India accused of war crimes in IIOJK

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (APP):The dossier titled ‘India Silencing Journalism and Human Rights in Kashmir’ launched on Wednesday is documentation of war crimes perpetrated by occupation authorities in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Whatever was happening in the IIOJK was in fact the Indian version of 21st century Gestapo, experts said at the launch of dossier under the auspices of Legal Forum for Kashmir (LFK) and StokeWhite Investigations unit of the United Kingdom.
The investigative report draws attention to India’s counterinsurgency strategy in silencing journalists and human rights defenders, who are considered as the last line of ‘defence’ for basic human rights protections in the IIOJK.
Investigations by SWI unit and LFK have uncovered the names of officers responsible for the disruption and detention of journalists and human rights defenders in the IIOJK, which will be subject to a broader legal submission. The Indian military and police, in sum, have been instructed by the government with the responsibility of commanding and directing the profiling of journalists and human rights defenders.
LFK and SWI-unit have documented cases of human rights lawyers and practitioners being subject to home/office raids, disruption of normal work flow, and arrest while on fieldwork or malicious confiscation of travel documents to prevent legitimate journalism or human rights work.
“We saw, only, in 2019, J&K experienced heightened disconnection of high-speed internet, including of mobile phone signal infrastructure for 18 months. In 2020, India restricted the internet some 109 times,” the dossier highlighted.
According to the findings, Tahir Ashraf Bhatti is the head of the Counter Insurgent Unit, where he summoned many journalists and harassed them for purely reporting on events in held Kashmir.
The current head of the cyber cell is Syed Sleet Shah, who recently was recruiting “serious candidates” for a special cyber project via her personal twitter account.
This has become a norm and many social media users in Kashmir has stopped using their social media and even if they are using, they are absolutely silent in matters of politics and political changes happening in the valley.
The speakers at the launching press conference included LFK Executive Director Advocate Nasir Qadri, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, APHC Convenor Mehmood Ahmed Saghar, Ms Mushal Mullick, KIIR Director Altaf Hussain Wani, and IDDS Director Dr Waleed Rasool.
Besides the media fraternity, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leadership including Shaikh Yaqoob, Imtiaz Ahmad Wani, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, Zahid Ashraf, Zahid Safi and Mukhtar Ahmad Baba were also present.
Nasir Qadri, in his remarks, said the report launched today was a testimony-based depicting how India was silencing the journalists and human rights defenders in the IIOJK.
“The report includes testimonies of renowned human rights defenders Khurram Parvez and Ahsan Untoo. The latter’s testimony has already been shared with the Metropolitan War Crimes Unit under Universal Jurisdiction in the UK,” he added.
Senator Mushahid commended the LFK and the SWI unit for documentation of Indian war crimes in the IIOJK. Indian pogrom in the IIOJK, he said, was on lines with the Israeli unlawful actions against Palestinians. NNI