Night Long Sit-In Protest against India’s Crimes against Humanityby Afra Siyab on Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 6:07am

Press Release: for the Night Long Sit-In Protest against India’s Crimes against Humanity

Far away from their home in Kashmir, where life has been put under curfew and dead bodies of boys and girls arrive in every neighborhood, Kashmiris living in Delhi have come together to protest against the repression and killings by armed forces. Hundreds of people from Delhi also protested in solidarity with Kashmiris asking for a political solution to Kashmir rather than a military one.

On June 11, when a 17 year old school boy Tufail Matoo, was killed after tear smoke canister fired by the armed forces hit him on his head. This was few weeks after the fake encounter of three Kashmiri men by the Army in Rafiabad in north Kashmir and Kashmiris were already angry. Kashmiris came out in thousands to protest the death in which more people were killed. The police and CRPF then fired on the mourners killing more boys. Two girls, Fancy and Afroza, aged 23 and 17, lost their lives to the bullets. A 7 year old boy was beaten to death in Batamaloo. Most of the dead were teenagers and children. They threw stones at the CRPF bunkers, which they consider symbols of occupation, and the armed forces kept firing live ammunition in the crowds killing 55 civilans.

In the last 7 days, 600 people have been seriously injured and wounded. According to doctors in the SMHS hospital, out of the 37 people who had been shot at were in one ward, 35 had been shot at point blank range and above their chests. Thousands have been maimed, blinded and paralysed in the last one month.

No place in Kashmir, be it homes, hospitals or ambulances have been spared in Kashmir and even the media was gagged and were often beaten up. In the unarmed protests in Kashmir since 2008, not a single soldier or policeman has been killed but more than 160 people have been killed.
Like always, Indian state this time as well only answered militarily by sending 1900 more troops in addition to the 7,00,000 soldiers that are already there. By conservative estimates, 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since 1990 but it has not been able to change the ‘sentiment for Azadi’ on ground. Killing people cannot achieve anything, it is the ‘aspiration of Azadi of Kashmiri’s that India needs to engage with and work towards a political solution. ‘They make desolation and call it peace’. Peace cannot and will not come through gun barrel nor will India win by buying time. For the last several decades we have seen that Indian state has faced one generation of Kashmiris after another, and cosmetic measures and economic packages will not help change the situation in Kashmir.

On Saturday, at the Jantar Mantar at the 5.30 Pm, people came together for a night long Sit- In to protest against Indian State’s Crimes against Humanity in Kashmir and its insensitivity to the loss of innocent lives.

The night long protest is an attempt to tell Kashmiris back home, who are out on streets all night, that though we are not under Curfew and repression as they are, we feel the gun barrels against us and the tear smoke gas around us.

We, as Kashmiris, want India to acknowledge J&K as a dispute between Kashmiris and the neighbouring countries and not as a law and order problem.

We also put the following demands in front of Govt. of India:

* Demilitarize our land, our schools, our hospitals, our streets, our orchards, our cities, our towns and our villages.
* Repeal the draconian laws like AFSPA, J&K-PSA, Disturbed Areas Act, etc.
* Release all political prisoners who have been arrested in last 21 years.
* Allow international agencies to investigate into the mass graves in Kashmir and the crimes against humanity committed by Indian forces in Kashmir.
* Learn to respect dissent and respect democratic right of people to disagree.
* Initiate dialogue on Kashmir, in Kashmir, with Kashmiris.

A Open Letter to my Kashmir Pandit Brother and Sister…!!

By Naqshab Afra


When any Muslim Kashmiri supports Muslim Pakistan you call him communal because he supports the country on religious sentiments,similarly if any Kashmiri Hindu supports Hindu India he also deserve the same title of being called communal because he supports a country on religious sentiment. Right!! Why shuld we be Pakistanis or Indians, Why cant we be Kashmiris??

