NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying that they were monitoring some developments in the rise of human rights abuse in India during the recently concluded 2+2 meeting, the US has released a human rights report with a segment on India.
The report touches upon a wide range of issues from freedom of expression to terrorists targeting the police and military and also the status of Kashmiri Pandits.
The report says that independent media were active and generally expressed a wide variety of views. It also mentioned that law prohibited content that could harm religious sentiments or provoke enmity among groups.
According to reports (based on NGOs and journalists), there were instances when government officials at both the local and national levels were involved in intimidating media.
The report also spoke about the excesses commited by insurgents. "Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, northeastern states, and Maoist terrorism-affected areas committed serious abuses, including killings and torture of armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and civilians, kidnapping, and recruitment and use of child soldiers," the report said.
Kashmiri Pandits also find mention in the report which has quoted the Ministry of Home Affairs stating in the Lok Sabha that there were approximately 65,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families across the country.
Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits fled the Kashmir Valley after 1990 because of violent intimidation that included murders, destruction of temples and rapes by Kashmiri Muslim residents.
In March 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed Parliament that 3,800 Kashmiri Pandit migrants had returned to Jammu and Kashmir since the 1990s, 520 of whom had returned after August 2019. In July, the Ministry of Home Affairs reported to Parliament that 1,997 candidates from the Kashmiri Pandit community had been selected for jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.