Human Rights Watch says abuses common in Pakistani Kashmir

Rights group says abuses common in Pakistani Kashmir
(Reuters)

21 September 2006

ISLAMABAD - A US-based human rights group on Thursday accused Pakistani security forces of using torture and other rights abuses in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir.

“Most incidents of politically motivated torture recorded by Human Rights Watch involved the ISI, or the police acting on the military’s behalf,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report, referring to the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

HRW issued a similar report on Indian Kashmir last week in which it said that rights abuses continued there unchecked.

In the 71-page report on Pakistani Kashmir, HRW noted that there had been a reduction in infiltration of Islamist militants into Indian Kashmir, but it was still taking place.

“Most of those interviewed were of the view that though the level of infiltration had decreased substantially since 2004, there have been no indications that the Pakistani military or militant groups had decided to abandon infiltration as policy.”

The report said the Pakistani military still maintained a close relationship with the militant groups in Kashmir.

It said last year’s devastating earthquake in the region was used an “opportunity to craft a new image for the militant groups rather than as an opportunity to disband them”.

Charities linked to militant groups took a high profile in relief work after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people last October.

Pakistan’s government swiftly rejected the report.

“It is heavily biased and it contained factual errors,” Junior Minister for Information Tariq Azeem Khan told a news conference. “We totally reject this report.”

India and Pakistan have fought three wars -- two of them over Kashmir -- since winning independence in 1947.

South Asia’s nuclear rivals embarked on a peace process in 2004 aimed at resolving all disputes, but progress has been slow.

Talks were put on ice after a series of bomb blasts on commuter trains in Indian commercial hub, Bombay on July 11 in which more than 180 people were killed.

But, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to resume the process at a meeting in Cuba earlier this month.