Kashmir: A Human Rights Crisis Under Occupation.

Byline: Muhammad Wasama Khalid

Kashmir is the world's most militarized zone, with an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 Indian soldiers, paramilitary forces, and private security forces present. Since 1989, the Indian army and paramilitary forces have engaged in a deliberate campaign of state terrorism against Muslim Kashmiris, using various methods. It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdown, curfew, illegal detention, massacre, target killing, siege burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, women, and killing of persons through fake encounters. According to human rights activists, more than 8,000 persons have gone missing in Kashmir since 1989.

Over the past more than three decades of turmoil in Kashmir, thousands of civilians have gone missing in the custody of security forces. Although the bodies of some were found, most remain untraced. Both India and Pakistan claim ownership of the Kashmir area, which has contributed to the escalation of tensions between the two countries in this region over the last few decades. Violence and human rights violations, including a recurring pattern of extrajudicial executions, have characterized the situation in the region. These killings have been carried out without following due process and are essentially state-sanctioned murders. Abdul Rasheed, a young man from Kashmir, was recently kidnapped and murdered by the Indian occupation forces. He was a victim of the latest atrocity in a region where killing people without due process of law is becoming increasingly common.

The Indian army arrested Rasheed on suspicion of being a member of a militant group. However, his family maintains that he was innocent and had no ties to any militant organizations. The Indian army has a long history of kidnapping and murdering innocent Kashmiri people, often on the pretense that they were involved in terrorist activity. Rasheed's case is just one example of the human rights abuses that the Indian occupation forces in Kashmir have committed.

The government of Kashmir and the human rights activists in the region have both reacted with shock and condemnation to the situation. In a tweet, Mehbooba Mufti, who had previously served as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said, "The murder of Abdul Rasheed is just another example of the cruelty that the Indian occupation has brought. After 2019, these kinds of occurrences have become routine since no one is held accountable for their occurrence. Probes...