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Mass Protests Against India's "State Terrorism" Threatened
SRINAGAR, India, Nov 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Kashmir's main separatist alliance Monday said it may call on people to take to the streets in protest if India does not stop alleged human rights violations in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
"Enough is enough. The APHC has decided that we may call upon the people to come on the streets if things do not improve," said Abdul Ghani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), who said he envisioned peaceful protests.
"If the state does not stop terrorism at their level," he said, "we may be forced to call upon the people to come out and die with honor and dignity."
"We will live with honor or dignity or die with honor and dignity," he told reporters at APHC headquarters in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.
"Organized groups of people, organized at the state level, indulge in rape, arson, killing in custody, and perhaps all such acts which are inhuman and barbaric. This is state terrorism," Bhat charged.
"And this state terrorism is unacceptable to us," said the APHC chief.
"If the people who talk in terms of non-violence and democracy, culture and civilization, if they are serious, let them bring culprits to book and disband such elements as are involved in the acts of terrorism."
Bhat charged counter-insurgency police with setting fire to a market in the southern township of Tral on Saturday after alleging an attack by Muslim activists.
The police denied the allegations.
A state government spokesman also denied Bhat's allegations of state terrorism.
"There is only one form of terrorism in Kashmir," he said, "and that is Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism."
Pakistan denies arming or funding Kashmiri "militants," - a word used by India to describe the armed activists fighting Indian occupation - but says it renders diplomatic, moral and political support to the "just struggle of Kashmiris."
Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani in August proposed an amnesty for forces violating human rights while clamping down on insurgencies. The plan was strongly denounced both by separatists and the Kashmir state government.
Human rights groups have also condemned the proposed amnesty; Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International (AI), said in a recent video that an "end to impunity" for human rights violations was one of the most important steps towards a less violent world.
AI sent a letter to Advani expressing their urgent concern about the proposed amnesty.
"No one should be allowed to operate outside the law. Any proposal to allow security forces to commit human rights violations with impunity is unacceptable," the London-based group told Advani.
"Both the Indian Constitution and international human rights law make no room for amnesties for grave human rights violations, such as torture, which constitute crimes under international law. The proposal should be rejected immediately," AI said.
In Monday's widespread violence, 16 Muslim activists, one Indian occupation soldier and five civilians were killed in several different districts in Kashmir.
Brigadier P.C. Das of India's security forces said that 27 "militants" have been killed since Sunday in the Poonch district alone, 140 miles northwest of Kashmir's winter capital Jammu.
"Pakistan is pushing in more and more rebels in view of snow fall on the border in Kashmir," he said, echoing the government's view of Pakistan as sponsoring terrorism.
"In the last 10 days, 81 militants have been killed in the same area," Das said.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir since a Muslim insurgency against Indian occupation broke out in 1989; Pakistan puts the toll as high as 70,000. The deadly violence has skyrocketed since the U.S.-led air strikes on Afghanistan.
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