World leaders should take notice of the plight of Kashmiris detained in Indian jails, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party

 Monday, December 2, 2024

Srinagar (news international/ Pakistan News - 02nd December, 2024) The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party has appealed to world leaders, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and OIC Secretary-General Hussain Brahim Taha, to take note of the plight of Kashmiris detained in Indian jails. In a letter to the two international organizations, the DFP highlighted incidents of torture, solitary confinement and deprivation of medical facilities and urged international intervention for the release of the detained Kashmiris.

The letters cited the deteriorating health of detained leaders like Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Muhammad Yasin Malik and called on the international community to pressure India for their early release. Meanwhile, human rights activists and organizations in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir have condemned India for continuing the systematic exploitation of the Kashmiri people, calling it modern-day slavery.

According to Kashmir Media Service, human rights activists highlighted the atrocities against Kashmiri women on the occasion of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, such as enforced disappearances, torture, detention and state-sponsored sexual violence, and termed them as modern-day slavery. They said that India is using tactics such as seizure of properties, changing the population ratio and suppressing dissent to erase the identity and culture of Kashmiris.

They called on world leaders, especially the United Nations, to implement relevant UN resolutions, which guarantee the Kashmiris their right to self-determination. India has deployed two additional battalions of the paramilitary Border Security Force in the Jammu region of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. More than 2,000 BSF personnel have been deployed in Samba, Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua districts.

According to analysts, the deployment belies the Indian government’s claims of normalcy after the revocation of the special status of the occupied territory in 2019. Kashmiri farmers and traders have expressed serious concerns over the Indian authorities’ plan to build satellite colonies on the Ring Road in Srinagar, warning that it will cause severe damage to agricultural lands. They term the move as part of the Modi government’s broader policy of grabbing fertile land, weakening Kashmir’s economy and changing the demographics after the abrogation of Article 370. The farmers say such projects will lead to agricultural devastation, leaving the Kashmiri people economically weak and landless. People of Bandipora blocked the Sopore-Bandipora highway to protest the Indian government’s failure to provide clean drinking water.