Peoples Union for Democratic
Rights
Press Release (18th July 2016)
Press Release (18th July 2016)
The state’s war on democracy in
Kashmir
After bullets, pellets, deaths; after
curfew, clampdowns on mobile internet and on cable television, the
Indian state has further exacerbated the war on people in Kashmir.
On the night of 15 July 2016, the police raided, seized and shut
down the printing presses of two leading dailies, Rising Kashmir
and Greater Kashmir. When Budgam police raided the office of Rising
Kashmir, it seized the English and Urdu copies of Bulund
Kashmirand, it also detained the staff and harassed them. A similar
story was reported from the printing office of Greater Kashmir.
The attack on the press is quite
clearly a proof of the Indian state’s state of mind. It believes
that by gagging the press, the Kashmir story will die. Indeed, the
state has a reason to fear the Kashmir press; the local media has
identified all the 43 dead; it has reported that nearly 2200
persons have been injured so far; and that nearly 100 persons are
in a critical state because of pellet wounds to their eyes.
(www.dailyo.in) It is this story that the state is zealously trying
to gag and kill.
This war on the freedom of the press
to report the dirty war that the state is brutally carrying out in
Kashmir, is not new. It has happened in the past; in 1990, in 2008,
in 2010; and in 2013. This time it is being justified as a
‘temporary’ measure, a ‘reluctant’ decision that the state
government has imposed in order to prevent ‘multiplication of
tragedies’ that is occurring as an ‘emotional lot, very
young…get surcharged due to certain projections in the media”.
This knee-jerk reaction of the state government and its
spokesperson, Nayeem Akhtar, to blame the media for the killings in
Kashmir is a sign of the times. In curfew-ridden Kashmir where
people are dying and angry, this is the palliative that the
government call offer: the refusal to let the people know what is
happening. A refusal to let people know their own story.
On the other hand, the Centre is
hoarsely claiming that it is the people of Kashmir who are to blame
for their fate. The Minister of State, General (Retd) V.K. Singh
stated that: “Whole world knows the power of India” and knows
that India has a special recognition in the future also. Do you
want to be part of this epic-story of India?It’s my request, step
out of the crowd and direct your future.”(The Indian Express, 17
July 2016). Besides reminding the Minister of his not-so-famous
‘epic’ declarations in the past, it is time to also remind him
and his ilk, that in a ghost valley, his words have few takers.
It is heartening to note that the
crackdown on the press has been strongly protested by journalists
and media personnel in Srinagar on 16July 2016. The placards at the
protest meeting and the statement issued by newspaper editors,
printers and publishers strongly condemned the ban and vowed to
fight back. It is this spirit that the state government nor the
Centre can easily tame.
PUDR strongly condemns the Centre and
state governments for imposing this ban on the media in Kashmir.
The freedom to think, write and disseminate information is
cornerstone of any democracy , with an independent, conscious,
alive and free press as the best safeguard against violations of
fundamental rights, which must be protected and fought for, at all
costs.
Deepika Tandon, Moushumi
Basu
Secretaries, PUDR
18th July 2016
Secretaries, PUDR
18th July 2016
*************
*PUCL Press Statement
16th July 2016
16th July 2016
*Why is Kashmir boiling?*
*A call to citizens to protest an
encounter killing and brutal handling of after shocks.*
PUCL Condemns Brutal Repression of
Unarmed Protests in Kashmir and Urges the Indian State to act
within the bounds of law to end terrorism in the state.
PUCL expresses its deepest concerns
about the manner in which the Indian security establishment has
handled the protests that erupted across the Kashmir valley as a
consequence of the killing of Burhan Wani in a suspected fake
encounter last Friday, 8th July, 2016. By many accounts, Wani was
shot at from close quarters of about 4 feet in a cold blooded
murder and not in an encounter. Two other persons accompanying Wani
were also killed by a special team of the security forces. Such
cold blooded killings camouflaged as “encounter” in an alleged
gun-fight is unacceptable in a democracy. PUCL condemns both the
Central Government and the PDP led J &K government for
launching an operation to liquidate suspected or real terrorists in
fake encounters instead of respecting the rule of law and
prosecuting them.
During the last few months, many
terrorists have been killed in Kashmir without noticeable protest,
but following Burhan Wani’s killing the valley is on fire. The
widespread protests in the valley has led to the firing in which as
many as 34 unarmed Kashmiris have been killed and over 92 people
injured including those hit in the eye by the so called
`non-lethal’ weapons firing pellets, instead of bullets.