Forget for the time being what your religion is. Kashmir is a political issue rather than a religious issue. However both India and Pakistan want to refer it as communal... Kashmir wants freedom and wants to liberate its occupied lands from occupation of imperial neighbours named India and Pakistan.

To support the national cause neither you nor we require to loose our religious identity. We have lived together and we will insha-Allah live together. The two brutal foreign rule of Panjabes and Afghans could not divide us. despite of the fact from that era we are left with deep scars, which we wouldn’t forget but we have healed the wound together...

In two authoritarian dynastic (non-foreign rule) rules of Swat (Shahmiries) and Jammu (Dogra) we both faced ups and downs... Now why, should we continue with our differences? I am not making a wild assumption that we are true copies of each other. However the smaller differences we had was mercilessly exploited by our neighboring countries which have been plotting and maneuverings for our resources and rich lands from years. And how long should we allow ourselves to get used, miss-used and abused by these powers. The question is straight to all those people who have been sacrificing and have painfully wasted their sacrificed in vain for others except for their motherland. Their motherland Mouj Kashir remain weeping and Jhelum continues to flow her tears…...in every season reminding us of our forgotten responsibilities. Right now Kashmir nation is struggling together against the atrocities unleashed by India. And yet a small section but equally important, remains aloof in the dry land and scorching heat of India away, far away from this sacred cause of liberating our mouj Kashir.......... Why??

Our demand to India is simple and logical. And any rational person with reasonable understanding can understand it. That is, “To leave Jammu and Kashmir to its own people”. Don’t forget the idea of sovereign independent Kashmir was articulated by our first Prime Minister Mr. Ram Chander Kak, While as Sheikh Abdullah only wanted to transfer the power to his family and replace a dynasitic rule. Apart from the 219 Kashmiris that were killed in nineties. There are still thousand of Kashmiri Hindus living with their Kashmiri Muslim brothers. And more than 100,000 Kashmir Muslims were killed since nineties. The number of injured and tortured are even more than this. A section of Kashmir Hindus and Muslims left Kashmir early nineties, however they have equally bitter experience of Indian state. Who else can have a bitter experience of Indian state...?? If we were killed and tortured in Kashmir by India, you were misused and used against your own Kashmiri brothers by India. Even now whenever Kashmiri moves ahead in achieving freedom you are used as a stumbling block. Our political opinions can be different but we have common destiny. Provided you are seriously thinking of returning to Kashmir. You can’t continue with this suicidal approach. Don’t you want to return to your home…. How many more decades you will wander in India?

Neither I can make you a Pakistani nor you can make me an Indian. But we both are Kashmiris. We both have responsibility towards our ailing motherland. If our brothers and sister in Kashmir are killed and humiliated by Indian facist soliders, aren’t they your brother and sisters.

You have the right to protest for your 219 Kashmir pundits killed in two years (1990-91), so do we!! Since 1990 (in 21 years) the number of Kashmiri Muslims killed has exceeded 100,000. Can we forget that?? Can we forget those hundreds kashmires families who were compelled to cross the ceasefire line/LoC and are now staying in other parts of Kashmir, dadyal, mirpur, muzafarabad?? the A human being may have many identities but when he or she is killed he dies as a human being. Suffering is suffering doesn’t matter whether Hindu (pundits)suffers or Muslim sufferers. Neither you have got justice of 219 murdered Kashmiri pundits nor have we got justice of 100,000 murdered Kashmiri Muslims. Justice delayed is justice denied. And Indian Judicial system has utterly failed us. We demand probe by international neutral agencies into the crimes committed against humanity in Kashmir. Support us!!

India has an acute problem of imposing, generalizing, deciding on behalf of other communities/nationalities as if other people do not know how to speak or they speaks gibberish...and they alone have wisdom to understand. India as a sovereign country and has a right to exist in this world, and same right of existance belongs to Kashmir.

Kashmir is a sovereign nation, occupied by India. India, a country which got its freedom just 60 years back from British after 100 years of bloody struggle. But denies the same freedom to other nations.

