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Srinagar Observes Strike as Indian Army Kills More Kashmiris
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Indian army on Friday gunned down 14 more Muslims in Indian-held Kashmir along the de facto border with Pakistan, police said, as Kashmiris called a one-day strike to protest continued Indian brutality, news agencies reported.
Twelve Kashmir fighters were killed after they allegedly crossed the Line of Control (LoC) near the town of Sonapindi in Kupwara district, 110 kilometers (68 miles) north of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, police said.
Police claimed Indian border guards and soldiers asked the 12 Kashmiri men to surrender before they eventually gunned them down.
The Indian army killed two other Kashmiri Muslims early Friday as they crossed the LoC near the town of Tangdar around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the first incident, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
In another incident, three members of a Muslim family in Garoora, near the town of Bandipora, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Srinagar, were brutally murdered by an unidentified group, who forced their way into a house belonging to Mohammed Abdullah Thursday night and opened fire, killing Abdullah, his son and daughter-in-law, AFP said.
Meanwhile, Muslims in Kashmir called a one-day strike Friday to denounce atrocities by Indian security forces in Indian-held Kashmir.
The strike, sponsored by Kashmir's main opposition group, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), closed down shops, banks, post offices and schools in Srinagar.
The otherwise busy streets of Srinagar were empty as most vehicles stayed off the roads. Indian border guards and police were seen patrolling the streets to prevent any violence. Similar reports poured in from other parts of Kashmir.
In a move that drew international condemnation, Indian authorities provided this month sweeping powers to security forces in dealing with the Muslim struggle in Kashmir and the northeast.
The APHC, in its emergency general council meeting Wednesday, said that since then, atrocities by Indian security forces directed at Muslims around the state have increased.
"Human rights groups have registered sharp increases in custodial killings, arbitrary arrests and excesses against innocent Kashmiris over the past one month," said APHC chairman Abdul Gani Bhat.
"Today's strike is to awaken the conscience of the world community which is maintaining criminal silence over Kashmir."
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday criticized the Indian government proposal to grant immunity to security personnel who violate human rights in Muslim Kashmir and the northeast.
"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 human rights organization said in an open letter to Indian Home Minister, L.K. Advani, carried by AFP.
"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 London-based group said in a statement received in New Delhi.
Advani said earlier in the month the federal government was seriously considering granting a "general amnesty" to Indian military personnel facing human rights abuse charges in Kashmir and the northeast, where at least 30 self-determination groups are active.
Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned violations of human rights by Indian forces in Kashmir, including the use of extra-judicial executions and illegal detentions.
Human rights activists in Kashmir and the Indian northeast also criticized the Indian government's proposal to grant amnesty to members of its military forces facing charges of rights violations in disputed areas of the country, news agencies reported.
Human rights groups said the move would curtail fundamental rights by allowing police and soldiers to kill without having to face consequences, AFP said.
"If people who have indulged in grave human rights violations are spared, it will be very painful for the families who have suffered," said Parveena Ahanger, of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Kashmir, whose son disappeared in 1990 after the Indian army arrested him.
"If this happens, security forces will get license to kill innocents at will. You are straight away telling the troops 'go and kill people, you will not be accountable'," she added.
Around 400 members of India's military forces in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, are facing prosecution for human rights offences against Kashmiri Muslims.
The APHC said Advani's proposal was anti-Muslim.
"The statement is loaded with anti-Muslim sentiments," AFP quoted Abbas Ansari, acting chairman of the APHC, as saying.
"It is an open war against the Muslims of Kashmir as we have been the worst sufferers of human rights violations at the hands of security forces," Abbas added.
A security committee headed by Advani declared the districts of Jammu and Doda in southern Kashmir "disturbed", and extended sweeping powers of arrest to law enforcing agencies there.
"The districts of Jammu and Doda have been declared as 'disturbed' under the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act," a home ministry official said.
Indian forces now have full powers to arrest suspects without a warrant, and carry out searches and cordon operations in Jammu and other regions in Kashmir, the ministry official said.
These powers were invoked in 1990 in the northern sections of Kashmir, where a resistance movement against Indian rule has left at least 70,000 people dead.
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