 143
2013 82 73 48 203
2014 83 99 53 235
2015 58 106 55 219
2016 104 145 146 395
2017 125 216 108 449
2018 159 267 160 586
Total 1,088 1,890 1,081 4,059

Source: JKCCS and APDP Annual Human Rights Review (2018)14

Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA) and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety
Act, 1978 (PSA), have created structures that obstruct the normal course of law,
impede accountability and jeopardize the right to remedy for victims of human
rights violations.

The year 2018 has not been that different from previous years – coverage in local,
national and international news outlets depicts stories of pain, suffering, death
and mourning.13 According to a report by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil
Society (JKCCS) and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP),
2018 was the ‘deadliest year of the last decade’ in Kashmir, as violence peaked,
resulting in the killing of at least 586 people in different incidents (see Table 1).
Among the 586 people killed, 160 were civilians, 267 were militants and 156 were
members of the Indian armed forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police Forces. The
killings of 267 militants during encounters with the armed forces and Jammu and
Kashmir Police were also the highest in the last decade.
Among the militants were fifteen top commanders of various militant outfits,
including Sameer Tiger, Sadaam Paddar, Altaf Kachroo, Tawseef Sheikh, Umar
Ganai, Manan Wani and Adnan Ahmad Lone.15 One hundred and sixty civilians
were killed during 2018, sixty of whom were shot dead by government forces,
while they tried to save the militants engaged in encounters. Two major incidents
of civilian killings shook the whole of Kashmir: seven civilians were killed by
explosive ordnance that had been left behind in Larnoo Village in the Kulgam dis-
trict; and, in December, seven civilians were killed when government forces opened
fire in Sirnoo Village in the Pulwama district.16 After the latter incident, the former
Supreme Court Justice of India Markandey Katju tweeted, ‘Congratulations to Gen.
Rawat whose soldiers killed 7 civilians in a Jallianwalabagh or My Lai type mas-
sacre in Pulwama, Kashmir. How brave of the Indian army General!’
 Bhat: The Kashmir conflict and human rights 5

Table 2.  Monthly totals of killings, 2018.

Month Armed Forces and Police Militants Civilians Monthly total

January 14 10 15 39
February 17 09 07 34
March 12 22 13 47
April 13 23 20 56
May 09 19 38 56
June 19 25 11 55
July 10 12 09 31
August 18 25 10 53
September 11 35 08 55
October 14 29 14 57
November 09 39 13 61
December 13 19 10 42
  159 267 160 586
Total Killings – 586

Source: JKCCS and APDP Annual Rights Review (2018).

May 2018 recorded the highest number of these 160 extrajudicial executions,
with thirty-eight civilians killed. The month of November recorded the highest
total number (sixty-one) of killings followed by October with fifty-seven (see
Table 2). Of the 160 civilians killed in 2018, eighteen were women, and, at least,
thirty-one children.
It should be noted that since the killing of Burhan Wani, the popular separatist
militant leader of Hizbul Mujahideen on 8 July 2018, south Kashmir witnessed
increased violence. The four districts of south Kashmir − Anantnag, Kulgam,
Shopian and Pulwana − jointly recorded the highest number of civilian killings,
eighty-five, while the north Kashmir districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and
Bandipora recorded twenty-four civilian killings and the central Kashmir dis-
tricts of Ganderbal Budgam and Srinagar recorded thirteen civilian killings (see
Table 3).
Reports of killings, violence and skirmishes featured in the headlines every
other day. One killed, two killed, three killed, five killed, seven killed and so on.
The news that got the widest coverage was when twenty people, including thir-
teen militants, four civilians and three troopers, were killed in a single day by
security forces on 1 April 2018. From newspaper reports, it is suggested that more
than 200 people were injured.17 The government of India hailed the death of the
thirteen militants in south Kashmir, calling it the ‘biggest strike of the decade’.18
Moreover, the JKCCS and APDP report also noted that:

In 2018, the government continued to use arbitrary and administrative deten-

tion like Public Safety Act (PSA) to detain dissenting individuals and Hurriyat
leaders. Hundreds of fresh detentions under PSA were reported this year.
6  Race & Class 00(0)

Table 3.  Civilian killings by district, 2018.