India occupied Kashmir by deceit. Broke all the international covenants guarantying Kashmir right to choose their own future. Which is your right and which is my right. Uptill 1990 Kashmir wanted to resolve this occupation through dialogue. However India believed in violence & in military solution. Untill 1952 India continued to promise that they will allow referendums in J&K, India broke its promise, became greedy and misinformed its own people that it was part of their mainland.

And when using all the peaceful methods to convey our message to Indians we started demanding it more loudly India responded with sending 800,000 Indian soldiers in my country in our country called J&K. They committed all the worst atrocities, 100,000 Kashmir’s were killed, 50,000 children became orphan, there are at least 200,000 tortured victims, 8000 just vanished in your custody. To shield your soldiers from legal implications and justice, Indian leaders designed “Armed Forces Special Powers Act”, “Disturbed Areas Act” etc so that these criminals in uniform are provided with impunity and they inturn continue their naked dance of death, destruction, murder and loot.... Humiliation of our elders, women, worship places has became a part-time for Indian forces operating in J&K. India a self-proclaimed secular democracy made every effort to communalize the atmosphere of J&K and denied the basic right to every human being to decide for his/her own future.

We are called thankless....? You know why? India claims to be democracy and responds peaceful protest with cane-charges, teargas, curfews, arrest, torture... !! In rage when our children throw stones on Indian solders, Indian democracy responds with bullets. What a comparison Stones vs Bullets..!!

We will continue our struggle for freedom, justice, peace and equality while as India appears in no mood to understand the reality and seems to continue of grabbing land and resources of other nations ... for example Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Tilangana, Rajputana etc, They continue systematic genocide, distort the history of the occupied lands and communalize atmosphere and misinform its own people in India and the world community that the people they suppress are separatist.

This war is between vice against virtue, hegemony vs freedom, discrimination vs equality, authoritianism vs democracy...it has always continued in the world, we both have to decide which side you want to support…Truth or Falsehood?

na unki rasm nai hai , na apni reet ani,

na unki haar nai hai, na apni jeet nai,

issi sabab sai falak ka gila nahi kartay,

issi sabab ham Dil bura nahi kartay…!!

agar aaj tumsay juda hein, tu kal baa’ham houn gai,

ye chaar din ki judaaie to koi baat nahe,

Aur agar Aaj pay hai tala-i-rakeb to kia...?

Ye char din ki Khudaiye to koi baat nahi..!! (faiz)


(This letter I wrote last year and read it out in public in front of all the fellow protestors in Delhi..Kashmiri Muslims, Pundits, Sikhs and also some Tamil, Naga & Manipur students at Janter Manter. The protest was in context of the bloody situtaion in Kashmir, where small children where being killed only because they wanted initially an investigation into the Machil fake encounter and later only because they asserted their right to protest; since no space was provided in Kashmir, Kashmiri youth (around 200) first time in decades, decided to extend the protest in Delhi near Janter Manter...Ironically a separate group (of 20 to 25 protestors) led by "roots of kashmir" was protesting against our right to protest across the road near Janta-Dal Office...and you know what next day Indian Media only mentioned the other event and black listed our event........!!
I have no grudges & no expectations from Indian State, this is how an occupier and imperilist state behaves...but I have lot of expectations from its people and from other communities and nationalities forced to remain within India, who have also been suppressed and denied of their Democratic Right to be Free..)

We did not force kashmir pandits to Migrate

by: Naqshab Afra

I wish Kashmir was not under curfew for six months in 1990-91, I wish Kashmiri Muslim were not imprissoned in their own homes by Indian BSF & CRPF. I wish we could have understood the communal plot of jagmohan there and then, who wanted to ...malign our national struggle against autocracy and occupation as an extension of 1947 partition, I wish section of people from Pandits and Muslims were not acting as collaborators for India and pakistan, I wish these Kashmirs didnt have extra terrtorial loyality towards neighbouring states than their own motherland. And finally when some of the Indian collaborators decide to shift their families out of valley, I wish majority of kashmiri pandits and some muslim families did not have accompained those who had ever reason to leave kashmir...because of their fatricidal adventures...!! After Chotta Bazar and Natipora mass molestations by Indian forces and subsequant Gowkadal massacre in 1990's, I wish kashmiri Muslims, Sikhs and Pandits where not scared of killings, rapes, loot ...ironically which they all later became used to...

