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| HOME | NEWS | COLUMNISTS | VARSHA BHOSLE | |||
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January 25, 2000
NEWSLINKS
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Varsha Bhosle
Human rights violations in KashmirJanuary is nearly gone... and have you heard anything more on Lt Gen Krishan Pal being shifted out of 15 Corps? On November 8, our Josy Joseph reported that "indications available from the army HQ" were that "corrective steps" would be taken, one of which would be Lt Gen Pal's transfer in January; an officer from Delhi would be taking over as the new commander; Lt Gen Pal wanted to be in Delhi and was making "informal queries about a possible posting"; 15 Corps had misled Georgekaka over the attack on the late Maj Purshottam, telling him that it took place outside the high security zone -- "once again pointing a finger at the 15 Corps top brass" -- just as it had misled Gen V P Malik about the gravity of the intrusion during the beginning of the Kargil conflict. The insinuation was that the commander was suspected of having subverted security. I, of course, take unnamed sources with a bag of salt. So I checked. One reply of November 17: "All bloody bunkum. Gen Pal is firmly in chair and directing the anti-militancy campaign in an even more spirited manner. Besides, he is responsible for the security situation of the valley and not BB Cantt -- so how the hell can he be blamed for it? What mattered was Kargil and there we came out with flying colours. Pakistan has never found itself in a bigger mess than now -- militarily defeated, economically broke, diplomatically isolated and politically weaker -- both internally and externally. Must the reward for all this be what these Josys perceive? We don't need an enemy from outside -- Bharat desh mahaan!!" Yet, I held back, just in case Josy was right... Ha! Thing is, Lt Gen Pal retires in February, and if he'd been suspect, we'd have known by now... It incenses me, this kind of reportage, especially in this age of e-mail and cell phones. All it takes is one call to confirm. But that isn't made simply due to the reporter's own preconceived notions. Let me tell you worse, about the murder of Maj Purshottam: "Local media had given the info. They [the killers] had a map; they scaled the rear wall, the only spot that could be scaled. Puru went in the toilet with the three journalists who were with him, then came out because his JCO was alone. He died saving his subordinates and the journos. Had he too hidden himself, he would have survived, but honour mattered more. He was shot in the head. And the three journos refused to testify what Puru did for them when Star's Sanjay Ahirwal tried to interview them." The people who informed the terrorists and the people who refused to speak to Star News are, what else, Ye Seekers of the Truth... So yeah, I distrust all that's written against the army, especially khaki atrocities. Because I've yet to see a single report/column focusing on human rights abuses committed by terrorists... This slammed into my face when Raj and I had a tiff over my piece on 29 RR. He said, You haven't explained why RR searched the bus passengers, why they evacuated the village -- they seem high-handed. I retorted, I have to now explain why search is required?! Am I writing for morons?! And then I thought, he's right! With so much anti-army propaganda, how would readers know why lightning searches are imperative, why soldiers must think on their feet, what "excesses" are intrinsic to counter-insurgency ops, and what terrorists do to civilians? While army = oppression of civilians, there's no drummed-in shorthand for the evils perpetrated by terrorists! We only get stuff like: "even senior officials are subjected to gruelling three to four hours sit in the open grounds and are paraded before the CATs... The residents of Raniwari mohalla were woken up from their sleep by a BSF team before sunset... The security forces asked [students] to carry their books to the field... None is allowed to carry the kangri to keep warm during winter" (ToI, November 29). Forget the attacks on security personnel, in Kashmir, terrorists have ruthlessly been targeting civilians, especially those who do not support their cause. Their heinous acts have resulted in the killing of 513 innocent civilians in 1999 and 35 this month, besides serious injuries to 623 civilians in 1999 and 31 this month. In addition, they've also been taking out political activists and people suspected of being informers of the army and police. Populated areas like market places and cinemas are the main targets so that heavy casualties can be inflicted and the blame for all collateral damage to civil property can be laid on the security forces and further alienate the masses. And of course, there's the large-scale sabotage activity, which has not only damaged various installations in J&K, but also resulted in the killing of a number of civilians. Recently, militants damaged the electric power stations at Waghroo and Qazigund (Anantnag Dist), further accentuating the problem of power shortage in the state. Statistics -- of only civilians killed/injured -- of this month:
