Friday, November 22
The International Commission for Human Rights and Religious Freedom has released a Report on the Hearings on Kashmiri Hindu Genocide, 1989-91.
This Report has been compiled based on the historic Special Hearings conducted on March 27, 2022, by the Washington DC based International Commission for Human Rights and Religious Freedom. The Hearings featured 12 survivors, journalists, authors, academics, and Kashmiri Hindu community leaders who testified, under oath, about the genocide and ethnic cleansing of indigenous Kashmiri Hindus at the hands of Islamic terrorists as well as the Muslim-dominated Jammu & Kashmir government’s policies. The Hearings were presided over by a Select Committee chaired by internationally renowned professor of Law, Ved P. Nanda (University of Denver), Professor Yashwant Pathak as Vice-Chair, and ICHRRF President, Dr. Adityanjee, as Member. The Executive Director, Mr. Carl Clemens, served as Special Rapporteur.
The Commission reviewed and verified the testimonies and submitted evidence of all witnesses, and formed the following opinions based on them. The centuries-long documented violence and rhetoric vilifying indigenous Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs in Jammu & Kashmir, and its acceleration over the last century by Muslim political and religious leadership in the Kashmir Valley has all the indications of an ideologically driven campaign of colonization, Islamization and ethnic cleansing. The intent of the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus has been broadcast brazenly, and accomplished by political, legislative, and finally violent means.
Barring a few prominent individuals, the greater number of the Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs persecuted and killed did not belong to an economically or politically privileged social class. They were killed with the active or passive complicity of their Muslim neighbors or colleagues. This was not due to an underlying class struggle, as is sometimes claimed, but based on religious ideology. The land-owning privileged section of Kashmiri Hindus had already been dispossessed of their properties by an Act of the Muslim-dominated Jammu & Kashmir state legislature much before the start of murder and ethnic cleansing. Successive state governments have also systematically renamed scores of prominent Hindu historical landmarks to Arabic names and razed hundreds of Hindu temples and properties to the ground.
The United Nations and international Human Rights organizations have not come to the aid of Kashmiri Hindu and Sikh refugees for over 2 decades. Local and international media and film industry have also facilitated genocide-denial or rationalization, romanticized terrorist leaders, and giving them a platform to air their rhetoric.
The Commission notes several Kashmiri Muslim politicians have willy-nilly aided the agenda of Islamist terrorists in the Valley. The Kashmiri Muslim religious establishment worked in a synchronized manner to propagandize, mobilize, and orchestrate brutal street violence. Notably, the religious-political sympathies of the Kashmiri Muslim populace extend to international terrorist organizations such as ISIS and the Taliban.
The Commission highlights the continuing series of murders of Kashmiri Hindus today, and the absence of safe spaces for them to resettle in their native land. Appreciating the absence of vindictiveness among Kashmiri Hindu activists, The Commission notes the universal character of their recommendations for the prevention of genocide.
The Commission recommends that the Government of India (GOI) appoint a special Judicial Commission of Inquiry (COI) headed by a retired judge of the Indian Supreme Court to investigate the circumstances and scale of atrocities of the Kashmiri Hindu Genocide, at least in the period starting from 1986, and publish a white paper within 12 months. The role of foreign and domestic state and non-state actors (including former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and former Home Minister of India, late Mufti Mohammad Saeed), sources of terror funding, illegal money laundering and terror support networks must be included in the scope of investigation. At the very least, prominent, brazen, and celebrated perpetrators of genocide, murder, rape, and other crimes against humanity must be brought to justice under the Indian Penal Code by appointing fast track courts with daily hearings. The prosecution may be carried out under special TADA courts, UAPA, or other existing mechanisms like the NIA
All victims and survivors of genocide must be rehabilitated by the GOI unconditionally. Government jobs be given preferentially to them, and pensions for elderly survivors. Refugees and internally displaced persons must have the right to return to their properties in the Kashmir valley. Ownerships that were usurped using threat, force and intimidation must be restored back to survivors. A financial compensation package must be announced by the Government of India from the consolidated funds of India for the loss of life, loss of property, psychosomatic and physical disabilities sustained due to terror/trauma, and for emotional pain and suffering sustained by the survivors.
The Commission recommends that Kashmiri language (Keshur) be restored as the official language in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir besides Urdu, English and Hindi, and its study promoted in all educational institutions. This should be the beginning of comprehensive efforts to promote and preserve indigenous Kashmiri Hindu culture. The Commission recommends that the GOI take adequate and time-bound steps to restore all Hindu shrines and temples desecrated during the latest period of ethnic cleansing, undertaken by a trust with multiple stakeholders including the Ministry of Culture, the Archeological Survey of India, and representatives of the Kashmiri Hindu Community.
The Commission recommends creation of a safe haven, a sanctuary, or a Union Territory carved out in the Kashmir valley where Kashmiri Hindus can live peacefully without any further fear, force, and intimidation.
Implementing these recommendations will protect minorities as well as encourage a truly humanistic democracy in Kashmir and the extended region, as well as mark a watershed moment for Indigenous Peoples across the world who have been battered by colonialism.
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