GAW KADAL MASSACRE-KILLING EVEN INJURED-  AND THEY CALL THEMSELVES BRAVE

(By Abdul Majid Zargar)

The Killing of January 21^st 1990 at Gaw Kadal bridge, in Srinagar Qualifies as the first major & worst slaughter of Kashmiri Muslims by trigger-happy  Indian forces. In this incident the number of Killed varies from 52 to 100-Some by direct firing & others by drowning after they jumped into the river, a tributary of river Jehlum, out of fear. In that respect it bears resemblance to massacre at Jallianwallah Bagh where many protestors  died by jumping into the nearby well.

The firing on the peaceful protestors  , who were protesting  unauthorized searches, massive arrests &  molestation of women committed on the previous day during a search & cordon operation by the Indian security forces, was directed by CRPF-an Indian Para Military police force,   under the guidance & direction of a local police Officer- Allah Baksh  who later inherited a sobriquet name “General Dyer”-the officer who ordered indiscriminate firing on innocent Indian protestors at Amritsar’s Jallianwallah Bagh. Says Khurram, the award winning human rights activist, whose grandfather was also killed in this incident “I was 14 years of age then, and the man behind that massacre (Allah Baksh) lived next door. It was a torture to see him every day. As a young boy, I had decided to take revenge on him, but then, as I grew up, I realized that the greatest revenge would be fighting for justice,”. Allah Baksh died a year ago.

Writes Balraj Puri, a Jammu based political activist, in his book, “Kashmir Insurgency and After on page 65, “Soon after the imposition of Governor’s Rule, the people in Kashmir were administered a severe shock. At 5 a.m. on 20 January 1990, security forces cracked down on a part of Srinagar city, conducted a house-to-house search and rounded up over three hundred persons, most of whom were, however, released later.”
Recalling his meeting with various effected families immediately after the incident puri says “People also complained that most of those arrested were beaten up or dragged out of their houses. In some cases, they were not even allowed to wear shoes and taken barefooted. The next day people were on the streets, defying curfew, to protest against the alleged excessive and use of force in the search operation and ill-treatment of women. Groups of demonstrators started from different parts of the city. They were not stopped en route but fired upon when most of them converged around Gaw Kadal.”

Writes Famous historian & Travel Writer William Dalrymple -“When I got to Srinagar the following day, I went straight to the city hospital. Every bed there was occupied and the overflow lined the corridors. One man, an educated and urbane city engineer named Farooq Ahmed, described how after the firing, the CRPF walked slowly forward across the bridge, finishing off those who were lying wounded on the ground. When the shooting began, Ahmed had fallen flat on his face and managed to escape completely unhurt. “Just as I was about to get up,” he told me, “I saw soldiers coming forward, shooting anyone who was injured. Someone pointed at me and shouted, ‘that man is alive,’ and a soldier began firing at me with a machine gun. I was hit four times in the back and twice in the arms.” Seeing that he was still alive, another soldier raised his gun, but the officer told him not to waste ammunition. “The man said I would anyway die soon.” –Brave Indian Soldiers indeed!

This incident also triggered the migration of Pandiths from Kashmir. The rumors were  strife that Jagmohan had advised them, through few select leaders, to leave Kashmir temporarily to Jammu so that Muslims could be dealt effectively. As Puri recalls “ During our  visit to Srinagar we also formed a joint committee of Kashmiri Muslims—former Chief Justice Mufti Bahauddin Farooqi and a leading advocate Ghulam Nabi Hagroo—and Kashmiri Pandit leader H N Jatoo to allay the apprehensions of Kashmiri Pandits about threat to their lives. We also were able to persuade some other Muslims leaders and priests to issue appeal to the Pandits not to migrate. Somehow our efforts did not succeed in preventing the mass migrations of the Pandits as contrary forces proved more effective.”

The biggest tribute to Gaw Kadal martyrs is the adoption of word “Gaw Kadal” by the “Urban dictionary” to mean “massacre of  a protesting crowd  with no means of escape”. It is now upto writers, both in Urdu & English to popularize its usage.