One murdered and one injured daily, is what this indicates. Can you imagine living in a state where no place, nobody is safe? Are these stats even remotely comparable to the human rights abuses imputed to various branches of the security forces...? Then WHY aren't these murders, injuries, indignities and damages highlighted by Ye Seekers of the Truth...? Beats me! A little known -- as in, ignored by Ye Seekers -- is the plight of the women of Kashmir. Since 1989, when militancy took a giant leap forward after V P Singh's government yielded to the kidnappers of Rubaiya Sayeed (and which is bound to take another quantum leap after Masood's release by the equally spineless Vajpayee government), there has been increased involvement of Pak-sponsored foreign mercenaries and, consequently, dramatic changes in the modus operandi. However, one aspect that has continued unabated and unchanged over the past decade is the exploitation of Kashmiri women by the mehmaan mujahideen. These propagators of Jihad actually raised a women's organisation called Anjuman-e-Khawateen -- the whole and sole purpose of its "members" being to entertain the militants and cope with their physical and psychological needs. An organisation for forced prostitution... In areas where this org could not take root, the system of contract marriage, called Mutah, was sanctified by these mentors of Islam. Under Mutah, a militant could enter into a contract marriage for, say, a period of two years with a girl of his choice, and on completion of that period, the marriage stood automatically annulled. Thereafter, the girl is left to her own fate, with the burden of social stigma and the responsibility of single-handedly rearing the progeny of the union for the rest of her life. Young girls are kidnapped, inhumanly raped by several militants for days at a stretch, made to work as agents and conduits for various terrorist groups and exploited in every possible manner before being finally discarded: Just a few "lucky" ones survive the ordeal, while the majority of them are put to a brutal and merciless end. I will list only three cases of such incidents, all from Anantnag district, and you tell me if you have ever read about these, or anything even similar to these, in the papers. More significantly, tell me whether or not the cases make, what the Press thrives on, "good copy": * In March 1998, Nusrat Jan, an 18-year-old girl from village Garol -- who had been educated upto class X and had even done a four months tailoring course from ITI, Chandigarh -- was abducted, raped and murdered by the militants. This was in retaliation for her brother's refusal to join the militant ranks. * In January 1999, Sharifa Begum, the wife of an Ikhwani (reformed militant) from village Yichu Garol, was picked up by a group of militants and gang-raped. Then, her nose was chopped off and her throat slit. This brutality was unleashed on the mere suspicion that Sharifa was responsible for the transformation of her husband from a militant to an law abiding citizen.
No, the Islamic militants do NOT "follow a strict moral code in order to gain public sympathy" -- as was coolly stated by The Indian Express of December 7. The list of human rights violations against Kashmir's women is long and endless. The means used to commit these sacrileges have little to do with Islam; they are primarily aimed at satisfying the militants' carnal lust and, later, the desecrations are sought to be justified as "punishment" for the victims' perceived disloyalty towards the militant orgs. Are these not human rights violations? Shouldn't they be investigated by our pinko newsmen and NGOs and judicial commissions? The message from the militants to the women is: Submit or Perish. Unfortunately, even after they submit, most of them still perish. The kith and kin of the three women who were tortured, raped and murdered, dared to bring the cases to the notice of the authorities. There are hundreds more who, out of fear of retribution by the militants, do not even look at members of the security forces, leave alone talk to them about the ignominies they were forced to suffer. It would be quite a different story if a Seeker of the Truth quietly sought them out and brought their tales of woe to the light. But, such are too busy writing about the canes soldiers carry to herd civilians to the polling booth... |
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* On the night of August 5, 1999, Sabrose Akhtar, daughter of Mohd Ishad Khan of village Chirwar, was kidnapped by militants. The 18-year-old girl was taken at gun-point to the nearby forest and repeatedly raped by all the members of the militant gang. After that horrendous defilement, she was tortured with a sharp-edged weapon, her genitals mutilated, and flesh lopped off from different parts of her body. If this wasn't enough, the animals then severed her head from the body in a final display of their brand equity...