Mushaal lauds SWI for highlighting abuse journalists, activists face in IIOJK

ISLAMABAD: Mushaal Mullick Chairperson Peace and Culture Organization on Wednesday appreciated London-based Stoke White Investigations (SWI) for highlighting systemic abuse that journalists and activists face in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Speaking at the launch of the report, she said that India silencing journalism and human rights in IIOJK 2000 testimonies of war crimes of torture, pellets, enforced disappearances and sexual violence by Indian Occupation forces.
She said that the new report painted a disturbing picture of systemic abuse. Mashaal termed India as the devil of the times and said that India’s human rights violations in occupied Kashmir have been documented.
She said that they must be brought to justice and the guilty must be held accountable. She requested the Pakistani media to focus on research and evidence-based documentation of human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir. Kashmiri journalists and human rights defenders are being intimidated and arbitrarily detained under black colonial laws, she added.
The chairperson stated that Kashmir freedom movement entered a defining moment, hence nothing could dampen the courage of brave Kashmiris. They would take the freedom struggle to its logical end, she added.
She lashed out at the criminal silence over the world’s worst human rights violations in the occupied valley, as not only the valley was cut from the world but senior Kashmiri leaders were in detention.
She said that the Indian government has deployed a range of tactics to ensure no reporting critical of its actions comes out of the India-administered Jammu and Kashmir region which is a total contrast to its democratic ideals.
It has compiled at least 2000 testimonies of Kashmiris between 2020 and 2021. The individual accounts accuse New Delhi of various crimes, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, kidnapping, torture and sexual violence.
On August 5 2019, the BJP-led government in the centre revoked the nominal autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir amidst a military curfew, internet shutdown and media gag in the territory that has been a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. For New Delhi, the move was necessary as it claimed the special status hindered economic development and had become a “root-cause of terrorism” in the region.
It has documented more than 2,000 cases – all of serious nature of the most glaring ones included 450 cases of torture, 1500 victims of pellet gun shootings, 100 enforced disappearances and 30 accounts of sexual violence.- NNI