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. Feed back at abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com)

MOUNTBATTEN, NEHRU & GURDASPUR

(By Abdul Majid Zargar)

This write-up is in response to Mr. B.R.Singh’s article “Kashmir, Gurdaspur, Nehru”

 which appeared in daily “Greater Kashmir” of 20^th April 2014.The author has suggested that in the partition of 1947,Mountbattan & Nehru had no hand in awarding Gurdaspur district to India.

Much of the meaningful information on the subject is contained in two books- One-“Time only to look forward”  written by Mountbatten himself and the other “Two Nations & Kashmir” by Lord Birdwood. The author is either not aware of these books or has wilfuly ignored them to promote a particular colored  discourse. Therefore, a point by point response is necessary & given hereunder:  

1.According to author, Out of four tehsils of Gurdaspur district, namely  Shakargarh, Gurdaspur,  Batala  & Pathankot, only one tehsil Shakargarh was Muslim Majority area. He is factually wrong .Infact only one Tehsil , namely Pathankot was predominantly Hindu while the other three districts were predominantly Muslim. Overall Gurdaspur district was predominantly Muslim with a 51.14% Majority as against 50.6% stated by the author. The difference  may not mean much-but such edgy figures have a psychological effect. A figure of 50.6% means more or less an even distribution while 51.14% means a clear majority.

 2. The author has referred to the draft wavel plan of 1946  in which District Gurdaspur was proposed to be granted to India.  True- but he has conveniently omitted to mention  that the said proposal was rejected in London after  protracted discussions & Gurdaspur bestowed  to Pakistan and hence included  in the award attached to the first Schedule of the Indian Independence Act 1947.This was a law to be followed meticulously by one & all  but unfortunately was not.

3. Once Indian Independence Act 1947 & its schedule became known to Indian leaders, they realized the major constraint of absence of land access corridor to Kashmir. Accordingly V.P. Menon, acting as  Constitutional advisor to Mountbatten, sent him a note which reads as  “It (Kashmir) does not lie in the bosom of Pakistan and it can claim an exit to India, especially if a portion of Gurdaspur district goes to India”. (see Vol XII of ‘The Transfer of Power’ series of documents. 151-p 214).

4.At his press conference on 4^th June , in answer to a question regarding provisional & final demarcations, Mountbatten, without any mandate or authority  announced  that the Boundary Commission would unlikely award the whole of Gurdaspur to Pakistan. (Time only to look forward- by Mountbatten –p.30).  This was a clear hint/direction  to Sir Cyril Redcliffe  of  what to do. In fact Ch. Muhammad Ali , one of the two joint secretaries on the Partition Council  vehemently protested this highly improper interference in Commission’s work.

5. After the award of three districts of Gurdaspur to India in flagrant violation to agreed norms of partition & principles of fair play, the reason given for changing the original award attached to Indian Independence Act, was because  of the location of  headwaters  of the Canals which irrigate the adjacent Amritsar District,  in the Gurdaspur district .This was a specious argument because the head-works of the “Upper Bari  Doab”  canal which irrigated much of the Lahore district was also located in the same Gurdaspur district.

6. According to Indian Journalist & now a BJP Spokesperson M.J.Akbar, Nehru would  continuously prod & persuade   Mountbatten  in private meetings to leave Gurdaspur in Indian hands . (Behind the Vale-Page 98). As official biographer of Nehru ( He wrote-Nehru-the making of India) Akbar  is  privy to much of the inside information. It is also an open secret that Nehru often exploited  his romantic  relations  with  Edwina Mountbatten  to influence her husband  Mountbatten to earn  favors, otherwise not due. According to latest research based on Archival Material in London, one of the reasons for Mountbatten to advance the date of Partition from June 1948 to August 1947 was to wean away her spouse from Nehru’s influence. Imagine more than a million innocent souls would have been saved on both sides of the border, by proper planning & deployment of Army,  had Nehru been more circumspect & discreet  in his conduct & not compelled Mountbatten to fast forward  the partition programme.

