Kashmiris accuse Indian forces of arbitrary arrests and intimidation | Human rights news

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Public protests in Indian-administered Kashmir were once almost weekly.

But two years after New Delhi imposed a direct regime on the region, residents say arbitrary arrests and intimidation by security forces wielding batons and ripping phones have left far too fearful to voice their dissent.

A week before the region’s partial autonomy was abolished and as a massive deployment of troops unfolded to help prevent a local reaction, Rafiq (name changed) was among thousands placed in “preventive detention” .

He believes he was arrested because he had “demonstrated against injustices” in the past.

Released after a trying year behind bars, the 26-year-old, too scared to give his real name, calls himself “a broken man”.

Echoing the testimonies of a dozen other Kashmiris reported to the AFP news agency, he and 30 others were taken in a military plane to a prison hundreds of kilometers from his home where they were “abused and intimidated “.

“A bright light was on all night in my cell for six months… It was hard to imagine that I would come out alive,” he said.

At least he was finally released. Activists say dozens of other Kashmiris languish in notoriously harsh prisons in India.

Tasleema, a mother of five, has not seen her husband Gulzar Ahmed Bhat, a former member of a separatist group who left in 2016, in two years.

Initially, when the police and soldiers raided his home, Bhat was out. So they held her 23-year-old nephew until her uncle surrendered.

“I almost beg for work to feed my children,” said Tasleema tearfully, a young child in her lap.

“A tool to silence dissent”

India has for decades stationed more than half a million troops on its side of Kashmir, a Himalayan territory claimed in its entirety by India and Pakistan, which partly rule it.

Since 1989, Indian troops have been fighting rebels demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls the western part of the region.

Claiming to want to achieve peace, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi deleted an article from the constitution guaranteeing the partial autonomy of the territory in August 2019.

For two years now, the Kashmiris have not had a locally elected government and are headed by a lieutenant governor appointed by New Delhi.

A legislative blitz saw new laws enforced and others dropped. There are now hardly any senior Kashmiri police officers or bureaucrats in important decision-making positions.

Changes in land tenure rules have triggered accusations of “settler colonialism” aimed at achieving irreversible demographic change in the predominantly Muslim region.

Neither the Interior Ministry in New Delhi nor the government spokesperson in Kashmir responded to AFP’s requests for comment.

Most of the 5,000 people officially arrested two years ago – and dozens more since – have been convicted under the Public Security Act, a “preventive detention” law allowing two years’ imprisonment without charge or trial.

“In the majority of cases, preventive detention is little more than a tool used (…) to silence dissent and ensure self-censorship,” Juliette Rousselot of the International Federation of human rights leagues.

India has also made extensive use of its loosely-worded counterterrorism law, the Prevention of Illegal Activities Act (UAPA), which effectively allows people to be detained without trial indefinitely.

“Forced to think about his family before opening his mouth”

Authorities raided the homes, offices and premises of civil society groups, journalists and newspapers, confiscating phones and laptops.

One of the groups raided was the Jammu Kashmir Civil Society Coalition.

“All state institutions meant to protect human rights and civil liberties have also been silenced, rendered dysfunctional or threatened with capitulation,” said group leader Parvez Imroz.

Local journalists say they are under increased surveillance. Photographers have been assaulted and foreign reporters are effectively excluded from the region.

When traders tried to shut down in protest this month, police broke the locks to force them to open.

Young people say they are questioned and sometimes beaten at checkpoints if encrypted apps like WhatsApp or Signal are installed on their phones.

More than a dozen government employees were recently dismissed for “anti-national activities” or for social media posts critical of the government.

Police were asked last month to deny security clearances for government jobs and passports to those who have previously participated in protests, stone-throwing or activities against “state security.” “.

The violence continued. This month, a local Modi party official was killed along with his wife, while 90 suspected rebels have died in clashes this year.

But while there were almost weekly protests, to which police often responded with tear gas and pellet guns, now they are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Relatives and even neighbors of those who have demonstrated in the past – or who were simply suspected of having done so – are regularly pressured by police to make written promises to ensure they refrain.

“I am now forced to think about my family and my relationships before I open my mouth to say anything,” said a young man, who spent a year in prison and whose father was forced to sign one of those commitments.

“It separated us. Solidarity between us is no longer possible.



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