Kashmir Bloggers - blog for kashmir: August 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Conviction

There have been hundreds of inquiries into acts of violence and killings in Kashmir. Rarely do we see any convictions, though. I don't care who the perpetrator of the crime is: army, police force, paramilitary, militants, unidentified gunmen, whoever, all I want to see is the conviction in murder. A very reasonable demand but almost impossible to see in Kashmir.
This absence of justice leads to frustration and a sense of helplessness. A few big recent cases that shook this valley: Tabinda Gani(14) raped and killed by 4 men, who were arrested but we haven't seen any convictions yet; sexual exploitation of young girls by top police officers, bureaucrats and politicians, a case handled by the top investigating agency of India, Central bureau of Investigations (CBI), yet no one has been convicted for the past 3 years; a recent case of rape and murder of two young girls (17 and 22)in Shopian, top police officers of the district have been arrested for a cover up and destruction of evidence, yet no one has been convicted; some unidentified gun men killed a man and his 3 year old son, no body has been arrested.
These are just a few examples. There are thousands more. Conviction rate, probably the lowest in the world.

Death Toll in Kashmir since June 29, 2009

Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have died seeking independence. We don't have an exact count of the dead since 1989, however, different sources put the death toll between 40000 to 100,000[1][2][3][4]. For human rights, we keep an exact count of the civilian deaths by police, paramilitary and army, since June 29, 2009. We will also keep account of those who disappeared in the custody of police, paramilitary and army and those who were killed by unidentified gunmen or got killed in grenade attacks or cross fires. Starting from January 2010, we will start including the names of those who die.

killed by police, paramilitary, army: 17(Wamiq Farooq, Age 14; Zahid Farooq, Age 16;Zubair Ahmed Bhat, 17; Riyaz Ahmad, Shahzad Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi (fake encounter) ) + 111 (since June 11, 2010)

Disappeared Since June 29, 2009: 0

Killed By Unidentified Gunmen : 6(Ghulam Nabi Khan, 52)

Killed in Grenade attacks, cross fires: 3

Killed by protestors, stone pelters etc.: 3(Irfan, Age 10 days;37 year old man;Aisha)

Number of Strike Days in Kashmir Starting June 29, 2009

A typical strike in Kashmir means employees skip work, schools, colleges and universities don't run and public transport is off the roads. Since the beginning of the struggle against India in Kashmir, people have observed numerous strikes to tell the world that Kashmiris are suffering. I think strike is a peaceful tool that needs to be used sparingly, but it has been abused in Kashmir and it seems like it has lost its significance. It only adds to the sufferings of the people of Kashmir and leads to a poor work culture.

The purpose of this count is to let the people of kashmir rethink this strategy and also to let the world know that millions of people somewhere want to tell you something through these strikes. although there were at least 10 days lost in June 2009, that I know of, because of strikes, I chose not to include them here since I don't have an accurate account. We will begin a counter to keep track of the strike days in Kashmir from June 29, 2009.

Number of Strike Days in Kashmir since june 29, 2009: 30+101 (since June 11, 2010)