7. Last but not least, the author has referred to a meeting between Redcliffe  & Kuldip Nayyar, in which the former is reported to have denied  any kind of pressure from Mountbatten. And the same Redcliffe, when queried by Professor Zaidi of Pakistan four years earlier in 1967, says that he has destroyed all his papers pertaining to partition to keep validity of the award (Kashmir in conflict-by Victoria schofield –p 38).If redcliffe was so much concerned about the sanctity of the award, how come he reveals vital information to Nayyar?

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. Email: abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com)

SARDAR PATEL- A MONSTER OR A MESSIAH

(By Abdul Majid Zargar)

The ruling  political party   at centre, Congress is in a mad race  with BJP to own & appropriate the legacy of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Independent  India’s first Home Minster also referred to as Iron Man of India. BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi has even promised to collect iron from five hundred villages of India to erect a large Statue of Patel, to which Congress’s spokesman has satirically retorted. “First they(BJP) promised us a Ram Mandir. Then they sold bricks (referring to shilanyas). Now they will sell iron”.

If Congress had lived to its ideals of secularism & democracy propagated before & at the time of partition of sub-continent, then it should  be  ashamed of having in it’s fold a person like Sardar patel. But alas history has been distorted to convert a communal monster into a messiah.

Patel’s communal mindset & hatred against Indian Muslims can be measured from a debate in constituent assembly. Replying to a demand of  reservations for Muslims in India made by a member  Naziruddin Ahmed, Patel replied “You have got what you wanted. And remember, you are the people who are responsible for Pakistan, and not those who live in Pakistan. You led the agitation. What is it you want now? We do not want the country to be divided again” (Times of India, 29 August 1947).The sarcastic tone of this reply tells you all. Instead of being obliged to Muslims who preferred to stay back against heavy odds and made this country a truly secular one, Patel blames them for partition. He easily forgot his own role along with Nehru & Gandhi in repudiating  cabinet Mission plan which finally became a Raison d'etre for partition of the sub-continent.

 Immediately after Independence when Congress was at the helm, there was talk of a classified circular which directed that no Muslim be appointed to senior-level positions in the defence forces. (The Hindu- 19^th August 2009).  This circular was issued at the behest of  Patel as Deputy Prime  Minister . He also instituted a policy whereby government officers were expected to report Muslim personnel who were thought to be of "questionable patriotic value". This created  such a fear psychosis among  Muslim officers that many were  forced to leave India. Those left behind always thought of being under continuous surveillance, a syndrome they are still inflicted with. If you observe the behavior of some  top Indian Muslim bureaucrats posted  in Kashmir- you will notice the effects of this syndrome compelling them to overdo things which leads one to  feel that Hindu officers are better than Muslim ones.

Patel is credited with integration of  five hundred sixty two  princely states with the Indian union. But his means of doing so were coercive, undemocratic & foul . To obtain an instrument of merger from an unwilling  Raja of Alwar, Tej Singh Prabakar, Patel arrested  and falsely implicated him in an assassination plot of Mahtama Gandhi until he fell in line. Other Mahraja’s took the hint & made a beeline for mergers.  Once during the Kashmir debate in Constituent Assembly, Sheikh Abdullah in a mood of exasperation, walked out of parliament. Patel noticed it and sent Abdullah a message that he could walk out of Parliament but not be able to leave Delhi. Abdullah took the message & returned (Thematic Volumes on Patel-page 17).

Indian textbooks  show Sardar Patel as demi-god who created a unified India. The truth is more sordid. You will not find any mention of massacre of Muslims in Hyderabad & Jammu   in any standard history book. The window dressing of Patel’s misdeeds is complete. In respect of Hyderabad, which had declared independence instead of accession with India, Patel through his infamous police action is  directly responsible for  slaughter of around two lac Hyderabadi Muslims. The  Sunderlal commission enquiry report in this regard, which is believed to have  strongly  indicted  Patel, has not been made public till date. Writes  famous writer William Dalrymple In  his  book-The Age of Kali, “the Sunderlal report has been leaked and published abroad, and estimates that as many as 200,000 Hyderabadi Muslims were slaughtered.” Similar views have been expressed by Prof Cantwell Smith, in The Middle Eastern Journal, in 1950.

