by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Arul Louis,
New York : The US State Department’s human rights report criticises India for violations by police and security forces while at the same time noting the “serious abuses” by separatist insurgents and terrorists.
“The most significant human rights issues included police and security force abuses, such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and lengthy pretrial detention,” the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017 released in Washington on Friday said.
However, it also said: “Separatist insurgents and terrorists in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast, and the Maoist-affected areas committed serious abuses, including killings and torture of armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and of civilians, and recruitment and use of child soldiers.”
The publication of the report at a time when US President Donald Trump and his administration have been accused by adversaries in the US of trying to roll back civil rights and of attacking the media, said that in India “censorship and harassment of media outlets, including some critical of the government continued”.
The report, which also criticised several other countries, was challenged by reporters for US media outlets at a news briefing by Michael G. Kozak, the Ambassador of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour.
In a barrage of questions, reporters raised President Donald Trump’s criticism of US media as “an enemy of the people” and calls for revising libel laws; excluding transgender people from the military; refusal to accept refugees, and travel bans on certain countries seen by courts as directed at a particular religion.
“How do you not open yourself up to charges of hypocrisy, and how effective do you think you can be at leading by example,” a US news service reporter asked Kozak.
Kozak replied: “The countries that we criticize for limiting press freedom, it’s for things like having criminal libel laws where you can be put in jail for what you say… or, in many cases, killing the journalists.”
“We make quite a distinction between political leaders being able to speak out and say that story was not accurate or using even stronger words sometimes, and using state power to prevent the journalists from continuing to do their work,” he added.
The report took a broad sweep of what it considered the human rights situations, going into details, many of them taken from reports by Indian and foreign watchdog groups.
While critical of India on several issues, the report attempted to bring some balance by also noting the several prosecutions of officials accused of human rights abuses, the free and fair state elections, and an independent media that “generally expressed a wide variety of views”.
The report said that a “lack of criminal investigations or accountability for cases related to rape, domestic violence, dowry-related deaths, honour killings, sexual harassment; and discrimination against women and girls remained serious problems”.
It also cited, “violence and discrimination based on religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and caste or tribe”.
The report directed particular criticism against the government restrictions on some NGOs receiving foreign funding, specifically mentioning Compassion International, a Christian organisation that has the backing of US politicians and officials.
Legal restrictions on religious conversion in eight states, was another matter of concern in the report.
“Some journalists and media persons reportedly experienced violence and harassment in response to their reporting,” the report said and cited a Press Council report that at least 80 journalists had been killed since 1990 and only one conviction had been made.
The State Department report said that journalists and activists, particularly women, were subjected to online and mobile harassment, with some getting thousands of abusive tweets from trolls.
While highlighting the periodic shutdown of Internet services, particularly in Kashmir, and prosecutions for online postings, the report noted that the “mass electronic surveillance data-mining programme” of the Central Monitoring System (CMS) which “continued to allow governmental agencies to monitor electronic communications in real time without informing the subject or a judge”.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Social Entrepreneur, Social Media, Success Stories
By Nivedita Singh,
New Delhi : “Winter will go, snow will melt to make way for warmth of spring again”. Raabta, a Facebook page, begins on this optimistic note to re-establish broken links between Kashmiri families, friends, classmates and neighbours divided by decades of insurgency, civil strife and social acrimony.
Almost a month since the page with over 21,000 followers was created, Raabta — which translates into “connection” — has been able to connect five Kashmiri Hindu Pandit and Muslim families who live far away from each other.
Sameer Bhat, a Dubai-based journalist, hails from Sopore — known for its red, juicy apples and also once a militancy hotbed. Bhat wanted to connect with his Pandit neighbour Bunty “bhaiya” (elder brother). The page admin sounded out to all its followers if they could locate or tag Bunty from Sopore. And suddenly, there he was. And the virtual reunion was highly emotional.
Bunty bhaiya’s real name turned out to be Arun Koul, who is now based in Chandigarh. The two spoke for the first time in 28 years.
“It felt like 28 days ago, not even 28 weeks,” Bhat said, recalling how Bunty bhaiya and his family left the Valley and how all these years he missed “Herath” or “Shivratri” celebrations amid spring rains and soaked walnuts that Bunty’s mother would give him.
On March 8, the page posted a message from Anis Maqbool, looking for his Hindu friend Anil Moti. The two studied in Srinagar’s famous missionary school Tyndrale Biscoe till 1973. They never spoke to each other after leaving school. Presuming that Moti may have also left the valley at the height of militancy in early 1990s, Maqbool put out a search note for other Pandit friends too — Ramesh Kalposh and Prithvi Raj.
