Author:
Publication: PR Newswire
Date: May 11, 2006
URL: http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=170622
The Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) has
taken a serious view of the terrorist actions in the Jammu & Kashmir state
of India. Terrorists have mercilessly massacred minority community members
in the past few days.
Islamic terrorists had kidnapped nine members
of the minority community in Lolan Gala of Udhampur district on April 30th
2006. The terrorists killed seven of the kidnapped victims and nothing is
known about the other two people. In another incident during the night of
April 30th and May 1st 2006, the terrorists sprayed bullets on a number of
Hindu minority community members in village of Kulhan in the district of Doda.
At least 26 minority members were killed on the spot while ten were seriously
injured.
GHRD's reporter's team on May 2nd and May
3rd 2006 conducted an assessment exercise of the incidents, including enquiries
made from survivors of the massacres and seriously wounded victims. The investigation
clearly suggests that there was a pattern employed in the killings. The hapless
people, all belonging to the Hindu community, were killed after ascertaining
their names, religion and residences. The people used by the terrorists to
identify the victims were released, once it was ensured that they did not
belong to the Hindu minority community. The revelations point to the fact
that there was a clear intent in the minds and utterances of the terrorists
to ethnically cleanse the Hindu minorities from their ancestral abode.
A full report of the investigation has been
released on May 10th from three of GHRD's centres, i.e. The Hague (The Netherlands),
New York (USA) and Jammu (India).
The GHRD is continuously monitoring the violations
of human rights of minorities. The GHRD in its preliminary annual human rights
report 2005 states that the Indian Jammu & Kashmir state continues to
be a boiling pot so far as the perpetuation of cross-border terrorism and
terrorism related violence are concerned. The two neighbouring countries India
and Pakistan, on account of a host of what they term 'confidence building
measures' under the peace process, may have come closer to some extent, but
the basic problem that strained the relationship during one and a half decade
of abetted & supported terror, till date, remains unaddressed. Victims
of terrorist violence, continue to be the minority groups. The Kashmiri Hindu
community (Kashmiri Pundits), the indigenous people of Kashmir, have since
1989-1990 been the main target of the terrorists. They were hounded out of
their homes and hearths under a well orchestrated plan to cleanse the Kashmir
valley of people on ethnic and religious lines.
The GHRD is of the firm belief that the local
and national Indian government and its security instrumentalities have utterly
failed in their duty of safeguarding the minorities against the acts of terrorists.
Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Global
Human Rights Defence