Being a willing partner with Dogra rulers  in massacre of Muslims in Jammu in 1947 to enforce a demographic change, Patel’s visit to Jammu was meant to  fastrack the pogrom. Writes Abdullah in his  book Aatish Chinar at Page 312 “On November 4 1947, Patel along with Mahraja of Patiala & Defence Minster Baldev Singh visited Jammu and had a  talk with Mahraja. On 5^th November a proclamation was made in the city informing the Muslims desiring to go to Pakistan to assemble at police lines. In response men, women & children came in large numbers. They were herded in  around forty trucks with each truck holding  around sixty  people. On reaching  a hill side near Samba, the young women were abducted while the rest were mowed down by  machine Guns already set up there”. Patel has   even been accused of allowing diversion of Govt. Arms & ammunition to RSS thugs who played a havoc with such arms (see Nehru’s letter to Patel dated 30^th December 1947).

Regarding treatment meted out to Muslims, Patel had few tiffs with  Abul Kalam Azad. The first such tiff occurred at Patel’s refusal to replace Delhi’s Sikh Police Commissioner, when he was clearly seen siding with  marauders  killing Muslim men & raping their women. On another occasion, Patel ignored Azad’s request to allot properties of departing Muslims to those  Muslims who had been dispossessed in other states but instead allotted these to incoming Hindu refugees.

Notwithstanding his many statements exhorting Hindu-Muslim unity, rights of minorities etc. which were all hog-wash meant for   public consumption, Patel In actual life was a proverbial wolf in lamb’s clothing.  Congress leaders need to revisit history before vying with BJP to own & appropriate his legacy.

(This article is dedicated to the memory of those innocents who were killed in Jammu in 1947 for no fault of theirs-Feed back at abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com)

I want to pelt a stone at …..

(By Abdul Majid Zargar)

This week the targets of e-stones are following persons

Mr. Swapan Das Gupta:

Mr. Swapan Das Gupta is a known Columnist. Starting his career from “The Statesman”, he has worked in newspapers like “The Times of India”, “The Telegraph” and “The Indian Express” before joining “India Today”. He is currently a freelancer and an avid blogger. Politically , he is considered close to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Expressing his views on the recent visit of All Party Parliamentary Delegation to J& K, he writes in one of his Columns published in “Deccan Chronicle” that a civil Society group close to Hurriyat Conference also met the Delegation. The group he is referring to is one which made an honest & eloquent presenentation of it’s views before the APD . The speakers chosen for the occasion were Mrs. Hameeda Nayeem, an academician & social activist & Dr. Altaf Hussain Mufti, a renowned pediatrician of the valley. The former is wife of Mr. Nayeem Khan, the incarcerated Hurriyat(M) leader which prompted Mr. Das Gupta to label the Civil society group as close to “Hurriyat”

I would like to put a simple question to Mr. Das Gupta. When Phoolan Devi, the notorious bandit Queen was elected to Parliament and she rubbed shoulders with other Parliamentarians, did that make the august House close to groups in Chambal Valley? If not then how does association of a graceful lady with a group, her spouse’s views notwithstanding, make that group close to Hurriyat?

Let me add something for information of Mr. Das Gupta & journalists of his ilk. The factual presentation made by the Civil Society Group under reference was so persuasive, lucid & appealing that many important members of the delegation were visibly moved by knowing the facts. The Canards & falsehoods spread by crass & more-than-compliant Journalists based in New-Delhi under the false notion of patriotism fell apart like a pack of cards. It is rightly said that Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels & acts committed under its cover is called vandalism & not Journalism.

Mr. Swapan Das Gupta, therefore deserves a stone to be pelted at.

Mr. Vijay Sazawal:

Mr. Vijay Sazawal is a native Kashmiri Pandith Ji settled in USA. There he runs a Forum known as “Indo-American Kashmir Forum’- We are told that it is .an overseas organization of Kashmiri Pandiths. So far so good.

