Reform Laws Choking Freedom of Expression, Association (New York, January 18, 2018) – The Indian government failed to stop or credibly investigate vigilante attacks against minority religious communities during 2017, Human Rights Watch said today, releasing its World Report 2018. Many senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly promoted Hindu supremacy and

Irfan Mehraj Interview: The 2017 winner of the Rafto Prize for human rights spoke with The New Arab about his thoughts on the long-running Kashmir dispute. Parvez Imroz is a well-known human rights lawyer and activist at the Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCSS) and the 2017 recipient of Norway’s prestigious Rafto Prize for human rights.

By Tariq Rizwan February 5, each year is observed as a Kashmir Day when a part of Kashmir was liberated from India called Independent Kashmir (in Urdu it is called Azad Jummu & Kashmir – AJK in 1948. In Pakistan, AJK is recognized as a separate state with a Parliament, Prime Minister, President and other

Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of Partition of India held in 1947. The British Government policy in regard to independence of the Indian states which numbered about 560 was enshrined in the proviso that the states enjoyed the privilege of use of their choice to join either dominion the Hindu majority states for India while

By Amitava Kar The turbulence following the July 8 killing of Burhan Wani by Indian security forces is a blow to peace in the long-troubled region claimed by both India and Pakistan, where an insurgency movement peaked in the 1990s, then dwindled, but never completely melted away. Can deep loss, once it finds utterance, be

Kashmir Case: A Story of Letters and Telegrams By Sohail Parwaz The miseries and sacrifices of Kashmiris have different angles. It has been covered by the writers, researchers and the historians in different ways. Thousands of books and papers have been written about the gruesome tales. Amongst them few have taken pain to cover and

The United Nations has asked India to repeal the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, saying it had no role to play in a democracy. This comes amid clamour for withdrawal of AFSPA from Kashmir. A United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur today urged India to repeal the controversial law that gives its military special powers

Kashmir Has Its Own Identity To the Editor: The headline from your July 22 editorial, “Kashmir in Crisis” could not sum up the situation in Kashmir better. You noted that “The unrest is a major setback for peace in the long-troubled region claimed by both India and Pakistan.” We would like to stress that the

By Basharat Peer SRINAGAR, Kashmir — On July 8, Burhan Wani, a 22-year-old rebel, was shot dead by Indian soldiers and police officers in a small village in the central part of Indian-controlled Kashmir. News of his killing spread as fast as the bullets that had hit him. Cellphones, emails, social media went wild: “They’ve

Over 40 percent of schools and 30 percent of the villages in Indian-administered Kashmir rely on unsafe drinking water, according to a new study. The study, which was carried out by the National Level Monitoring Agency, under India’s rural development ministry, found that 60 percent of village residents do not get sufficient potable water in