The Indian Army commits human rights violations and transgresses international law with complete impunity in Jammu and Kashmir. This impunity continues to exist since 1989.
Some of the human rights violations the India Army commits with impunity include:
- Unlawful and extrajudicial killings
- Torture
- Enforced disappearances
The above findings come from Amnesty International’s annual report The State of the World’s Human Rights 2013. In its chapter on India, the report has collected the manner in which Indian law enforcement officers in Kashmir face no accountability and very little legal scrutiny for their actions.
Amnesty International is not alone in shining a light on the ongoing atrocities in Kashmir. In fact, a 49-page UN human rights report on Kashmir published in 2018 has also demanded that an “international inquiry into multiple violations” must take place.
Human Rights Watch endorsed the UN human rights report on Kashmir by stating that: “The Indian government should immediately act on the recommendations in the first-ever report by the United Nations on human rights in Kashmir”.
In a recent statement, Pakistan’s foreign minister also acknowledged that India is “committing grave human rights violations in Kashmir”.
However, this is not a one sided issue as the UN report has requested both countries – and, not just India – to adhere to human rights law. In a direct and unambiguous request, the UN publication has demanded “India and Pakistan to fully respect their international human rights law obligations in Indian-Administered and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir respectively”.