When Kashmiri families started migrating out of valley(Muslim aas well as Pandits but Pandits predominantely), I wish Kashmir was not under curfew then. Please go through the police record and curfew details in newspapers. For six months completely kashmir was under curfew. Curfews were lifted up only for two hours on different times for different mohallas after 24 hours curfew shift. I svear by the very freedom movement (for which we have sacrificed our everything) we did not force kashmiri families to migrate, we did not kll innocents. This is a baseless propaganda against us. In the dead of the night Army would arrange military trucks and collect kashmiri pandit families shift them out side. I was in a school then. My winter vacations had just started. We all were scared. I remember my parents and grand parents the rumour that some famlies of pandits are packing and moving in Army trucks. First we ignored the news as rumor later we thought these are the Darbar move families who shift every winter and spring with the shift int eh capital Srinagr to Jammu and back. Then at the end of december when we realised that many more Kashmir falimies are moving out we became scared that there is something fishy. There were rumors that India is planning to bomb whole valley but befroe that India wants to save Kashmiri Pandits. I was very angry. My parent s also decided to move to Jammu but our relatives stoped us ....But we did move to Jammu little later when when one day curfew in our area was lifted in the arly hours of winter motning perhasp 7 to 9 am. My father was beaten up by the soliders for moving with a besatarband and a trunk. BSF soliders straight away told us that why were we leaving Kashmir because only Kashmir Pandts have the right to move to India. When my father explained to that we are only going upto jammu that is pasrt of the state and he works in the Civil secretariate that we were allow to move. My mother cried all throught the journey for her parents and other relatives were back in Kashmir and we were not sure whether we can again meet them again. .... Those who migrated some of them did by their own choice, some very mislead by their community leaders and the state assurances (that they will return to thier homes within a year) and some were really scared because of rampent killings. In the atmosphere of anarchy and choas there were people with criminal bent who settle personal vendata under the garb of political unrest. Not only the collaborators were killed both muslims and pandits but some militants even killed innocent muslims and pandits. We muslims in valley know for sure that out of 249 kashmir pandits killed almost half of them were definitly innocents, killed by some one with personal grudge. There was no communal killing form militants side. Other wise innocent muslims would not have been killed by militants. The militants we considered mujahids, not every one was fighting for freedom, that became clear in 1994 in group clashes many upright militants were killed by these a criminals bands of Koka paray, papa kashtawari, jamshed Khan, Asgar khan etc You know them very well, your elders know it very well....but still you became part of Indian efforts to maligen our freedom struggle. But when my family returned back in the middle og 1991 we could not face our neighbours our relatives. I could not face my friends. They thought we had left them behind to be bombarded by india and watch them. I remember my grand mother taunting me " aiwa hindustanuk baati keth.....Wochu Khuda yan taw asi toothi zind " I lowered by head in shame. They had every reason to hate us. People who stayed back in kashmir had seen the worst of india. ....There own people had left them behind and the fredom movement was labelled as communal by the very communal country which is facist at the core. In those six to ten months there were at least a dozen attemos of rape and molestations by Indian troops. There were scores of massacres. The number of kashmiri killed had already touched 10,000....People will never forget that.
However there are hundreds of Kashmiri pandits who lived side by side with Kashmir Muslims. Kashmir Slkh population stood in every think and thin with rest of kashmiri muslim and Pandit families . We are indebted to all them. And those ehp became part of tarnishing the image of kashmir also know it better what India did for them. Poor migrant families continued to rotten in the fithy camps. Camps were delvberately kept filthy to use it as a propoganda against kashmir, other wise it was not a big deal to construct good flats for them where decent family could stay comfortable during a transitional phase. If india could construct 10,000 flates so quickly for Asian games it was not a big deal for them....kashmir pandits were misused. kashmir Muslims were abused. it was a ploted migration. J&K belong to the people who are from jammu and kashmir only...irrespective of theri religion or region.

