Hatem Bazian: On April 9, Mr. Dar [a Kashmiri shawl weaver] was detained for no reason whatsoever while on his way to a relative’s funeral, beaten by the Indian troops on hand, then tied to a military jeep and driven through at least nine different Kashmiri villages. The Indian army’s use of Dar as a human shield was intended to stop protesting youth from throwing stones at soldiers, and constitutes a grave violation of humanitarian and international law. After the image spread on social media, authorities in the region ended up filing a criminal complaint against the army for tying Mr. Dar to the jeep and parading him as a human shield in nine villages. We have to wait and see if anything comes out of the complaint, but previous complaints did not result in any charges, or very minor disciplinary steps were taken, and I am afraid the same will happen in this case.
…The recent Indian government escalation of violence in Kashmir is never noticed or reported beyond the Pakistani and Indian press and surely enough it is never mentioned in the Western evening news. Likewise, reports in Arab and Muslim press are scant on the subject and, with few exceptions, are relegated to brief mentionings if any. More alarmingly, the Indian Prime Minister is increasingly given lavish welcome ceremonies across parts of the Arab and Muslim worlds that adds insult to injury. The excuses for the lack of attention are many but we rarely stop to consider the deepening crisis at hand and the wholesale violation of human rights. To their credit, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did report the ongoing violations but their extensive research and evidence is collecting dust at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Geneva and across many governmental foreign desks around the world.
India’s increasing influence and integration into the neoliberal global economy and the strengthening of its alliances with the United States, Europe, Israel and parts of the Arab and Muslim worlds contribute to the structural erasure of Kashmir’s cause from the international community’s agenda. Similarly, the dependence of a number of Arab and Muslim countries on Indian labor and deepening economic and security links make the Kashmir issue an undesirable agenda item during diplomatic encounters. More here.