It is important for the rest of India
to ask why there is so widespread and determined protest now when
there was no protest at such a scale every time alleged terrorists
were killed? The obvious reason is that though the protesters
accept that those who fight with arms must expect to be countered
with arms as is the rule of war as well as peace, but to them, the
killing of Wani was not in a real encounter but in a fake encounter
after luring him to the place where he was killed with his two
friends. Most lamentably, the circumstances and manner of Wani’s
killing are being concealed from the people, but the people of
Kashmir know it and are seething with anger.
Some newspapers have reported the
circumstances and manner of Wani’s killing but placed it at some
obscure place. For example, The Dainik Bhaskar, Muzaffarpur edition
(11.7.2016 on page 17) has published an account of the encounter
based on an interview of Upmita Bajpayee with an officer involved
in the operation. According to the officer, a honey trap was set
with a girl known to be close to Wani. She lured him to visit her
at her house at the village Badmura. The security forces were
tipped and were also informed that the terrorists were not heavily
armed. The house was surrounded and was set on fire to force him
out, as the Islamists do not want to die in a fire as it is like
‘Dokhaj’ (Hell). As the fire raged, Wani reportedly came out
supported by two of his friends. The security forces shot him from
a distance of 4 feet. They also killed both of his friends though
they initially wanted to capture them alive but killed them, too.
The heading of news item is KHUD JAAL ME FANSA THA WANI, SENA NE
GHERA TAB NASE ME THA, 4 FEET DOOR SE MARA GOLI (Wani walked into
the trap himself, when the armed forces surrounded him, he was
inebriated, was shot from a distance of four feet ).
Kashmir would not have been on the
boil if Wani were not killed in cold blood in a fake encounter
after setting a honey trap. Most likely his death would have been
protested like other cases of killing of terrorists in a real
encounter but without the scale of current uprising.
It is important to point out that the
alleged terrorists are being treated as worse than Nathuram Godse,
who murdered Mahatma Gandhi and Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani
terrorist, involved in Mumbai terror attack of 2008. None of them
was shot dead like Wani. They were tried giving them the
opportunity to defend themselves and finally punished according to
the law. That is what the adherence to the constitution and the
rule of law mandates and is the basis of our claim to be a
civilized nation.
It is a shame that the rest of India
is not protesting against the cold blooded murder of Wani and his
friends. Their being a terrorist was not a greater crime than
Gandhiji’s murderer or Ajmal Kasab’s role in Mumbai terror
attack. Our law as reiterated by the apex court from time to time
does not permit killing of terrorists in fake encounters and treats
it as plain murder. The general indifference or support for the
killing of Wani in the rest of India smacks of a double standard
and angers and further alienates the people of Kashmir.
The PUCL demands that regardless of
the difficulties, the State must fight terrorism within the frame
-work of the constitution and the law of the land to win the trust
of the people in the fairness of the Indian State and arrest
further alienation of the Kashmiris. The lawless ways of the State
are bound to add to the legitimate anger and alienation of the
Kashmiris.
*Prof. Prabhakar Sinha
Dr. V. Suresh, *
Dr. V. Suresh, *
National President, PUCL
National General Secretary,PUCL
National General Secretary,PUCL
*************
COHR, Manipur calls for Peace and
Solidarity in Jammu & Kashmir
The Committees on Human Rights
(COHR), Manipur expresses our grief and shock to learn that the
people of Jammu & Kashmir has been experiencing human rights
violations and enormous scale of pain and grievances resulting from
the uses of excessive security forces in the ongoing agitation and
demonstration in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani,
Commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen on 8th July 2016.
The COHR, Manipur also deeply express
our concern over the abject human rights situations in J&K.
COHR further expresses our condolence and also grief and sorrow for
the lives of those 37 Kashmiri civilians who were killed and those
thousand of civilian injured, including those who lose their sights
in the heinous and merciless violations perpetrated by the security
forces in the past one week in Jammu & Kashmir. The continued
imposing of curfew in many parts of the Kashmir valley and
indiscriminately firing of rubber bullet, shelling of tears gas,
pellet and bullet guns firings against civilians, protesting the
violations, is a clear instance of violation of both human rights
and International humanitarian laws. The Committee on Human Rights
(COHR), Manipur would like to emphasize the need to usher in
peaceful co-existence and solidarity in the region.
The COHR would like to appeal all the
concerned authorities including United Nations (UN) whose
representatives are based in J&K, the Government of India and
neighboring country Pakistan to initiate all steps necessary to
resolve the ongoing burning human rights crisis, that mainly
affecting the inherent rights of civilians, including old aged,
men, women, children and youths in Jammu & Kashmir.
The Government of India should fully
respect the international humanitarian and human rights laws
according to the UN resolution in Jammu and Kashmir.
(Phulindro Konsam)
Chairman Committee on Human Rights (COHR), Manipur, India.
Chairman Committee on Human Rights (COHR), Manipur, India.
No comments:
Post a Comment