On the recent visit of Indian Defence Minister to USA, his forum submitted him a Memorandum profusely thanking him for not making desired amendments to AFPSA, which was even demanded by CM Omar Abdullah.

Vow-Pandith Ji, It stands to reason that your forum opposes the demand for “Azadi” to Kashmiris. Since there are numerous forums or organizations of Kashmiri Diaspora, which strongly advocate Azadi or freedom for Kashmir, your democratic right to oppose such demands is conceded to that extent.

But it is beyond one’s comprehension that a Kashmiri residing thousands of miles away from his native place opposes a change in law which is universally acknowledged as cannibalistic & brutally repressive. It is this Act which offers a shield to Indian Army to protect its delinquent men. Pathribal, Ganderbal & Machil fake encounters are glaring examples of that obnoxious shield.

Mr. Sazawal is neither effected by the application of this Act nor has any apparent reason(hidden reasons I do not know) to defend it. The only conclusion is that he suffers from a malady known as “economic bestowment of humanity & common sense”.

Mr. Vijay Sazawal, therefore deserves a stone to be pelted at.

The Vehicle Owner & Traffic Constable:

The other day I was driving through City roads when I suddenly found a load-Carrier in front of me emitting huge quantity of smoke. The smoke was so peppery that I had to reduce my speed to increase the distance between my car & the erring Vehicle.

Upon reaching TRC roundabout, I stopped my car & lodged a complaint with the traffic Constable on duty. Pat came the reply- Sir, We are only concerned with the validity of pollution control certificate & not the pollution itself. Hence no action can be taken as of now. I was dumbstruck.

For not getting his vehicle properly tuned & the dereliction of duty, both the Vehicle owner & traffic Constable deserve a stone each to be pelted at.

(The author is a practicing Chartered Accountant. feedback at amzargar1@indiatimes.com)

POWER CORRUPTS & ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTLY
(By Abdul Majid Zargar)
Political corruption is the use (or misuse) of legislated powers by politicians & beaurocrat for illegitimate private gain. Corruption and governance lie on a continuum but occupy opposite poles. Whereas governance, with its end goal of creating a good government, aims to serve the interest of the people, corruption, through the use of public office and resources, serves the narrow interest of family and allies. “Good government” plays an important role in the development process, and “requires the highest standards of integrity, openness and transparency”. Good government is bound by rules aimed to create a transparent and accountable government; corruption plays discreetly and sometimes directly on these rules to make decisions which will benefit those who have access to power and the highest bidder.
The allegation of corruption leveled by Dr. Fayaz Shawl, a son of soil & a world renowned cardiologist against chief Minister & his Junior Minister, Mr. Nasir Aslam Wani has come at a very inopportune time, when Prime Minister Singh is expected to start his sojourn to the valley. But let us start with first thing first.
It was in 2002 when Dr. Shawl, a leading interventional cardiologist decided to set up a super specialty Hospital in Kashmir to treat the patients, who have otherwise to go to Delhi & Mumbai for treatment. For this purpose a piece of land measuring 40 kannals was acquired by Dr. Shawl at Nishat. He needed permission of the Govt. to start construction of the Hospital & an adjacent rehabilitation centre. The grant of permission has taken four long years, an unusually long period for a prestigious project like this.Dr. shawl has alleged that the dilly-dallying tactics were employed to delay the permission with a subtle hint to shell out the necessary consideration.
We have no reason to disbelieve Dr. Shawl. He has travelled from America to invest a huge sum just to bring succor & relief to poor & needy patients hailing from his motherland. Why should he level false allegation against CM & his favorite Junior Minister? His announcement of gifting a huge sum of Rs. forty crores to SKIMS upon shelving the project, is in itself a proof of his honest intentions.
The value of disservice done by the pathetic attitude of CM & his Junior MInister cannot be measured immediately. Besides treating number one killer disease in Kashmir itself for which huge amounts have to be spent by locals outside, the project could have generated direct & indirect employment, by conservative estimates, to at least 2000 people. It could have opened a new vista of medical tourism for Kashmir. The CM could have extracted his political price by insisting that preference in employment should be given to people hailing from his own constituency.
The CM’s Junior Minister has made the usual noise of charges being false & concocted. He has threatened legal action against Dr. shawl. While nobody can deny him this right, he is well advised to remember that for a public person like him, it is the perception as against reality, which matters. People in general perceive politicians as corrupt & thugs. They are aware how political corruption has played havoc with their souls & bodies. Does he need to be reminded that there has been a ecological vandalism in allowing construction of Hotels atop Hill tops & mountains? Does he need to be told that a prestigious Hotel in Kashmir has been sold to a non state subject through dubious documentation. Or he does not have guts to listen that Srinagar City is today rated as one of the dirtiest cities, the root cause of which is only corruption. It may be his defense that a particular act was not committed by him but by his predecessor or by his colleague but since birds of the same feather fly together, a general & common perception is created about all of them.
Political scientists have long been assessing the effects of deadly mix of corruption & bad governance on the political psyche of a society. A majority view asserts that it is difficult to judge whether corruption & mis-governence helps create conflict zones or conflict Zone breed such corruption & misgovernence. Kashmir is an classic example of such an assertion.
Dr shawl’s case is not first & it will not be last either. What however is certain that Kashmiris are suffering enormously due to high political corruption prevelant in every sphere of life?