District Total civilian killings

Kulgam 26
Anantnag 07
Pulwama 28
Shopian 24
Srinagar 07
Ganderbal 02
Badgam 04
Baramulla 14
Bandipora 07
Kupwara 04

Source: JKCCS and APDP Annual Human Rights Review (2018).

Apart from administrative and preventive detentions, putting pro-indepen-

dence leaders under house arrest was common in 2018. People were also
detained in illegal detention at police stations and sometimes even army camps
on the pretext of questioning them.19

And the state government in Kashmir continues to exercise constraints on reli-

gious freedom and belief, frequently resorting to bans: ‘In 2018, for 12 Fridays out
of 42, prayers were disallowed in the Jamia Masjid and Muharram processions
were also disallowed.’ The Annual Human Rights Review documented 108 inci-
dents of internet blocking in Kashmir.

Recalling serious violations

Violence affects Kashmiris of all ages. Eighteen-month-old baby Hiba Nasir was
hit by pellets in her right eye by security forces as her mother tried to protect her
during clashes.20 A story that caught the world’s attention in 2018 was that of
8-year-old Asifa from the Bakerwal-Gujjar community who was gang-raped and
murdered in Kathua. As Asifa’s father told the Indian Express, ‘If they had to take
revenge, they could have picked someone else. She was an innocent child. Usey
apney haath aur paun mein pata nahin tha, ki mera daayan haath kaun sa hai aur baayan
haath kaun sa hai. Kabhi usney yeh nahin samjha ki Hindu kya hota hai aur Musalmaan
kya hota hai [She couldn’t tell her arms from her legs, couldn’t tell which hand was
right and which left. She never thought who was a Hindu, who a Muslim].’21 In
this case, the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres stated that ‘the guilty must
be held responsible’ and also described the incident as ‘horrific’.22 For the New
York Times, the incident ‘seemed another isolated, horrific episode of sexual vio-
lence in India, perpetrated against a powerless girl by brutal men. But in the
months since Asifa’s murder, the case has become another battleground in India’s
religious wars’.23
 Bhat: The Kashmir conflict and human rights 7

In the middle of 2018, one of the leading defenders of human rights in Kashmir
was murdered. On 14 June 2018, veteran journalist and founding editor of Rising
Kashmir Shujaat Bukhari was killed by an unidentified gunman. This was an
attack on the freedom of press and expression, silencing a journalist who had
always wanted to resolve the conflict through a dialogue between India, Pakistan
and the leadership of Jammu and Kashmir.

Conclusion
The unresolved status of the Kashmir conflict has had tremendous consequences
for its people, militants and military personnel, and it deserves international
attention. More than 100,000 people have been killed because of the nature of the
conflict and at least 10,000 people, mostly youth, have disappeared in custody
since 1989. There are an estimated 7,000 mass and unmarked graves across
Kashmir.
People cannot travel freely; curfews are frequently imposed in the Valley and
they cannot be sure of returning home at night. The Armed Forces Special Powers
Act gives the Indian Armed Forces the right to arrest and hold anyone alleged to
be involved in terrorist activities, which means that people cannot be certain of
getting justice from a court of law.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states
that:

There remains an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights
violations and to deliver justice for all people in Kashmir who have been
suffering seven decades of conflict. Any resolution to the political situation
in Kashmir should entail a commitment to ending the cycles of violence and
accountability for past and current human rights violations and abuses
committed by all parties and redress for victims. Such a resolution can only
be brought about by meaningful dialogue that includes the people of
Kashmir.24

In the words of A. G. Noorani, an expert on the Kashmir conflict, ‘the Kashmir

dispute has three parties – India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir. All three
must concur in the terms of its settlement.’25
January 2019
***

