Death of two
Kashmiris - Afzal Guru and Mohammed Ali Murtaza, speech of Dr Shabir Choudhry
in a seminar in the UN Human Rights Session in Geneva
Seminar
arranged by International Committee for the Respect and Application of the
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights ICRAC (CIRAC) during 22nd
Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
Title of the seminar: Human rights in South
Asia
12 March 1213
Mr Chairman, friends and colleagues
aslamo alaikam
Despite remarkable
work of the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organisations, and
power of mass media, situation of Human Rights in South Asia is getting from
bad to worse. One can write books and booklets on the situation of human rights
in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan; and divided State of Jammu and
Kashmir.
In these countries
human rights organisations, civil society and powerful media and social media
expose the perpetrators of the human rights abuses, and explain the plight of
the suffering people; and, at times, these governments under pressure from
human rights organisations and civil society take certain measures to alleviate
suffering of the people.
If these governments
are serious about improving human rights situation in their countries or areas
under their control, they have to take practical steps to improve situation of
human rights in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Jammu and Kashmir.
However, it is not
possible to explain situation of human rights in all parts of South Asia;
therefore, I will focus on deteriorating situation of human rights in Pakistani
Occupied Kashmir.
Mr Chairman
Before I elaborate my
point, I want to say that month of February 2013 has proved that people of
Jammu and Kashmir are killed on both sides of the LOC. Afzal Guru lost his life
in Delhi Jail on 9 February 2013. Mohammed Ali Murtaza lost his life in Kotli,
Pakistani Administered Kashmir on 18 February 2013. Afzal Guru was hanged for
providing logistic support to those who attacked the Indian Parliament on
December 2013. Despite his role in that tragic event, which, of course, was
highly sensitive target because the attack on Parliament is conceived as an
attack on pride of a nation; many believe he should not have been hanged.
However, Afzal Guru
was hanged and his body was not given to his relatives and he was buried inside
the prison. People of Jammu and Kashmir claim that we are subject to
inhuman treatment on both sides of the LOC; and both governments have similar
policies, as both want to hold on to Kashmir. That was the Indian response to
one Kashmiri - Afzal Guru; now let us see response of Pakistan to another
Kashmiri, Mohammed Ali Murtaza who was not involved in any crime and did not
provide any logistic support for any attack on the Pakistani Parliament or
involved himself in any other illegal activity.
Mohammed Ali Murtaza
lived in district Kotli which is part of Pakistani Administered Kashmir. He was
a man of good character and memorised the whole Quran, a task which only
selected and talented individuals could accomplish. He went to visit his sister
who was married and lived near the LOC near Seri.
‘Brave’ and proactive
secret agencies of Pakistan, who are law in their own rights, always look out
for soft targets that they could exploit innocence and vulnerability of the
people living in Pakistani Administered Kashmir, especially those who lived
near the LOC. Vulnerable and not so clever, 27 years old Mohammed Ali Murtaza,
who had whole life before him was picked up by the Pakistani secret agencies
and tortured to death.
As this topic has
been covered extensively by my colleague Abbas Butt, I leave out these details.
However, it would be pertinent to point out that the brutal killing of Mohammed
Ali Murtaza could have gone unnoticed if it was not for the social media and
new technology. Young angry men were devastated by the inhuman treatment, and
within minutes news and photos of the deceased were sent to various people and
posted on social media. That encouraged the local daily newspapers to publish
news about this incident. The secret agency personnel and the compliant local
administration tried to control the situation, but the genie was out of the
bottle. In this regard, Tanveer Ahmed, a British Kashmiri did a tremendous
service by visiting the grave of the deceased and interviewed his family and
put it on Youtube.
After a long time the
local people have strongly expressed their anger and resentment against this
inhuman act. They strongly condemned this act; and demanded that Pakistani
forces of occupation must leave this territory. This news and inhuman torture
at the hands of the Pakistani army which is a Muslim army and which is supposed
to ‘defend borders and provide security’ infuriated the local people and there
were strong protests against Pakistan and presence of Pakistani army.
In the past local
people of Azad Kashmir saw many dead bodies of people in the rivers flowing
from the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir to the Pakistani side. It was always
stated that these were bodies of those Kashmiris killed by India after
torturing them. However, after what has happened to Mohammed Ali Murtaza, many local
people say it is possible that all those people were actually killed by the
Pakistani army and then shifted the blame.
It must be pointed
out that Pakistan and pro Pakistan Kashmiris claim that the Pakistani army is
there to provide them security and defend the borders. Fact, however, is that
in private conversations majority of the people regard them as forces of
occupation; and some brave nationalists openly say they are forces of
occupation and demand that they should go back to Pakistan.
Because of wrong
policies of respective Pakistani governments, people of Pakistan and other
areas are also suffering. There are powerful groups which under official
patronage promote religious hatred, intolerance, violence and terrorism; and this
policy is root cause of many problems in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, as
this policy is exported to other areas. In Pakistan we can see ethnic
minorities being systematically killed and their houses burnt; and this policy
was successfully implemented in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr Chairman
Exploitation and intimidation in
Pakistani Administered Kashmir takes place in many forms and shapes. All
aspects of our lives are controlled by Islamabad or their lent officers and
puppets. The syllabus our children read in our schools and colleges is prepared
in Islamabad, which imposes Pakistani history and culture on us. How ironic,
Study of Pakistan is compulsory for children of Azad Kashmir; but Study of Kashmir
is not part of our curriculum. History and politics we are taught is a
Pakistani history or their version of it; and true history of Jammu and Kashmir
is hidden from us.
If some people produce facts about
what Pakistan has done to us, and present true version of history those people
have to suffer for this. I am prime example of this victimisation. Because of
what I write to expose Pakistan’s imperial designs and tactics, a systematic
malicious campaign is unleashed against me; but they cannot intimidate or break
me. Those people who publish my books and promote them also come under fire.
It is disturbing to learn that
Pakistani secret agencies are harassing those booksellers who sell books which
expose Pakistan’s Kashmir policy. In this regard those books that have strongly
criticised Pakistan’s blunders and human rights abuses which started with the
brutal tribal aggression in October 1947 have been targeted.
Book sellers in various parts of Azad
Kashmir were visited by secret agency men. One bookseller told my publisher
that he could not sell these books anymore because secret agency people have
given him stern warning. These people are so frightened that they have hidden
these books and have requested the publisher to take them back.
When one book seller was threatened
with severe consequences if he continued to sell books that expose Pakistan’s
Kashmir policy, the poor man said I only sell books, and have no time to read
books to find out which books expose Pakistan’s Kashmir policy.
Mr Chairman
What this means is that the Azad
Kashmiri book sellers can only sell books which promote Pakistan, or are
written by Pakistanis and their puppets; or they can sell pens, pencils and
writing pads, and not any books on history and politics. It also means people
of Azad Kashmir are deliberately kept oblivious of facts and Kashmir history. Is
this not against right of expression, right to education, right to know about
one’s history and culture?
To conclude, I want to add that the
entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is disputed; and the Kashmir dispute is not
religious in nature. Furthermore, it is not struggle to become part one country
or the other. Our struggle is to determine our own future without any
conditions or intimidation. India and Pakistan cannot decide our future by
bilateral talks; we people of Jammu and Kashmir must be part of the dialogue
process.
Mr Chairman, I thank you for your
patience.
Dead body of Mohammed Ali Murtaza
clearly showing signs of torture.
