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NEW DELHI:
The victims in Kashmir are those killed and massacred by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, and rights activists and world media have completely overlooked 30 years of terror in Jammu and Kashmir, senior journalist Aarti Tikoo Singh said at a US congressional sub-committee hearing on Tuesday. Ms Singh also called the Congressional hearing “prejudiced, biased, a setup against India and in favour of Pakistan”.
The journalist was speaking at the US House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on “Human Rights in South Asia” in Washington.
The Congressional hearing, she said, was “completely prejudiced against 15,000 Kashmiri Muslims civilians who had been killed by Pakistan”. “It is prejudiced against 3 lakh Kashmiri Pandits who were ethnically cleansed from Kashmir in 1990. It is prejudiced against over 700 Kashmiri Pandits who work here in Kashmir in 1990,” she said.
“The fundamental point that I am trying to make is the victims in Kashmir are the ones who have been killed and massacred by Pakistani sponsored terrorists. The number of Kashmiri Muslims who have been killed in Kashmir is immense and they have been victimised by the Pakistani terror state. The 30 years of Islamic jihad and terror in Kashmir perpetrated by Pakistan has been completely ignored and overlooked by the world press,” said Ms Singh, nominated by the government to speak.
During her testimony, Ms Singh had a face-off with US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who suggested that the journalist was catering to an audience and making “incredibly dubious” claims. “Ms Singh, a reporter’s job is to find the objective truth about what is happening and report it to the public. You have an enormous audience at The Times of India and you have an enormous responsibility to get it right. I am aware of how the narrative shaped by reporting can distort the truth. I am also very aware of how it could be limited to sharing only the official side of the story. The press is at its worst when it is a mouthpiece for a government. In your version of the story, the only problems in Kashmir are caused by what you call militants, the only people protesting to break away from India, and are all nefariously backed by Pakistan. You also make the incredible dubious claim that the Indian government’s crackdown in Kashmir is good for human rights. If it was good for human rights, Ms Singh, it wouldn’t be happening in secret. You make, what I might call, a feminist case for the occupation of Kashmir and communication shutdowns, saying it will be better for women.”
Ms Singh retorted: “My record, my professional record is that I have lashed out at every single government in India on various issues, from human rights violations committed in Kashmir to the lynchings over beef. I have a record of being non-partisan throughout in my profession of the last 20 years. So for Ms Omar to say… such accusations against me, is really condemnable.”
A group of US lawmakers expressed concern at the hearing about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir amid security restrictions since August 5, when the government announced the end of special status to the state and split it into two union territories.
The lawmakers called for the release of detained politicians and activists and an end to restrictions on communication and movement of people. Alice Wells, the Acting US Assistant Secretary of State, welcomed the centre’s actions to normalise the situation in Jammu and Kashmir but added: “While the Department supports the development objectives of India’s move to abrogate Article 370, we remain concerned about the situation in the Kashmir Valley… It has not returned to normal.”
Ms Singh stressed that most of what was being written in the western press was “a distorted reality of Kashmir” and the story was often presented without proper context and a historical understanding.
“There are no human rights activist and press in the world which feels it’s their moral obligation to talk about victims of Pakistani terror in Kashmir,” the journalist continued.
The current situation carried “a lot of certitude and righteousness of a narrative that helps the perpetrator and not the victim of human rights abuse in Kashmir,” she said.
“The victims of such perpetration are my Kashmiri Muslim friends, including Shujaat Bukhari, a senior journalist and a peace activist who believed in resolving Kashmir through dialogue between India and Pakistan. He went from city to city across the world trying to convince the powerful players that Kashmir needs peace. But on June 14, 2018, he was shot dead right outside his office in Srinagar by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the same terror outfit banned by the United States that also perpetrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks,” Ms Singh said.
“Why did they kill him? Because Shujaat wanted Pakistan to end violence and human rights abuse in Kashmir. They killed him because he wanted peace.”
The journalist also talked about other victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir, including a Kashmiri businessman shot dead on August 29 because he had opened his shop defying the orders of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Pointing out that it was “the same terror group responsible for the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl”, Ms Singh said: “Jaish, in the last two months, has been issuing posters, warning Kashmiri Muslims not to resume their normal lives.”
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