Postscript
Since writing this article, human rights violations in the region have escalated
further in 2019. The recent suicide bombing attack on a Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama District in South Kashmir on 14 February 2019
resulted in the death of at least fifty CRPF men and the injuring of many more
8  Race & Class 00(0)

– the heaviest loss encountered by the Indian Paramilitary forces since 1989.26 The
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has
been widely condemned. The incident has created a dangerous mood of war hys-
teria in India, leading at the time of writing to a military confrontation with
Pakistan.
Equally alarming are the continued attacks on Kashmiri students, traders
and employees living in Indian cities. Kashmiri travellers have been attacked,
shops and property burned, and vehicles destroyed in Jammu, Dehradun
and other Indian cities.27 The Kashmiri-born dean of Dehradun college has
been suspended after a rightwing mob demanded it. Furthermore, Dehradun
Alpine college and Baba Farid Institute of Technology have said that they
will not admit Kashmiri students in the next academic session. A series of
reports have revealed that several Kashmiri students have been harassed and
beaten up in the city, forcing them to flee. On 16 February 2019, over twenty
Kashmiri students locked themselves in their rooms in Dehradun after a
group of locals and fringe activists surrounded their hostel, demanding the
management ‘throw them out of their rooms’. Kashmiri traders have been
beaten up in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and public address systems were used in
Haryana and parts of Punjab to threaten Kashmiris to leave within twenty-
four hours. In this context, Mirza Waheed, a London-based Kashmiri novelist
and journalist wrote in a Facebook post on 18 February 2019, ‘I’ve been think-
ing, writing, about Kashmir, India, and Pakistan for twenty years, and I don’t
remember a time when there existed such unbridled hostility towards ordi-
nary Kashmiris.’
Moreover, it can be stated that New Delhi is restricting spaces for non-violent
dissent and free speech in Kashmir. The Indian government has carried out mass
arrests, detained political leaders, censored media, limited internet access and
imposed a ban on leading socio-religious organisations, namely the Jammat-i-
Islami of Jammu and Kashmir, on 28 February. The state administration has
picked up hundreds of Jammat-i- Islami members and booked them under pre-
ventive detention laws. Consequently, the ban on Jammat-i-Islami has resulted in
the closing of thousands of school and social service institutions that are essential
for the welfare of the poor people in the valley of Kashmir – a vindictive move
aimed at creating trouble in Kashmir.
On 19 March 2019, Rizwan Ahmad, a young school teacher from south
Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was killed inside the Air Cargo Camp, controlled by
the notorious Special Operation Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police in an extra-
judicial and custodial killing. The family of the deceased said he was ‘innocent
and killed in a cold blood’.28 This is not the first case of extrajudicial killing, and
perhaps will not be the last, as the Indian government continues to provide com-
plete impunity to armed forces in Kashmir.

20 March 2019
 Bhat: The Kashmir conflict and human rights 9

References
1 Noor Ahmad Baba, ‘Resolving Kashmir: imperatives and solutions’, Race & Class 56, no. 2
(2014), pp. 66–80.
2 Shaheen Dar, Role of Negotiations in Conflict Resolution: a way out of Kashmir conflict (New Delhi:
G B Books, 2019).
3 Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, ‘Impact of conflict on socio-economic development’, Rising Kashmir, 24
February 2017, http://risingkashmir.in/news/impact-of-conflict-on-socio-economic-devel-
opment.
4 Shakti Bhatt, ‘State terrorism vs. Jihad in Kashmir’, Journal of contemporary Asia 33, no. 2 (2003),
pp. 215–24.
5 Noor Ahmad Baba, ‘Resolving Kashmir’.
6 Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the unending war (London: IB Tauris,
2003).
7 Pankaj Mishra, ‘Introduction’, in Tariq Ali et al., Kashmir: the case for freedom (London and New
York: Verso Books, 2011).
8 Victoria Schofield, ‘Why Kashmir is still important’, Asian Affairs 41, no. 1 (2015), pp. 18–31.
9 Gowhar Geelani, ‘Kashmir: the forgotten conflict’, Race & Class 56, no. 2 (2014), pp. 29–40.
10 S. Bhat, ‘Kashmir Issue: the humanistic dimension’, Rising Kashmir, 25 March 2017, http://
www.risingkashmir.com/article/kashmir-issue-the-humanistic-dimension.
11 Sbuhb Mathur, The Human Toll of the Kashmir Conflict (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
See also Shuhb Mathur, ‘Memory and hope: new perspectives on the Kashmir conflict – an
introduction’, Race & Class 56, no. 2 (2014), pp. 4–12.
12 OHCHR, ‘Report on the situation of human rights in Kashmir’, United Nations Human

