A HISTORIC report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on widespread human rights violations in India-held Kashmir has been rightly endorsed by the UN Secretary General António Guterres. The secretary general has also appeared to support UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s call for an independent international investigation of the massive rights violations by the Indian state in IHK. Mr Guterres’s remarks, particularly urging India and Pakistan to find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute, are likely to get a cold reception in hawkish circles in India, but they are eminently sensible and suggest that the tide of international opinion on India’s oppressive and deeply troubling actions in IHK may be changing ever so slightly.

While undeniably the many strands of the Pak-India relationship, the Kashmir dispute and other issues that remain to be resolved are interlinked, the international community has had a tendency to overlook the gross human rights violations and excesses of the Indian security forces against the brave, defiant but often defenceless people of India-held Kashmir. That must change. The report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is important for two reasons: it casts a light on the appalling violations by the Indian security apparatus while making clear that without an independent international investigation, the true extent of violations cannot be known. India has used its international influence to conceal the shocking and shameful treatment of the people of IHK from the global public. It should no longer be allowed to get away with the torture, maiming and worse of a courageous people.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018