He was lucky to connect with Moti. Now based in Gurugram, near Delhi, Moti spoke with Maqbool over phone and the two discussed their lives and families. They also invited each other to their houses.
Moti “recalled the day when he was forced to leave and tear drops trickled down uninterrupted at both ends, like spring rains at home”, the page said in a post, reporting the re-union.
There are others who have posted lookout messages but not all have been as lucky. Suhail Naqshbandi, a Kashmiri cartoonist, wanted to speak to his school teacher “Mujju Ma’am” — who boosted his confidence when he had problems with understanding mathematics.
“It was at that nadir of crisis that an angel in the form of Miss Mujju came in my life. She asked us to (solve) a mathematical (problem). I hesitantly tried (but) my fear was not letting me do it. I felt a pat on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Miss Mujju smiling and telling me that it is O.K.”
“Her assurance and guidance gave wings to my confidence. My parents considered her a godsent guide for me,” the cartoonist wrote. But like many others, he has not been able to reconnect with his teacher — yet.
The brain behind the initiative is a Kashmiri advertising professional based in Gurugram named Jaibeer Ahmad.
“Despite polarisation, we continue to share bond as individuals. Bound together by our common heritage, culture, music, poetry, food and the phiran (the Kashmiri traditional overcoat),” Ahmad, 43, told IANS.
He said the migration of Pandits — this is how Kashmir’s native Hindu Brahmin community was traditionally known because of their erudition — did not just displace people but it tore apart friends, neighbours, teachers and colleagues. Pandits left the Valley in large numbers following the insurgency when they were targeted by mercenary militants who came across the border in Pakistan on the pretext of aiding Kashmir’s “freedom”.
Ahmad recalled the composite culture Kashmir’s Hindu Pandits and Muslims shared before the onset of militancy in the late 1980s.
“Today, there is bitterness, anger and animosity between the two communities. On social media, this hatred gets played out every day in the form of abuse and slander, dragging the communities further apart.
“Despite several efforts by the government and the civil society, there hasn’t been much progress. Most of these efforts are seen with suspicion from both sides,” he said, hoping that the initiative that he runs along with other Kashmiri friends — both Muslims and Hindus — bridges the gap between the divided communities that together made “Kashmiriyat” — or Kashmir’s unique composite culture.
(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Laharwalpora (Jammu and Kashmir) : Bilal Ahmad Dar, 18, is ready to start his daily journey into the Wular Lake, said to be Asia’s largest fresh-water lake, early in the morning on a bitterly cold December day.
For the last four years, this teenaged breadwinner of the family has been collecting plastic bottles, metal scrap, empty tetra packs and other waste left behind by locals and tourists, who come to visit the lake and end up littering it.
Bilal does not go to school like other boys of his age. He had to hang up his school bag when his father, Muhammad Ramzan, died five years ago leaving behind his mother, Mugli, elder sister Kulsuma, younger sister Rakshana and Bilal. Fate forced Bilal to make a living for his poor family by collecting refuse and trash from Wular Lake and selling it to scrap buyers.
In the process, this teenager has been doing what the government failed to do — cleaning the famous lake, the community’s lifeline — which was his passion even as a kid.
“Wular Lake is our life. I have always been pained to see people leaving behind metallic, plastic and other waste while they come here for sightseeing. Even when my father was alive, I used to go to the bank of the lake and try to remove unhealthy waste left there. When my father died, I had no option but to give up my studies and start earning for myself and my family.
“I decided to make a living by chasing my passion to preserve the lake on whose banks I was born and brought up,” Bilal told IANS.
The small, apparently unnoticed effort was lauded by none other than the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made a special mention of Bilal and his effort in his “Mann Ki Baat” address to the nation.
Bilal said, “I did not know about the development till officials and media people came to our village. It is really encouraging that the Prime Minister made a mention of my work.
“This has created a huge difference in my life. I would earn around a hundred rupees daily by selling the scrap collected from the lake, but that income depended on good weather and other factors which are necessary before one rows his boat into the lake.”
Prompted by Modi’s mention, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation designated Bilal as its brand ambassador to attract attention towards the deteriorating condition of the Dal Lake in Srinagar city and other water bodies here.
The municipality has fixed a monthly honorarium of Rs 8,000 for Bilal to continue his work.
“The first ‘tankha’ (salary) was credited to my account last month. I am now able to live a better life and pursue my work more effectively. Other boys and even elderly people have been encouraged to do their bit regarding the cleaning of the lake.
