DESPARDES (UPDATED) — Kashmir has been experiencing increasing amounts of violence and turmoil since New Delhi stripped it of its autonomy in August, imposing new restrictions on its people and curbing access to the internet, according to a latest DW report titled “Kashmir: Indian police officer arrested for aiding militants“.
Nested in the report (which is based on AFP & Reuters dispatches), the situation in occupied Jammu & Kashmir remains kind of out-of-focus in the international media.
Still, news trekking out of the valley and through social media indicate local resistance is building up — an observation made by the DW based on international news agency dispatches.
It also dovetails two previous UN Human Rights Reports that the resistance indeed has local traction with women and youth mostly on the frontline.
India has been blaming Pakistan for the situation. Pakistan denies it saying it only provides political and moral support.
DW in its report says a senior Indian police officer Divinder Singh was arrested in Kashmir for driving two rebels towards the city of Jammu. His companions were also arrested.
“We have registered a case against (Singh) under the arms, explosives and unlawful activities acts,” police chief Vijay Kumar told reporters. “It is a sensitive case and we don’t want any loopholes.”
It is highly unusual for a top level police officer to be accused of supporting insurgents. Singh had been active in anti-militancy operations and received a special commendation for his work in 2019. Another one of the men arrested with him was a former police officer, says the report.
Pakistan military’s media wing ISPR spokesperson rebuffed the media reports about the incident calling it an ill-planned attempt to stage a false flag operation against Pakistan.
Singh is reportedly a decorated Kashmir police officer.
Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted: “After failed drama of killing and mutilating a Kashmiri near LoC, ill-planned attempt for repeat of Delhi2001/Mumbai 2008 type false flag looks failed”.
He hoped that the results of investigations will be made public and arrested suspects would be found listed in an Indian jail.
The whole of Kashmir — which entered 161st day of lockdown — is a long-standing territorial dispute pending 1948 UN Security Council Resolution which calls for plebiscite in the Muslim-majority valley.
The pristine Himalayan valley lost its special (autonomy) status after PM-Modi government abrogated it in August 2019 and sent in thousands of security forces to clamp down on the local uprising for self-determination.
More than 11,400 local leaders, activists, politicians, traders, and civil society members continue to remain in jails, as per a report of Kashmir Media Cell.
Salahuddin Bhutto, a lecturer at the Department of Management Sciences, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), says “the deep silence of the international community, on seven-decades-long atrocities of Indian forces, in Kashmir, vociferates that the matter has been politicized by them to serve their political interests in the South Asian region”.