Rights, 2018, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmir
June2016ToApril2018.pdf.
13 Haroon Mirani, ‘How the year was captured in Kashmir’, Greater Kashmir, 31 December 2018,
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/2018-how-the-year-was-captured-in-
kashmir/307926.html.
14 Annual Human Rights Review 2018 is the annual review of human rights in Jammu and
Kashmir, JKCCS and APDP, 2018, http://jkccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Annual-
Report-2018.pdf.
15 Abid Bashir, ‘Bloodiest year in a decade’, Greater Kashmir, 31 December 2018, https://www.
greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/bloodiest-year-in-a-decade/307954.html.
16 Abid Bashir, ‘144 civilians killed in 2018’, Greater Kashmir, 31 December 2018, https://greater-
kashmir.com/news/kashmir/144-civilians-killed-in-2018/307971.htm.
17 Haroon Mirani, ‘How the year was captured in Kashmir’.
18 Asia Times, Security forces to make a big killing after Kashmir clashes, Asia Times, 2 April 2018,
http://www.atimes.com/article/security-forces-make-big-killing-kashmir-clashes/.
19 Annual Human Rights Review 2018, JKCCS and APDP, pp. 5–6.
20 Rifat Fareed, ‘Kashmir’s youngest pellet gun victim could lose complete sight’, Aljazeera, 7
December 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/kashmir-youngest-pellet-
gun-victim-lose-complete-sight-181206223840348.html.
21 Arun Sharma, ‘Kathua rape, murder case – a father’s anguish: “she did not know right from
left… what Hindu, Muslim?”’, Indian Express, 13 April 2018, https://indianexpress.com/
article/india/kathua-rape-murder-case-a-fathers-anguish-she-did-not-know-right-from-left-
what-hindu-muslim-5135412/.
22 Ishfaq-ul-Hassan, ‘DNA, Kathua rape and murder: lives, interrupted’, DNA, 13 May

2018, https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-kathua-rape-and-murder-lives-inter-
rupted-2614414.
10  Race & Class 00(0)

23 Jeffrey Gettleman, ‘An 8-year-old’s rape and killing fuels religious tensions in India’, The New
York Times, 11 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/world/asia/india-girl-
rape.html.
24 OHCHR, ‘Report on the situation of human rights in Kashmir’, p. 6.
25 G. Noorani, ‘Kashmir solution’, Dawn, 17 November 2018, https://www.dawn.com/

news/1446101/kashmir-solution.
26 M. Ashraf, ‘Kashmir, a bleeding tragedy!’, Greater Kashmir, 20 February 2019, https://www.
greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/kashmir-a-bleeding-tragedy/313643.html.
27 NDTV, ‘Violent protests in Jammu over Pulwama attack, curfew on, Army on standby’, NDTV,
15 February 2019, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pulwama-terror-attack-curfew-in-
parts-of-jammu-after-violent-protests-1994081.
28 ‘Awantipora teacher killed in police custody’, Rising Kashmir, 20 March 2019, http://www.
risingkashmir.com/news/awantipora-teacher-killed-in-police-custody-346285.html.