Significance of November 6 for Muslims of Jammu & Kashmir

November 6 1947 has a very special significance for Muslims of Jammu & Kashmir. Indian Army had already landed in Srinagar on October 26, pursuant to a controversial accession alleged to have been entered between Mahraja Hari Singh & Indian Government. Fearing reprisals at the hands of people & hurt at the loss of northern areas, Maharaja had fled Kashmir valley to rest in the safe environs of Jammu.
Upon reaching Jammu he spew venom against Muslims and privately ordered his army & fanatics aided & abetted by RSS cadres to butcher them. An organized genocide of Jammu Muslims was launched by them in all areas of Jammu. Muslim Women were abducted & raped. Even the daughter of Legendary leader, Chowdhary Gulam Abbas was not spared. Men & children were massacred with swords & rifles provided by the Dogra Army. Local Police & administration became mute & willing spectators. The Muslims were massacred by the same ruler who was supposed to be their savior. The pogrom bears very close resemblance to the Gujarat carnage enacted in 2002.
A gory incident needs a mention here. Thousand of Jammu city Muslims were made to assemble in parade ground on the promise of safe passage to Sialkot. They were herded like cattle in many trucks & brutally killed near Samba & Kathua Borders. No mercy was shown to these defenseless persons by the same very Jammu people & administration who swear by secularism & non-violence.
It is said that Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah made fanatic calls to New-Delhi to impress upon Maharaja to stop the genocide of Muslims but his calls fell on deaf ears. The administration there was either too busy with the aftermaths of partition or were deliberately ignoring his calls.
Another incident is worth mentioning here. A few thousand Hindus migrated from Muzaffarabad and reached Kashmir. Sheikh Mohd Abdullah made elaborate arrangements for their transportation to Jammu through 250 odd tongas. These tonga drivers who were kashmiri Muslims were butchered in Jammu after offloading the migrant passengers.
Kashmiri Muslims need to keep this in mind while deciding their future at any given opportunity. Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah who was instrumental in driving us to the Indian lap in 1947 will definitely have to face & answer those innocent Jammu
martyrs on the day of Reckoning. Let his son & Grand son take a note of this & rectify the mistake committed by their ancestors.
(The author is a practicing Chartered Accountant & can be contacted at amzargar1@indiatimes.com for feed back)

