A Year Since Abrogation

THE A Year Since Abrogation August 2020 Jammu & Kashmir Solidarity Group Acknowledgements We, the individuals and collectives involved in this report, dedicate this report to the perseverance and spirit of resilience of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. We thank all the organisations and groups involved in the last one-year process of the campaign in solidarity with the people of J&K. Let us dedicate ourselves to the future solidarities between the people of mainland India and J&K. The Commission of Inquiry team also takes this opportunity to thank all the people and organisations who met with us, during our visit to the Kashmir valley in the month of February 2020. We are grateful to each one of you for spending time with us, sharing your experiences and helping our learning and understanding about the impact the devastating political move of August 2019 had on each one of you. To the families of the victims, we are forever indebted to you for agreeing to meet with us and risk re- living the pain – to make sure truth is documented. To the lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, academicians, business community, dal dwellers association, boat owners, Wular lake fishers community, Sopore apple growers, saffron farmers, etc., we salute your courage amidst intimidating and often annihilating state terror. We thank the Kashmir Times friends, and families of many of our companions, for the hospitality extended to the team/s. We also acknowledge some members in the administration in Srinagar, who spared time to meet some of the teams. We thank Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, Association of the Parents of the Disappeared Persons, #StandWithKashmir, and many other such platforms and initiatives of Kashmiri people, without whom this campaign or report would have been near impossible. We especially credit the creative energies of the young artists, poets, cartoonists and writers, who have defied every diktat and broke every chain – to spell out their dreams and aspirations using the social media as the new weapon. Even with the limited 2G network, they snatched their place in history. We are grateful to a whole lot of individuals, who gave extensive time and energy to the production of this rather exhaustive report. Our sincere gratitude to all the authors of different briefs and sections, who made sure that JKSG, could bring out this important report and analysis. Our sincere apologies if we have overstepped by pushing with hasty deadlines or strict edits. We thank the leadership, membership and National Committee of PIPFPD, whose initiative and support made the campaign possible. If not for the efforts of our silent but very vibrant young team of friends, the Counting Days- Kashmir campaign and this report would have been poorer. We thank each one of you for your ideas, creative energy, enthusiasm and commitment. Salutations to all the young comrades who stepped in at different stages of the campaign, tribunal work, Commission of Inquiry 1 as well as the compilation of this report. Our collective apologies if we have let any of you down at any point – personally or politically. We hope this report helps in the currently stalled process of the independent people’s tribunal on J&K. We express our gratitude to the esteemed jury, who despite the several inevitable postponements, have stuck to their commitment to this important process. We aspire through this report to contribute to an important assertion of people’s politics – to understand and stand with each other, beyond the narrow lens of nationalism’s inflicted prejudice and hate. 2 Summary On the night of 4th August 2019, as things were being set in motion for the reading down of Article 370, Kashmir and its people were witnessing a nightmare and a deadly blow to their political aspirations. As people hurriedly wished their loved ones goodbye, desperately sent messages to friends outside the state to let them know what was happening, one by one all communication services of internet, landlines, mobile phones, postal services were blocked to stop spread of information and possible resistance from the Kashmiri people. With no information from the Indian government about decisions being made about their future, people were left in a state of fear, anxiety and uncertainty. Kashmir, the most militarised zone in the world, having already had a significant disparity in military to civilian ratio, went from bad to worse. All Non-Kashmiri people were evacuated including the pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra. Educational facilities were vacated to accommodate additional armed forces deployed in the valley. Over the last year, as all sectors of the economy of the state were collapsing, bills and ordinances have been introduced that undermine ownership rights of Kashmiri people over immovable properties and at the same time facilitated the takeover of land for industry and military control. These changes have reinforced fears of the people of J&K both as a collective and individually, of being systematically robbed of their rights, dignity and the authority over their lives, identity and their traditional homeland. Over the last one year, the Indian state has committed gross injustices ranging from the kidnapping and torture of minors to decimating the identity of people. In doing so, the Indian government has violated internationally recognised fundamental rights and its own constitutional values and guaranteed freedoms. This report seeks to draw attention towards and attempts to explore the social, political, cultural and political condition of the valley since the abrogation of Article 370 in a much deeper and broader sense. This report also aims to shed light on the excesses of the Indian Government and Armed Forces in order to suppress the popular resistance movement. It highlights the arbitrary detentions, tortures and means employed by the armed forces to subjugate and disempower people including access to livelihood, education, environment, health and communication. The new modes of resistance and the role of youths in taking the Kashmiri Tehreek forward is evocatively explored as well. In this report, 'The Siege: a year since abrogation', marking the dark anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution and bifurcation of the state, we have compiled the salient findings of the Commission of Inquiry and updated briefs, which have drawn upon the reports of other Fact Finding Teams that visited the state in the aftermath of August 5, 2019. 3 We reflect back on the history of the state and the circumstances that led to its accession to Indian Union and its short-lived relation to India which was hanging by thread in the name Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The impact of complete lockdown of Kashmir Valley and five Muslim majority districts of the Jammu region has been observed across sectors of life including health, academics, research, business, agriculture handicrafts and particularly the media industry. The brief on media discusses different aspects of the lives of journalists and the challenges they have faced in order to report from the areas they were working. Detailed analysis of the regressive mechanism adopted by the state and its Media Policy 2020 which further aims to regulate or control the narrative along with role of judiciary and its inability to create an environment for journalists and other media personnel to report without any pressure from the government institutions is presented in this chapter. Torture in Kashmir is not new and neither is it looked upon as illegal, having being de facto institutionalised by instruments such as AFSPA. Torture is, in fact, an instrument of the Indian state's policy in the valley where impunity has forever prevented any prosecution for torture in J&K. Since the 5th of August, 2019, torture in the valley has shifted gears; no longer targeted at individuals but to inflict collective silence and admission to the might of the Indian state. The penetrative use to surveillance technologies to target individuals and thus spread the message that the collective was at risk, or the loudspeaker-amplified torture sessions to break the collective will, point towards this. Post the 5th of August, detentions became the modus operandi of the local administration, working in tandem with the J&K Police, the Indian paramilitary & military and the state, to ensure that no form of regularity was allowed to function. Kashmiris were detained on the flimsiest of cases, most of them fabricated, making the entire exercise of detentions a mere paperwork formality. This was exacerbated by the fact that the courts were under threat with senior lawyers and top office-bearers of the J&K Bar Association being detained under the PSA. Likewise, some of the detainees were flown out of the valley and into prisons in India, and with the restrictions on movement and the internet/telephone clampdown in the valley, avenues for redressal were limited. The new Rules also provide an expedient and easy process for acquisition of domicile for non-Kashmiris. Applicants with proof of residence follow a straightforward process in which a district officer issues a domicile certificate within a strict 15 days limit. On the other hand, Kashmiri natives are burdened with a complicated domicile-attaining process. Under the new Rules, existing permanent resident certificates (PRC) of indigenous Kashmiris exist only as evidentiary proof of their residence, and must be submitted to their district officer to obtain a new domicile certificate. In its reading down of Article 370, the Indian state maintained this was to enable an equal status for the women of Kashmir, who according to this narrative stand to lose their permanent resident status and their right to inheritance if they married non-permanent residents. 4 The women of Kashmir not only have access to their permanent resident status, but also to ancestral property, education and better indicators of gender equality.

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