No protests: Silence marks human rights day in Valley

SRINAGAR: For the first time in three decades, International Human Rights day passed off silently in Kashmir on Tuesday.

In quite contrast to past practice, no rallies or seminars to highlight the alleged human rights violations taking place in the restive Valley were held on Tuesday. Also, the separatists had, for the first time since 1989, not issued any call for shutdown or protests on this occasion.

Local human rights activists said that the difficult situation set off by “harsh measures” including arrests, restrictions and communication blackout ordered by the government ahead of the Centre’s stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special constitutional status and splitting the state up into two Union Territories (UTs) on August 5 this year forced political parties, activists and victims of rights violations into silence.

Pervez Imroz, a local attorney and human rights activist who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Societies (JKCCS), said that fear has taken over the Kashmiri population and people are apparently too scared to voice their concerns on issues including human rights violations. He said, “For past three decades, political groups, human rights activists and victims of violations would observe World Human Rights Day in a big way. This is for the first time since 1989 that no seminars or conferences to mark the occasion could be held nor were any rallies taken out. Fear has paralysed the whole system in the Valley.”

He added, “Also, people are completely disconnected because of the Internet blockade. We at the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons would hold rallies on this day but even I, as a human rights defender, couldn’t get in touch with the families of victims”.

Mr Imroz sought to weigh the curbs in force in Kashmir with the situation prevailing in Hong Kong for past several months and said, “Even a totalitarian state like China has not imposed such curbs to crush protests and dissent in Hong Kong.”