India: The Killing of Kashmir

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I would soon learn the security forces and the militants take who they want, they torture, and they kill. Caught in the middle are the people of Kashmir. More than 60,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, have died in the 15-year conflict. Half a million Indian troops are stationed in Kashmir, fighting Pakistani-funded militants who slip across the border to attack the troops but also to terrorize the local population into giving them shelter and assistance.

While both governments talk of peace, Unreported World reveals that, on the ground, very little has changed. For the local villagers life is a cycle of militant violence and government repression. The team arrive in Srinagar to find Indian police have just violently beaten a group of women who are protesting about the detention of two men and a woman for alleged links to pro-Pakistan militants.

Two sisters tell Jordan that around 25 masked troops from a Special Operations Group had burst in through the window and grabbed their father, mother and uncle. The children are terrified that their parents may join the 8,000 people who international human rights groups say have “disappeared” after being taken away by the security forces over the last 15 years.

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