Voicing concern over India’s brutalities against Kashmiri children including torture, illegal detention, and pellet gun shootings, UN Secretary-General has called for an immediate end to such practices.
Antonio Guterres issued the call in an annual report on Children and Armed Conflict, launched on Monday.
Human rights bodies have condemned Indian forces’ atrocities in Kashmir, which has been under a virtual siege since August 5, 2019 when the nationalist government in New Delhi single-handedly changed the status of the disputed territory – recognized as such by the UN Security Council.
“I am concerned by the detention of children, including their arrest during night raids, internment at army camps, torture in detention and detention without charge or due process, and urge the (Indian) Government to immediately end this practice,” the secretary-general said in the report.
Launched by the UN Chief’s Special Representative on the subject, Virginia Gamba. the report says the “United Nations verified the killing (8) and maiming (7) of 15 children (13 boys, 2 girls), between the ages of 1 and 17, by or during joint operations of the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indian Army (Rashtriya Rifles) and the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police”.
“Most of the casualties that occurred in Jammu and Kashmir were mainly caused by torture in detention, shootings, including from pellet guns.”
The report provides a damning account of violent treatment of children in Indian-administered Kashmir and particularly cites 68 instances where children between the ages of 9 and 17 have been detained by Indian security services in Jammu and Kashmir on national security-related charges, for alleged association with armed groups.
“I remain concerned by child casualties in Jammu and Kashmir and call upon the Government to take preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets against children,” the secretary-general said.
Since August last year, India has refused foreign missions into the Muslim-majority Kashmir, and the nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is accused of pursuing policies hostile toward Indian Muslims.
The latest UN report adds to the voices that call for fair treatment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian-administered territory. Pakistan controls part of the territory.
The people of Kashmir have little access to the Internet in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, which has further exacerbated their troubles.
Meanwhile, New Delhi now claims that the Kashmir on its side of the Line of Control is part of the Indian Union and that its policies will bring economic development to the region.
The Kashmir crisis has also inflamed Pakistan-India tensions as Islamabad has rejected Indian actions and both countries exchange fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