“My first request to everybody living around or coming to visit the lake is not to leave behind waste either on the lake’s banks or in it.
“After one takes a pledge not to pollute the water body, the second thing is to help remove the waste that is already there,” he said.
He says it is not possible to clear everything through an individual effort.
“Carcasses of animals can also been seen floating on the lake these days. It is the same lake whose water my mother says people could drink directly in the past without any fear of getting sick,” he pointed out.
The instant recognition of his effort at the highest level has made a difference in Bilal’s life and, more than that, the teenager feels this would one day make a difference in the environment and ecology of the lake on whose banks he was born.
“I am now confident everybody, big or small, will contribute to help Wular Lake regain its lost glory. The least all of us can do is to stop polluting the water bodies around us. If our rivers and lakes die, how can Kashmir live?” asked Bilal before starting his daily journey into the lake.
(This feature is part of a special series whose purpose is to do uplifting stories of people and communities who are making a difference in creating a better India or who are seeking to preserve India’s plurality and secular culture. It is made possible by a collaboration between IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikhqayoom@gmail.com )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
A protest by Kashmiri youth in Srinagar in August. (AP)
By Sarwar Kashani and Rajnish Singh,
New Delhi : The biggest challenge and the top priority in Kashmir are to deradicalize Kashmiri youth and militants and prevent it from turning into a Syria of India, says Dineshwar Sharma, the newly-named interlocutor for talks in Jammu and Kashmir.
An old Kashmir hand, who headed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for two years from December 2015, Sharma says his mission to bring an end to violence would also include talking to anyone “even a rickshaw puller or a cart puller” who can contribute so that peace is ushered in the state “as soon as possible”.
He says he is personally pained to see the path Kashmiris, particularly youth, have chosen that would only destroy the society.
“I feel the pain and sometimes I become emotional also. I want to see this kind of violence ends as soon as possible from all sides. The youth of Kashmir like Zakir Musa (Kashmir Al Qaeda chief) and Burhan Wani (slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander) get hype when they talk about (establishing Islamic) Caliphate,” Sharma told IANS in an interview, referring to the new-age Kashmir militant commanders.
He said the way youth of Kashmir were moving, “which is radicalization”, would ultimately “finish the Kashmir society itself.
“I am worried about the people of Kashmir. If all this picked up, the situation will be like Yemen, Syria and Libya. People will start fighting in so many groups. So, it is very important that everybody, all of us, contribute so that suffering of Kashmiris end.
“I will have to convince the youth of Kashmir that they are only ruining their future and the future of all Kashmiris in the name of whether they call it azadi (independence), Islamic caliphate or Islam. You can take examples like Pakistan, Libya, Yemen or any country where such things are going. They have become the most violent places in the world. So, I want to see that it doesn’t happen in India.”
The former IPS officer, who led the spy agency’s “Islamist Terrorism Desk” between 2003 and 2005, was named on Monday to open talks in a bid to end the nearly three-decade-old insurgency in Kashmir.
When the IB was investigating the fledgling modules of the Islamic State in Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in 2015, Sharma is widely known to have advocated a policy of arresting the problem by counselling and reforming, instead of arresting the potential recruits of the global terror network.
The soft-spoken intelligence veteran is known to have established friendly relationships with arrested militants in a bid to reform them when he was Assistant Director IB from 1992-94 – the time when militancy was at its peak in Jammu and Kashmir.
Serving in Kashmir as an IB man, Sharma was instrumental in the arrest of then Hizbul Mujahideen commander Master Ahsan Dar in 1993 after he broke away from Syed Salahuddin – the Hizb chief based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
He recalled how he had met Dar in Srinagar jails and how the militant commander asked him to bring his daughter and son to meet him in the prison. “I actually took them to meet him.”
Asked If he had identified the way to reach out to the youth in Kashmir, Sharma said he was still working out the modalities.
“I am open to talking to everybody. Anybody who believes in peace and wants to come and give me some ideas how to go about, I am willing to listen. He can be an ordinary student, ordinary youth, a rickshawwala or a thelawala with some good idea. I will consider that.”
He was asked if he had started reaching out to Hurriyat leaders, who have maintained silence over his appointment even though they had dropped hints in their statements about engaging in “constructive” talks with the government of India after some of their aides were arrested in terror funding case.
Sharma cautiously replied: “Let me see. I am ready to talk to everybody. Anybody who wants to contribute to peace.”
Replying to a query that radicalisation of Kashmiri youth was a more recent phenomenon than the problem of Kashmir itself, Sharma said the state was almost at peace before the 2008 unrest over a land row and the 2016 wave of violent street protests after the killing of Burhan Wani.
