Day: January 15, 2022

Washington DC, January 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):Experts from leading global human rights watchdogs, Amnesty International USA and Genocide Watch, have warned that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Islamophobic policies and tolerance of open incitement by Hindu extremists for the genocide of Muslims are pushing India towards mass violence against and massacres of Muslims.

According to Kashmir Media Service, at a Congressional Briefing organised in Washington D.C., the experts said because of Modi’s failure to condemn and act against anti-Muslim bigotry, hate speeches by leading religious and political figures had proliferated in recent weeks specifically aimed at inciting such mass violence against Muslims.

Dr Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, said a gathering of saffron-robed Hindu monks held last month at the north Indian Hardiwar city “was exactly aimed at inciting the genocide of Muslims”. “As the leader of India he has an obligation to denounce this genocidal speech… Yet Modi has not spoken against it.”

At the Haridwar event a top religious leader of the Hindu Mahasabha openly called for raising an “army” of Hindus to “kill two million Muslims.” At another event held in New Delhi, hundreds of participants took a public oath to kill in order to protect Hinduism. Elsewhere, schoolchildren were recorded taking similar oaths to “kill and die” to create a Hindu nation. Politicians have defended the right to incite violence against Muslims.

Cautioning that “genocide is not an event” but “a process,” Dr Stanton noted that Modi had a long history of presiding over mass violence against Muslims, beginning with the Gujarat pogroms of 2002. “Under the [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] policies, Modi has used anti-Muslim, Islamophobic rhetoric to build his political base,” he said.

He maintained that the UN Genocide Convention covered genocides specifically “aimed at the destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, religious, or racial group”. He said that was “exactly what the Myanmar government did against the Rohingya” and “we’re now facing [in India] a very similar kind of plot and the victims are the 200 million Muslims who live in India.”

Genocide Watch has been warning of what it calls an “impending genocide” in India since 2002, when anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat occurred. Dr Stanton pointed out that upon becoming the prime minister, Modi has “used anti-Muslim Islamophobic” policies such as the revocation of Kashmir’s special status and the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that excludes Muslims, “to build his political base”.

The Genocide Watch President warned, “The ten processes of genocide begin with classification by “trying to exclude people from citizenship. Dehumanisation involves calling people terrorists, separatists and criminals. This language is used by the Government against the Muslims. Polarisation leads to hatred for all Muslims, and preparation for genocide is what “we are seeing right now.”

Govind Acharya of Amnesty said, “This bigoted law (CAA) specifically discriminates against Muslims seeking citizenship. When you combine it with the CAA, the NRC is weaponized against Muslims in India. Because of the bigotry of these laws, India stands to create the biggest statelessness crisis in the world which will create unimaginable suffering. And of course the vast majority of those affected would be Muslims.”

Anas Tanwir, a lawyer for the Indian Supreme Court and founder of the Indian Civil Liberties Union in his remarks said, once an organisation has the support of the state machinery, or if the state machinery is willing to look away, it does not remain a fringe organization.

Sunita Viswanath, Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights, said, the speeches made in Haridwar are an explicit call for genocide against Muslims by religious leaders who are close to the ruling party, the government.

“According to research from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, India is at a high risk – number two in the world – for genocide, We call on all of you to recognize that the hatred being expressed in India is at a very serious level. We can’t let the Biden Administration repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said.

Amina Kausar, an IT entrepreneur who was one of the many victims of Bulli Bai, an app that was designed by Hindu extremists to “auction” and harass vocal Muslim women also spoke at the briefing. “The sheer humiliation of being put up for ‘sale,’ and called a ‘Bulli Bai,’ a vulgar slang phrase implying a woman is a prostitute, is hard to describe in words,” she said.

“Being objectified, being reduced to a virus, normalising the abuse, is one of the decisive stages of genocide. These online abusers are not fringe elements. Many of them are backed by none other than the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. I urge US government to take note of the systemic violence that Indian Muslim women are subjected to.”

The briefing was cosponsored by a group of 17 human rights and interfaith organisations, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Amnesty International USA, Hindus for Human Rights, Genocide Watch, 21Wilberforce, International Christian Concern, Jubilee Campaign, Dalit Solidarity Forum, New York State Council of Churches, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, India Civil Watch International, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, Center for Pluralism, American Muslim Institution, International Society for Peace and Justice, Association of Indian Muslims of America, and the Humanism Project.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org

Srinagar, January 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Vice Chairman, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, has expressed serious concern over the overt and covert conspiracies hatched by India to thrust Hindutva civilization on the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir which is an internationally recognized disputed territory.

Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned India’s imperialistic approach towards Kashmir. He said after repealing its special status, the Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government has turned IIOJK into a battleground and making all-out efforts to suppress the freedom sentiments of the oppressed Kashmiris.

“The importing of Israeli Model of state terrorism by India to change the demography, destroy the constitutional bindings, grab more and more lands for military purposes, terminate Muslim employees from the civil administration and thrust Hindutva civilization are the nefarious designs of India which the brave people of Kashmir shall fight tooth and nail,” he said.

Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar urged the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to take action on the brazen violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir by India. “Changing the demography, land laws and perpetrating widespread genocide in a disputed territory must be a matter of grave concern for the UN and the world community,” he said.

The APHC Vice Chairman asked New Delhi to stop violating the international laws and agreements and allow the people of Kashmir to decide their political future by themselves through a free and fair plebiscite as recommended by the UNSC resolutions.

He denounced in strong terms the illegal detention of noted human rights activists, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo and Khurram Parvez, and journalist Sujad Gul, terming it as a sheer frustration of the Indian imperialism in IIOJK. He deplored that India has usurped the freedom of expression, civil liberty and all other human rights in the occupied territory.

Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar urged the United Nations Human Rights Council and other human rights organisations to take cognizance of the illegal and arbitrary arrests of the human rights activists, journalists as well as Hurriyat leaders and activists on fictitious grounds in IIOJK.

Meanwhile, APHC leader, Bashir Ahmad Butt, in a statement issued in Srinagar deplored that Indian troops harass and terrorize the people during the so-called search and cordon operations across the occupied territory. He said the troops make the people to stand in queues in open in the sub-zero temperature. He urged the UN and world human rights bodies to take cognizance of the Indian state terrorism in IIOJK.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org

Srinagar, January 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the people staged forceful demonstrations in various districts of the Jammu region against the demolition of the houses of members of Muslim Gujjar and Bakerwal community by the authorities.

The authorities have demolished structures of several families belonging to Gujjar and Bakkarwal Muslim community during the so-called anti-encroachment drive in Roop Nagar area of Jammu. Scores of people assembled in front of Markazi Jamia Masjid in Rajouri and took out a protest rally that concluded at Gujjar Mandi. Raising slogans against the authorities, the protestors said that the recent demolition drive by the department was purely selective and aimed to target the Muslims.

They said that the drive by the Jammu District Administration (JDA) and assisted by other departments has left dozens of families homeless in these tough winter days which clearly shows that policies of these departments are anti-people. The protestors while warning of more such protests in days to come demanded that all the homeless families should be given proper shelters and be rehabilitated at the earliest. In Kalakote area of Rajouri, people also staged a protest and raised slogans against the authorities. Meanwhile, people from all the families whose structures were damaged during the stimulation drive continue their sit-in protest at Roop Nagar.

National Conference Vice President, Omar Abdullah, in a tweet said that the administration was targeting the Gujjar and Bakarwal tribals at the behest of its political masters. He said that the administration was selective in its demolition drive, targeting only Gujjar Bakarwal families in Jammu. NC’s Member of Indian Parliament from IIOJK, Hasnain Masoodi, also denounced the selective demolition by the JDA and administration of houses of members of Muslim community.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org

New Delhi, January 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Indian Air Force has said that the Court of Inquiry constituted to probe the military chopper crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8 has ruled out mechanical failure, sabotage or negligence as cause of the accident.

India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 12 forces’ personnel were killed in the crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. Sharing preliminary findings of the tri-services Court of Inquiry report, the IAF said the chopper crash was a result of entry into clouds due to unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley.

The IAF said, the inquiry team analysed the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, besides questioning all available witnesses to determine the most probable cause of the accident. It said, the Court of Inquiry has ruled out mechanical failure, sabotage or negligence as a cause of the accident. The accident was a result of entry into clouds due to unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley, which led to spatial disorientation of the pilot, it added.

“Based on its findings, the Court of Inquiry has made certain recommendations which are being reviewed,” the IAF said. It is pertinent to mention here that India’s defense experts and social media users have pointed a finger at inside job into the killing of Gen Bipin Rawat.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org