Indian police book IoK leader for 'maligning Indian army'

New Delhi Police registered a First Information Report against Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement Leader Shehla Rashid for inciting people against the Indian army. 

Rashid has highlighted the atrocities committed by the Indian army in Indian-occupied Kashmir since New Delhi imposed a military curfew in the valley in early August. 

On August 5, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had revoked the constitutional autonomy of the occupied territory and sent in hundreds of thousands of troops in the area, enforcing a total communications blackout. 

Rashid has been active on social media as information creeps in from IoK about widespread human rights abuse, including torture of detainees, mass blinding and sexual violence against women. 

Rashid claims that the Indian Army has been indiscriminately picking up men, raiding houses and torturing people in the occupied territory, reports India Today

According to the political activist, these human rights abuses were being carried out to serve the agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian PM Modi. 

The FIR against Rashid comes as India holds other Kashmiri leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehmooba Mufti under house arrest. Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattu is under detention too. 

In light of the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation, global rights group Amnesty International on Thursday launched an urgent global campaign to end the communications blackout in IoK. 

The #LetKashmirSpeak campaign aimed to highlight the human cost of the draconian communication blackout in occupied Kashmir that was termed as an outright assault on the civil liberties of the Kashmiri people by the Indian government.

In a press release, the rights group warned that depriving an entire population of their right to freedom of expression, opinion and movement for an indefinite period is akin to taking the region back to the dark ages.