Faizan’s case is not over; it has started now…

Naqshab Afra

We need to stand up together and save future generations from the monsters present everywhere in our state

Faizan Rafiq, 14, has been released. He was put in prison few months ago on the charges of stone pelting and disturbing the law and order situation in the state. His release was possible only after human right organisations worldwide raised hue and cry. News reports have mentioned that before Faizan was released, the SP Kathua Jail asked both parents of the kid to sign a bond assuring that their kid will no more allegedly participate in the protests against the state.


What if Faizan’s parents would have refused to sign the bond, wouldn’t Faizan deserve release? Faizan is a minor both according to the state’s J&K Rabir Penal Code (which considered an individual below the age 16 as a child); and according to the Indian Penal Code (which considers an individual below the age 18 a child).
The police continue to arrests and harass the masses. People protest when police and civil authorities violate human and individual rights. Last year security agencies committed excess; people protested. Had there been no Machil fake encounter no one would have come on streets. Had the protesters not been dealt with heavy handedness no further protests would have appeared on the streets of J&K. Should we assume the government doesn’t want peace and justice to prevail in J&K and are pursuing some other policy to crush the honour, dignity and identity of people?

Faizan’s arrest has raised another socio-legal issue (to be advocated by child rights organisations, if at all they are interested in what they claim to exist for) that why the state of J&K doesn’t have juvenile homes? In context of committing social crimes, if at all a child is proven guilty (not because of his/her religious faith and political ideology).

Even then political prisoners deserve to be kept separate from social criminals as they are arrested for their political beliefs.

I wonder how many more people will be forced to suffer before the black laws like Public Safety Act and Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Disturbed Areas Act are repealed for good.

Time for mere modification is over. The draconian laws have to be totally abolished. It no way is helping India which otherwise has a stable Judiciary and functional legal system.

This time, we wouldn’t be fooled if these laws are replaced by other draconian laws for international consumption as it did happen when India replaced TADA with POTA after thousands of complaints were filed against the former Act by families of innocents, Muslim and Sikh victims of India and human rights defenders. We all know that POTA proved even worse than TADA.

The State government has to accept publicly that the pain Faizan and his poor family, relatives and neighbours had to go through, has to be compensated separately, immediately and adequately.

Concerning the concept of compensation: is it only when a Kashmiri is killed that he/she has to be compensated? We need to assert that all those who were/are victimised unjustly (physically and psychologically) by the state, need to be compensated. Let not the compensation be paid by poor tax payers of India or J&K, it should be deducted from salary of all those responsible for causing the misery, corresponding to the time period of suffering.

In Faizan case all those responsible, who misled everyone by calling Faizan 27 year old adult, who acted blind while signing warrant and PSA papers of Faizan and the people who made unsuccessful attempt to make believe the internationally community that the birth certificate of Faizan is forged, before independent investigation was conducted.

It should not happen to another Faizan. Faizan’s case is not over; it has started now…!! We need to chase other aspects as mentioned above related with the case. Had it happened with a kid in Delhi (may God save all children) we would have witnessed governments toppling down in New Delhi, bureaucrats standing in line in civil courts, whole population of Delhi on roads protesting demanding the release and compensation. We need stand up together and save our youth and future generations from the monsters present everywhere in our state. For a struggle one need a moral cause, we not only have genuine moral base and political reason but have offered huge sacrifices; all we need to do is to make it worth by standing for truth and resisting on each front.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/faizans-case-is-not-over-it-has-started-now…-8656.aspx?sms_ss=facebook_at_xt%3D4d5412f369437e23%2C0