Kashmir Saga: Facts and Figures.

Byline: Shahid Farooq Abbasi

Since its inception, India has prided itself on being the world's largest democracy and advocator of secularism. But when it comes to reality, India is just another side of the coin. A state that is imperious in its objectives and overbearing in practices. India doesn't only pose animus designs against its neighboring countries but has also imposed stringent rules in the states like Kashmir that have been occupied and repressed by a so-called democracy that is hijacked by warmongering Hindutva protagonists.

The homicide against the people of Indian occupied Kashmir is now resonating from global forums exposing the viciousness of a scoundrel regime in the semblance of republicanism. Recently, first-ever Russell Tribunal was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and Herzegovina from 17-19 Dec 21 to highlight the offenses committed by Indian tenant forces against innocent Kashmiris over the epochs of oppression. Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, works as a Truth Commission and held its first convention in 1966 organized by Bertrand Russell to investigate US war crimes in Vietnam. In 2012, Russell Tribunal convened on Israeli violence in Palestine attracted enormous responsiveness worldwide. Now, the Russell Tribunal on Kashmir is convoked with the collaboration of Kashmir Civitas a Canadian-based NGO campaigning for the right of Self-determination for Kashmiris.

The Tribunal constituted of Judges who are supposed to listen to eyewitnesses providing indispensable pieces of evidence in front of the panel to draw the results by evaluating facts from the ground. Tribunal on Kashmir was graced by renowned American Islamic scholar Omar Suleiman and 15 international judges, including Jonathan A. C. Brown, associate professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Services, David Hearst, managing editor of Middle East Eye, simultaneously, Dalia Mujahid, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington along with many other human rights activists from Kashmir, Bosnia, and Italy. The appearance of such personages has warranted the legitimacy required for the international community to pay heed to the deteriorating situation of human rights in the Indian-occupied valley.

This inimitable session analyzed genocide, decolonization, settler colonialism, and crimes against humanity in Kashmir based on enough indication in the form of several...