“Somehow the minds of youths and students have been diverted somewhere else. That is the point of address. I have seen the violence in Kashmir from very close quarters. I was posted in Srinagar. So the kind of violence I have seen, I am really pained. I am very sad.”
Commenting on the previous attempts by the government of nominating peace emissaries and other initiatives to solve the problem, he said he would “desperately like to try some new ideas”.
“I am studying the reports (of previous interlocutors) but other than that I am trying to see some new ideas.”
Kashmir is not Sharma’s first assignment of brokering peace. In June this year, he was tasked to initiate a dialogue with insurgent groups in Assam, including the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and those representing Bodos.
Asked over any difference between his previous peace brokering assignment and the new one, he said; “The big difference is that there is not any involvement of Pakistan and any third country in the northeast.”
(Sarwar Kashani and Rajnish Singh can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in and rajnish.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Srinagar : As compared to last year, Kashmir has so far witnessed a steady drop in both the intensity and prevalence of street violence.
In 2016, spiralling public violence was sparked by the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in a gunfight with the security forces on July 8.
The events that followed Wani’s death set the Valley on fire.
Official figures say 96 civilians and two policemen were killed in the unrest in the Valley and around 2,000 people, including civilians and security personnel, were injured.
Separatists claim 158 civilians were killed and 15,000 others injured in the unrest.
Nobody, however, disputes the fact that nearly 200 civilians suffered either permanent or partial loss of vision due to the use of pellet guns by the security forces during crowd control operations.
The writ of the state government was completely eroded during the unrest and this led to a situation in which the security forces could not carry out any anti-militancy operations, especially in the south Kashmir districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian, after July last year.
This encouraged the militants to move about freely and create an impression of so-called “liberated areas”.
This prompted dozens of local youths to join the militant ranks in south Kashmir areas.
The most serious fallout of the unrest on the security front were the public protests during anti-militancy operations.
“Over two dozen anti-militancy operations had to be called off to avoid loss of civilian lives in the beginning of this year,” said a senior intelligence officer who did not wish to be named.
The officer added that the grip of the state administration and the security forces on the ground situation has been re-established. Although there are still public protests during anti-militancy operations, the intensity of such protests has fallen appreciably.
The authorities believe the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) crackdown on the alleged beneficiaries of terror funding in Kashmir has seriously impacted the incidents of stone-pelting and other anti-India protests in the Valley.
“There is no doubt that stone-pelting incidents have unseen hands behind them that support and prompt such violence.
“Yet, many protests during anti-militancy operations are spontaneous because of the involvement of local youth in militancy,” said another intelligence officer.
“Believing that all protests are supported by funding would be fallacious. This is the reason why efforts to engage local youth in healthy activities like sports and social interactions are necessary while giving the unemployed job opportunities to live a life with dignity and confidence,” the officer added.
That the security forces are now talking of surrender opportunities to youth who joined militancy since last year in the “heat of the moment” definitely indicates the tightening of grip on the ground by the army, state police and the paramilitary forces.
“Operation All-Out” was launched in the Valley after the Union Home Ministry, in consultation with the army, decided that the slipping away of the ground situation any further, especially in south Kashmir areas, could result in a situation that might be worse than what was witnessed during the early 1990s.
“Since January this year, 147 militants, including some top commanders, have been killed,” said a senior police officer.
“We have been able to push militants from populated areas to higher reaches and the intelligence network has been strengthened to an extent that enables hot pursuit of militants the moment they venture into villages and towns,” he added.
He, however, did not attribute the improvement in the overall security situation to any single factor.
“It is the overall impact. It is the NIA raids, the hot pursuit by the security forces and also the concern of parents for their children that have had an overall impact on the ground,” the officer added.
Whether or not the NIA raids had a crushing impact on the morale of the separatists can always be debated, yet the fact remains that the security situation has definitely improved in the Valley after these raids.
Ironically, the tourist inflow into the Valley has been disappointing this year even though the security situation has improved.
“We had better tourism last year till July.
“Despite the unrest, we had 1.1 million tourist arrivals till the end of July 2016. This year, as September draws to a close, we have less than 50 per cent of that number till now,” said a senior official of the state’s Tourism Department.
The state government has blamed the media outside Kashmir for over-hyping the street violence in the Valley.
“Kashmir today is as safe as any other tourist destination in the country. We are expecting large numbers of tourists during this winter and next year,” said the Tourism Department official.
The optimism of the state government, the security forces and political observers apart, predicting Kashmir has always been a difficult task.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
—IANS
