*ISLAMABAD – The New York Times* in a new report has exposed Indianatrocities in occupied Kashmir after the occupying forces arrested morethan 2,000 people in the valley with no recourse since the abrogation ofArticle 370.
The *NYT*, contradicting the Indian claim in the occupied valley hasreported that at least 2,000 Kashmiris — including business leaders, humanrights defenders, elected representatives, teachers and students as youngas 14 — were rounded up by the Indian forces in the days right before andright after the Indian government unilaterally stripped away Kashmir’sautonomy.
“Bringing Kashmir to heel has been a Hindu-nationalist dream” — the onlyMuslim-majority state that India annexed on August 5, setting off a gravecrisis in the disputed region, the paper said in a comprehensive dispatchpublished Friday.
“Kashmir was an obvious sore for the nationalist political movement thathas flourished among India’s Hindu majority, powering [Prime MinisterNarendra] Modi’s stunning rise,” *NYT* said.
“For decades,” it said, “Kashmir has been racked by militancy, oppressionand unrest. Kashmiris are feeling especially demoralised and cornered now.The fear is that the area is about to blow and even with phone lines cut,leaders in jail and soldiers on every street, protests are erupting. Someare peaceful. Others descend into stone-pelting clashes.”
“But the fury is there, always,” *NYT*declared.
“There is only one solution!” the crowds cheer, the newspaper, adding, “Gunsolution! Gun solution!”
Citing critics, the newspaper said that even under India’s tough publicsafety laws this is illegal and that PM Modi is bending the Indian legalsystem to cut off any possible criticism in occupied Kashmir and go afteranyone with a voice — be that a successful merchant, a politician or aprofessor.
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“Kashmir is silent as a graveyard,” human rights lawyer Vrinda Grover said.“The Indian government isn’t revealing what charges the detainees face orhow long they will be held. Some were reported to have been flown on secretair force flights to jails in Lucknow, Varanasi and Agra,” *NYT* said.
On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Office said it was “gravelyconcerned.”
Five UN Human Rights experts expressed concern that the measures, imposedafter the Indian Parliament revoked the Constitutionally-mandated status ofthe state of occupied Kashmir would exacerbate tensions in the region.
“The shutdown of the internet and telecommunication networks, withoutjustification from the Government, are inconsistent with the fundamentalnorms of necessity and proportionality,” the experts said.
“The blackout is a form of collective punishment of the people of Jammu andKashmir, without even a pretext of a precipitating offence.”