Sixteen years ago,Prof. Baker entered Kashmir and witnessed some worst human rights voilations committed by Indian Army on hapless & defenceless Kashmiris. The whole world has turned as a mute spectator to genocide of Kashmiri Muslims by a tyrrant State.The following observations of Prof. Baker are as relevant today as were 16 years ago.
The Sealed Valley of Kashmir
"Realising my own life would be in jeopardy, in July of 1992, I entered Kashmir with video and still cameras. Fortunately, I was able to bring several of the video tapes and photographs out of the Valley, and they attest to the horror of the once beautiful and Happy Valley which has been turned into a Valley of Death.
Dr. Abdul Ahad Guru [was assassinated by Indian army in Srinagar, April 1st, 1993] the only Cardio-Vascular surgeon for more than four million Kashmiris, spoke on camera recounting and detailing the daily atrocities inflicted on the people by more than 650,000 Indian occupation force. During my interview, Dr. Guru made it clear that due to curfews and crackdowns, innocent Kashmiri civilians are dying. He said no one is allowed to move on the roads, even for medical emergencies such as to help a 70-year-old woman who died from a heart attack.
Dr. Guru spoke of the shortage of basic medicines in all the hospitals due to the embargo on pharmaceutical by the Indian authorities. I personally went to twenty pharmacies with long lines of people even though the shelves were bare and empty.
In the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, I filmed and interviewed numerous civilian victims of Indian occupation forces. For example, Abdul Rashid Kakroo, a forty-three-year old ambulance driver, arrived at the scene of a shooting by Indian occupation forces, when he was finally given permission to come out of his ambulance and help transport the dying victims, he was first severely beaten and then shot twice by Indian soldiers. He was later brought to the hospital where I interviewed him.
The testimony of little ten-year old Shakeela is worth mentioning. When her village was attacked and the people started fleeing their home for fear of being shot, she too fled with her two younger relatives and jumped into a canal, plunging their heads underwater in an attempt to avoid being shot. Unable to hold their breath they surfaced and were immediately fired upon. A five-year old boy was shot dead, an eleven-year old was seriously wounded and little Shakeela, screaming in shock and horror was told to come out of the canal with her hands raised. As she did so, she was shot through the right eye. I wish every one of you could see this video, as I sat with Shakeela whose entire right eye, facial bones and skull were completely blown out. As I sat next to her I could not help but think of my own two beautiful daughters. Yes, after 30 transfusions of blood she survived, but what is her future? The beautiful face of this little girl is now shattered and disfigured by a "brave soldiers bullet."
My interviews with Kashmiri women who had been brutally raped by Indian soldiers contains untold misery. I interviewed a once beautiful young woman who had been kept naked in a pit for ten days by Indian soldiers, starved and repeatedly raped, her body covered with festering sores which resulted when the soldiers extinguished their cigarettes on her flesh. Finally thrown into a river, she was bayoneted in the head and left for dead with a terrible scar across her once beautiful face. One day after my interview, she gave birth to an Indian soldier's child. She has suffered a permanent mental breakdown.
Rape in Kashmir is not the result of a few undisciplined soldiers, but rather an active strategy of Indian forces to humiliate, intimidate and demoralise the Kashmiri people. This is evidenced by the fact that a number of the raped women I interviewed had been raped in front of their own families, their own husbands, and their own children.
The basic right to education is also being denied to the Kashmiri people. Most schools are closed, and the male students cannot take their examinations for fear of being arrested upon leaving the university. The village streets of Kashmir are empty of young men from the ages of fifteen to fifty!
Moreover, I personally witnessed beatings, shootings, and assorted violations of human decency. The people of Kashmir are suffering on a scale which is far exceeding the suffering of the people of Palestine, Bosnia, or any number of other countries and cultures.
Furthermore, I visited a special cemetery of martyred children on three separate occasions. I witnessed the burials of a thirteen and ten year old. At both burials I approached the grieving families with a sense of guilt and helplessness. When the parents, family and friends realised who I was, despite the agony and grief which they felt, they lovingly unwrapped the bodies of their children for me to see the bullet holes, the torn flesh of innocent youth. Then, with hardly a word and tears streaming down their faces, the mothers lifted their outstretched arms with palms turned upward and looking into my eyes asked simply, why?"
(Author of the Kashmir Happy Valley, Valley of Death, Prof. William Wayne Baker is the President of the Christians and Muslims for Peace, Garden Grove, CA).