Article Summary: This report summarises key human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. The year 2019 will be remembered as a landmark year in the annals of J&K’s chequered history as the last vestiges of J&K’s limited autonomy were permanently revoked by the Government of India on August 5, 2019. The government of India not only did not consult with people of J&K or their representatives in a decision which they regard as ‘beneficial for the future of J&K’ but threw the entire leadership – both pro-India and pro-resolution political leaders in jail. The decision was also accompanied by a military siege in which nearly one hundred thousand troops were deployed in the state – especially in Kashmir valley, manning streets, alleys and all major city and town squares. A strict curfew was enforced accompanied with a total communication blockade – in which all mobile phone services, internet services, and postal services were shut. This report documents allegations of mass arrests, torture, killings, use of excessive force, harassment and intimidation emerged soon after the abrogation of Article 370.
Topics: statistics of human rights violations, extrajudicial executions, encounters, cordon and search operations and raids, arbitrary, administrative arrests and illegal detentions, enforced disappearances, unknown, unmarked and mass graves, violations to right to freedom of opinion, expression and free media, curbs on freedom of movement, association, and assembly, curbs on religious freedoms, restrictions on internet and social media, destruction, vandalism of civil property, sexual violence, surveillance, persecution of Kashmiris in India, use of excessive force, continued use of torture, abrogation of Article 370- impact and assessment, killings of political activists, violence against children, violence against persons with disabilities, attacks on non-local workers, grenade attacks at public places, militarization, access to justice - dysfunctional judiciary, suicides and fratricides among Indian armed forces
Terms: custodial torture, custodial killings, Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission (SIC), Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), pellet-guns, extrajudicial killings,custodial killings, extrajudicial killings, killings of children, killings of women, torture, torture of children, preventive detention, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing of RIzwan Pandit, Ishrat Muneer, extrajudicial killing of minors Sharafat Bashir, Junaid Bilal and Atif Ahmad, violation of right to life, July 2019 amarnath yatra, lockdown of Jamia Masjid, 2019 Pulwama attack, violation of right to health, cross-LOC shelling, Cordon and Search Operations (CASOs), harrasment, shotguns, pellets, excessive force, indiscriminate force, teargas, pepper gas, impunity, failure of accountability mechanisms, failure of judiciary, internet blockades, internet shutdowns
The year witnessed extrajudicial executions of at least 80 civilians in J&K, besides killings of 159 militants and 129 armed forces.
Among 80 civilians killed in 2019, 12 are women. In 2019, as in the past, children continued to be victims of state violence in J&K as 8 children were killed in various incidents of violence. Besides becoming victims of extra-judicial executions, children also faced illegal and unjust detention, ill-treatment, including torture, at the hands of armed forces during detention and fear of further reprisals.
Out of the 80 civilians killed this year, 19 were killed by armed forces, 17 were killed in cross-LOC shelling between Indian and Pakistani armed forces (We have not been able to ascertain the number of killings of civilians in Pakistan administered Kashmir.) While 28 civilians were killed by unidentified gunmen, 6 were killed by militants, 7 were killed in explosions, one person died after being allegedly hit by a stone and one person (a non-local) died in cross-firing between armed forces and militants.
While the government of India has refused to acknowledge any civilian killing, the documented cases of killings by JKCCS and APDP post August-5 at the hands of state forces state otherwise. JKCCS and APDP have been able to document at least six killings at the hands of the Indian armed forces following the abrogation of the Article 370 on August 5.
In 2019, at least 195 Cordon and Search Operations (CASOs) and Cordon and Destroy Operations (CADO’s) were conducted in J&K which resulted in the killing of 159 militants. The frequent instances of CASOs have led to multiple human rights violations of the civilian population, including harassment, molestation, detention and use of excessive and indiscriminate force. The excessive use of force by the Indian armed forces, especially the firing of pellets and teargas shells resulted in at least 6 deaths in 2019. This year 4 people died due to pellet injuries and 3 died due to inhalation of excessive tear and pepper gas.
In the year 2019, the judicial processes have not resulted in adjudication of any human rights violation cases, either leading to prosecution of any perpetrators or ordering of any serious inquiries on the human rights violations. The orders of the Jammu Kashmir High Court have been subservient to the Executive, even in the cases where preventive detention orders were quashed, the police on their own reasoning determined whether the detainee has to be released or re-arrested in another detention order.
In 2019, the right to access information continues to be severely restricted in J&K as part of the ongoing counter-insurgency measures by the government of India as there were 55 instances of internet blockades recorded in the year 2019. Prior to the August 5 decision of the Indian government to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy, internet services were blocked a total of 54 times from January 1, 2019 to August 4, 2019. However, on the intervening night of August 4 and 5 –the government enforced the 55th internet shutdown of the year and which to date is the longest running (149 days till 31st December 2019) internet blackout not just in Kashmir but in the entire world.
December 2019
Originally published
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