The year of 2017 witnessed an upward surge in human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir as compared with last year, even though Kashmir valley was gripped in a mass uprising following Burhan Wani’s killing. In the graph of killings, the year 2017 witnessed a total of 451 killings, which included civilians, militants and armed forces.The mass uprising of 2016, contrary to government claims, carried forward into 2017 with widespread student protests witnessed in almost every district of the valley following armed forces’ assault on students in Pulwama Degree College in April. Hundreds of students were injured in clashes with the armed forces and many werearrested. Schools and colleges of the valley remained shut for many days and in some cases even for weeks duringthis cycle of protests. The student protests were preceded by an unprecedented Election Day violence on April 9,when at least 8 civilians were shot dead by armed forces personnel in Budgam and Ganderbal during the Srinagar by-election. On the day of the by-election in Srinagar constituency in April, a civilian was first tortured and then used as a human shield by an Army major in Beerwah, after he had cast his vote, causing widespread condemnation and media coverage of the event. The use of pellet guns against civilian protestors continues unabated in Kashmir, with fresh cases of pellet injuries reported throughout the year.The year also witnessed a few incidents of enforced or involuntary disappearances in Kupwara, Pulwama, and Poonch Districts of Jammu and Kashmir.The announcement of Operation All Out by Indian army in June 2017 has so far resulted in the killing of 217 militants, the highest in the last 8 years. The frequency of encounters against militants has also resulted in what has been termed ‘encounter-site civilian killings’ in which at least 19 civilians have been shot dead by armed forces personnel. The fate of government probes ordered into the four cases of civilian killings in 2016 has expectedly followed the same pattern as the other probes ordered by the government in the past. In the high profile case of Tufail Matoo,who was shot dead in 2010, the government has refused to share the findings of the Koul Commission report with the public, least of all with those who participated in the formation of the report and gave testimonies to the one-man commission, which was constituted by Omar Abdullah government to probe the civilian killings of 2010 and assign responsibility for the killings.The much-abused practice of administrative detention in the form of Public Safety Act (PSA) continued to beused as a mechanism by the government to curtail and curb dissent. In last three years, by government’s own admission in September, as many as 1059 PSA dossiers have been prepared against political activists and youth accused of stone-throwing. Media and freedom of expression continue to be under assault in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2017, as many as 08 incidents of assault against journalists were reported in the valley, including the arrest of photojournalist Kamran Yousuf by India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA) in September. Yousuf still continues to be in jail in NewDelhi. The NIA has arrested many political activists and Hurriyat leaders since August who they accuse of orchestrating anti-India protests in the valley, though charges are yet to be filed. Internet and social media continue to be the easy victims of government’s assault on freedom of expression, with frequent bans and gag orders becoming a routine practice. In December, the government in its 18-page order directed its employees to not post ‘political content’ on their private social media pages, sending a message that the government is intent on curtailing any discussion of the political and human rights situation in the valley. In October 2017 the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) again urged the government to conduct investigations into the presence of 2080 unmarked and mass graves in twin district of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu province. The government, as before, refuses to act on the recommendation.This year a new phenomenon of braid and hair chopping was witnessed, where the hair and braids of women indifferent parts of the valley were chopped off. As many as 150 cases of braid and hair chopping were reported in the valley. The phenomena created mass scare and confusion in Kashmir valley, leading to protests and clashes between civilians and government forces – in which one person lost his life and several others got injured. Torture continues to be the most ignored and under-reported subject in Jammu and Kashmir. This year, a few incidents of torture were reported, which included the mass assault on Kashmiri prisoners at Tihar jail in November. India continues to refuse access to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Kashmir for ascertaining human rights violations. This year in the month of March, the UN High Commissioner reiterated his demand to visit Kashmir which was refused by India. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team members and various other human rights activists and journalists have been repeatedly denied visas for visiting Kashmir. One such glaring case is of Edward Paul Comiti, a French journalist who visited Kashmir on a business visa but was arrested by the police and later discharged by the court. This denial of access to UN delegates or denying visas to human rights activists and journalists only illustrates that the Government of India is scared of accurate information about widespread rights violations in Kashmir being disseminated. Violations at the ceasefire line continue to claim lives of civilians. This year at least 13 civilians lost their lives due to cross LOC firing and shelling.