The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Personnel (BSF) have been accused of committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians.
[1][2][3][4] According to Seema Kazi, militant groups have also been held responsible for similar crimes, but the vast majority of abuses have been perpetrated by the armed forces of the Indian government.
[10][11][12][13][14] [15] Leaked diplomatic cables revealed that the Red Cross had briefed US officials in Delhi in 2005 about the use of torture from 2002 to 2004 by security forces against hundreds of detainees suspected of being connected to or having information about militants.
Migration continued until a vast majority of the Kashmiri Pandits were evicted out of the valley after having suffered many acts of violence, including sexual assault on women, arson, torture and extortion of property.
At least six journalists, human rights activists, and academics were denied travelling abroad despite having all the required documents, restricting freedom of movement without a court warrant or a written explanation.
International NGOs, as well as the US State Department, have documented human rights abuses including disappearances, torture, and arbitrary executions carried out during India's counter-terrorism operations.
[33] The Telegraph, citing a WikiLeaks report, quotes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Indian security forces were physically abusing detainees with beatings, electrocutions and sexual interference.
[35] The Army sources maintain that "any move to revoke AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir would be detrimental to the security of the Valley and would provide a boost to the terrorists.
He also said that 95% of the allegations of human rights abuses against Indian Army were proved to be false, of which he remarked, had apparently been made with the "ulterior motive of maligning the armed forces".
[40][41] The soldiers of the 4th Rajputana Rifles of the Indian Army on 23 February 1991 launched a search operation for the militants in a village Kunan Poshpora, in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir and after which they were accused by locals of allegedly raping 23 women.
[43][44] Nevertheless, the Indian committee that led a thorough investigation concluded that the allegations were "grossly exaggerated" and the Kunan rape story was "a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathisers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad as a part of sustained and cleverly contrived strategy of psychological warfare and as an entry point for re-inscribing Kashmir on the International Agenda as a Human rights issue.
[49] On 22 October 1993, the 13th Battalion of the Border Security Forces was accused of arbitrarily firing on a crowd and killing 37 civilians in Bijbehara[50][51] The number of reported dead and wounded vary by source.
[54][55] The same practice was again repeated by the personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, during the 2010 Kashmir Unrest, which resulted in 112 deaths, including many teenager protesters at various incidents.
[58] A Senior Superintendent of this group and his deputy are among the 11 personnel, who were convicted for a fake encounter, which killed a local carpenter, and was labelled as a militant to get the promotions and rewards.
[61] Human rights group Amnesty claim that the special powers under (AFSPA) gives the security force immunity from alleged violations committed,[62][63] and condemn it.
[64][65][66] United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay has urged India to repeal AFSPA and to investigate the disappearances in Kashmir.
[74] Hundreds of civilians including women and children have reportedly been extrajudicially executed by Indian security forces and the killings are concealed as fake encounters.
[85][84] A State Human Rights Commission inquiry in 2011, has confirmed there are thousands of bullet-ridden bodies buried in unmarked graves in Jammu and Kashmir.
[87] In a 1994 report, Human Rights Watch described summary executions of detainees as a "hallmark" of counter-insurgency operations by Indian security forces in Kashmir.
[102] According to a report by Human Rights Watch in 1993, the security forces use rape as a method of retaliation against Kashmiri civilians during reprisal attacks after militant ambushes.
[101][103][104] Professor William Baker states that rape in Kashmir was not the result of a few undisciplined soldiers but an active strategy of the security forces to humiliate and intimidate the Kashmiri population.
[105] Human rights groups state that 150 top officers, of the rank of major or above, have participated in torture as well as sexual violence and that the Indian government was covering up such acts.
[109] Due to the impact of the conflict, a number of people in the valley suffer from various psychological problems like stress (normal or related to traumatic event), anxiety, mood, and post-traumatic disorders.
[citation needed] A 2010 US State Department report cited extrajudicial killings by security forces in areas of conflict such as Kashmir as a major human rights problem in India.
[110] Christof Heyns, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has warned India that "all of these draconian laws had no place in a functioning democracy and should be scrapped".
[24] The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has also been blamed of carrying out human rights violations, ranging from kidnapping to ethnic cleansing of several hundred thousand Hindu Kashmiri Pandits.
[24] A 2010 US state department report blamed separatist insurgents in Kashmir and other parts of the country of committing several serious abuses, including the killing of security personnel as well as civilians, and of engaging in widespread torture, rape, beheadings, kidnapping, and extortions.
It wasn't just the killing but the way they tortured and killed.The violence against Kashmiri Pandits was condemned and labelled as ethnic cleansing in a 2006 resolution passed by the United States Congress.
[132] Post-1989, Kashmiri Pandits and other minority groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been targets of jihadi elements which India alleges and blames on the Inter-Services Intelligence.
[140] In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, confessed to the National Investigation Agency that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre.