NEW YORK, Nov 16: Continued human rights abuses by the Indian security forces have compelled more young Kashmiri men to join a guerrilla campaign for independence in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, New York Times quoted Kashmiri political leaders and human rights groups as saying.

The NYT said that a rise in local involvement could be a new setback for India in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only majority Muslim State and the scene of a 14-year-old insurgency.

Discrediting Indian government’s claims regarding Pakistan fuelling the insurgency, the paper stated: “A year after a new state government was elected with a ‘healing touch’ policy, Kashmiris say that human rights abuses by Indian security forces have continued, fueling a rise in young Kashmiris joining the insurgency, which has killed 40,000 to 80,000 people.”

Officials in the Indian-occupied Kashmir and human rights groups told the paper that they had heard reports that small groups of young Kashmiris had been caught trying to cross into the (azad Jammu and Kashmir), apparently to receive military training. An Indian Army spokesman said more than 40 young men had been stopped trying to cross in the last three months.

“While Kashmiri human rights advocates credited the new state government with reducing corruption and improving some services, they said continued human rights abuses by Indian forces was fueling support for the insurgency. They said it was impossible for state officials to control security forces that report to the federal government in New Delhi. “They can’t do anything,” said Parvez Imroz, chief of the Public Commission on Human Rights, a Kashmiri group, “They are helpless,” the paper reported.