Scrap Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
In the ending 80s, militant insurgency started in Kashmir. Since then we have been seeing a lot of changes. We have lost a lot of people. And the successive governments at New Delhi and our puppet state governments are responsible for it. They never voiced their concern against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and neither they did they think of relocating the security forces from civil areas. Gradually Kashmiris got frustrated and their anger started brewing up against India and all the Indians. Also one of the major ingredients of hatred against India was that Kashmiris were being falsely implicated in terrorist cases. They were shown on TV channels, particularly Hindi news channels,as arrested terrorist planning to attack this and that, and you all people lauded your police, for they had saved your lives. The officer gets a promotion and some cash reward. But think of the person who has been falsely implicated. His future is crashed and he lands in Tihar jail. I don’t say that the guys that are arrested are innocent, they have a tag which is much bigger than a terrorist. THEY ALL ARE KASHMIRIS and this is their biggest crime. In many cases, Jammu and Kashmir police gave clearance certificates to the arrestees but none of them was set free. Certain policies of Indian Government kept on mounting anger against India. The laws that prevailed in Kashmir were more anti-people than anti-terrorism.
Indian Security Forces increased their brutalities on a war footing. At the same time terrorists stepped up their attacks on the security forces. Kashmiris saw these terrorists as their saviors. The terrorists were not harming civilians but instead they were fighting against the oppressors. This got them enough support. Had the Indian government acted on time and clipped the special powers of its security forces, the situation wouldn’t have been so bad today. But instead they chose to kill terrorists as well as civilians. Other Indian citizens supported this tyranny and called all Kashmiris as terrorists. This further alienated Kashmiris from India. Fake encounters started appearing in the valley. The security forces used to arrest youth for questioning, and they never returned. They used to kill the youth during the night time and pumped bullets into their faces to mutilate their faces beyond recognition. The last step would be branding them as Lashkar e Toiba terrorists who were Pakistani nationals. This had become a full fledged industry now, and the victims were even supplied now for costs. Last year only, a thousand unidentified graves were found and an SSP was arrested for many fake encounters. What happened to the case? no one knows. Imagine an Assistant Sub-Inspector being promoted to the rank of SSP. They get promoted by killing civilians and branding them as PAKISTANI TERRORISTS.
The security forces are known for crime against women. Last year only, in the distant district of Kupwara, a female teacher was a victim of eve teasing by security forces. One of her male colleagues objected to this, but the security forces warned him of dire consequences. On one fateful day, the security forces found that male colleague alone. They grabbed him and took him to the nearby forest and started torturing him. They chopped off 3 kilograms of meat from his body and then shot three bullets into his head. After hearing gunshots hundreds of villagers went towards the spot and saw the security personnel running away leaving him in a pool of blood.He instantly died and the security personnel fled into their camp. Despite of an enquiry ordered by the District Magistrate against this brutal murder. None of the murderer soldiers was booked, WHY? because they enjoy immunity. His only fault was that he objected to eve-teasing of his female colleague. Look at the prize he got for saving a woman’s honour.
I am not writing this post concocting stories to get readers but my conscience wants me to clear the image of Kashmiris. Kashmiris aren’t wrong but they are always wrongly quoted. While the economic blockade had been enforced, Indian Government refused to help us because it considered the NUCLEAR DEAL issue much bigger and important than the economic blockade. When Indian Government didn’t nothing to end the economic blockade, Kashmiris themselves needed to do something. Kashmiris took such a hasty step because Kashmir was choked of all essential supplies. Our RIGHT TO LIVE was hindered so we marched towards AZAD KASHMIR. There too innocent civilians were shot at. India would have full right to shoot us all if it had tried to help us earlier, but India didn’t. How come are we anti-national then?
Tags: army, human rights, Kashmir
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 am
To the comments above and on article———-Kashmir the land of meadows, mountains and lakes has been transformed into valley of death and destruction. It is appalling to see a security man of distant naga land asking a native kashmiri to prove his identity. What a tragedy has befallen on our land, its pristine water has been mixed with the blood of innocents, its glaring snowy peaks have been wounded by millions of shells of gunfire, its flowery meadows have been trampled by military boots and vehicles. The propagators of democracy and secularism has destroyed its ethos of brotherhood and harmony. Some Indian people think we are crazy, narrow-minded and fundamentalists they tell us we are ungrateful because we survive on their tax money, we want tell them this land is not barren-we are from land of agriculture and water—we can feed you-You know Mughals, afghans, Sikhs and Dogras had been running their govts and military on our money. Read historical facts. Our forests were cleansed worth billions rupees logs for railway tracts, all electricity produced here is stolen and we get nothing. It is worth billions. Under a preplan strategy we were deliberately turned into dependent and helpless people. They try to turn us into ashes but a spark from it in the form of 21st young generation will enlighten us with the flame of freedom. This is our motto.