UN calls for inquiry into human rights
violations in Kashmir
GENEVA (Reuters) -
Indian security forces have used excessive force in Kashmir and killed and
wounded numerous civilians since 2016, the United Nations said on Thursday,
calling for an international inquiry into alleged violations in the disputed
territory.
In the first U.N.
report on human rights in both Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered
Kashmir, it urged Pakistan to end its “misuse” of anti-terror legislation to
persecute peaceful activists and quash dissent.
There was no immediate
comment by either government to the report issued by the U.N. human rights
office in Geneva, which called for justice for victims on both sides of the
so-called Line of Conflict.
Mountainous Kashmir,
which is Muslim majority, is divided between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who
both claim it in full and have fought two of their three wars over the region
since their separation in 1947.
India has long accused
Pakistan of training and arming militants and helping them infiltrate across
the heavily militarized Line of Control (LoC) that separates the two sides in
the region, a charge Islamabad denies.
The U.N. report
focuses mainly on serious violations committed in the northern Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir from July 2016 to April 2018. Activists estimate that up to
145 civilians were killed by security forces and up to 20 civilians killed by
armed groups in the same period, it said.
“In responding to
demonstrations that started in 2016, Indian security forces used excessive
force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number of injuries,” the
report said.
U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein called for maximum restraint and
denounced the lack of prosecutions of Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir due to
a 1990 law giving them what he called “virtual immunity”.
In a statement, Zeid
called for the Human Rights Council - which opens a three-week session in
Geneva on Monday - to launch a commission of inquiry into all violations.
Alleged sites of mass graves in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region should be
investigated, he said.
Tensions escalated
after an attack on an Indian army camp in February that India blamed on
Pakistan. After the two armies agreed on May 30 to stop exchanging artillery
fire following the repeated deadly clashes, thousands of people from Jammu and
Kashmir headed back to their homes near the de facto border with Pakistan.
Armed groups in Jammu
and Kashmir have committed a range of crimes including kidnappings, killings of
civilians and sexual violence, the U.N. report said.
Violations in Pakistan-administered
Kashmir “are of a different caliber or magnitude”, it said, while decrying
restrictions on freedoms of expression and association.
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