Excerpts from statements of men arrested and tortured by the Army in Kashmir.
“I was hung upside down, beaten with a stick, kicked and punched and threatened with death. For hours at a time.”
The interrogation cells “are small, windowless rooms. They are unventilated and they stink... The cell was cleaned once a month... exercise consisted of being made to run by laughing soldiers. When we could not run, we would be kicked and laughed at by the soldiers.”
“See, I have scars all over my back from the whippings that went on for a month.”
Familiar? Yes, but there is a difference. These were made by people living in PoK, or “Azad Kashmir” as secessionists call it. The sadism was perpetrated by the Pakistani Army and ISI. These and more were included in a 2006 report of Human Rights Watch on PoK. Over a decade later, the situation is the same. Dr Shabir Choudhry, Director of Institute of Kashmir Affairs, affirmed this at the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council, when he said that the people of PoK are deprived of fundamental rights by Pakistan.
Do the young men demanding “azadi” and their supporters in the media and civil society who lambast the use of pellet guns know of atrocities Pakstan perpetrates on Kashmiris? What the secessionists are demanding is not self-determination, but J&K’s merger with Pakistan. The threat to hoist the Pakistan flag across the Valley on August 15 is ample proof of this. Those tweeting rabidly about “sanity” and “blinded children” do not inform readers that no “Azad” exists in the “Kashmir” across the border.
True, “Azad” Kashmir has its own Constitution, prime minister, president and legislature. The Pak government, however, can dismiss any of them. The PoK Assembly is controlled by the Azad Kashmir Council headed by the PM of Pakistan. Its decisions are not subject to judicial review. PoK’s Constitution bans those who do not swear by its ascension to Pakistan from participating in the political process. All top posts are manned by Pak bureaucrats on “deputation”. Judicial appointments can be made only by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, which can sack the heads of “Azad’ Kashmir at will. Elected representatives have to swear the oath, “I will remain loyal to the country and the cause of accession of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan.”
Self-appointed champions, who flamed indignant when publications were briefly suspended last month in the volatile Valley, ignore the fact that only the media approved by the Kashmir Council and Ministry of Kashmir Affairs can function in PoK. Journalists are coerced, threatened and tortured if the authorities suspect them of not being pro-Pakistan enough. Protesters are routinely fired upon and killed by the “Azad” Kashmir police.
Bleeding hearts, let’s not kid ourselves. Men in uniform who torture, kill or rape Kashmiri civilians are arrested and jailed in India. In “Azad” Kashmir, the truly free are the Pakistani Army, the ISI and militants. It is an outrageous irony to paraphrase the despot’s maxim and say Kashmiris have to be protected from themselves. Those who worship Burhan Wani or die for his perverse cause are not furthering Kashmir’s independence, but its slavery by Pakistan, which is a democracy only in name.
Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com