India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report

[Neo]

India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report


Kashmiri rights group documents structure of impunity and violence, including killings and enforced disappearances.

Azad Essa | 10 Sep 2015 01:22 GMT | Human Rights, War & Conflict, India, Pakistan, Asia

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months [AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan]
More to this story

• UN chief expresses 'concern' over violence in Kashmir
• Attack on convoy kills Indian troops in Kashmir
• Revoke controversial law in disputed Kashmir - Amnesty

The Indian government has covered up hundreds of cases of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a new report has alleged.

Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, told Al Jazeera on the release of the report, titled Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, that the Indian government had allowed systemic violence to take root in the Himalayan region hit by more than two decades of conflict.

Parvez, co-author of the mammoth 800-page report, released on Wednesday, said the International Peoples' Tribunal and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons had documented more than 1,080 extrajudicial killings and 172 enforced disappearances, as well as cases of sexual violence that go back to the early 1990s. The report took two years to compile.

We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley.

Khurram Parvez, Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society

The document details 333 case studies of human rights violations and names some 972 alleged perpetrators responsible for the crimes. These include 464 army personnel, 161 paramilitary personnel, 158 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and 189 "government gunmen".

"These crimes were happening with the full knowledge of higher level officers in the Indian government ... they must be all held accountable by international law," Parvez said.

'Structure of violence and impunity'

The allegations detailed in the report are supported by official records and testimonies and Parvez said that prosecution should not be limited to the individuals.

"We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley," he said.

The report calls for the UN Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate the crimes and appeals to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to exercise its power to refer the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). India is not a signatory to the ICC but the UNSC has the power to refer situations to the court.

Both Lieutenant Colonel N N Joshi, India's army spokesperson in Srinagar and Colonel Rohan Anand, India's army spokesperson in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera they had yet to see the new report and were therefore unable to comment.

Likewise, Naeem Akhtar, spokesperson for Government of Jammu and Kashmir state told Al Jazeera that he hadn't read the report yet and described the allegations leveled at the Indian government as a "generic statement".

"We are already looking into cases of human rights violations in Kashmir and we will give justice to the people"

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir state, said the party was looking into the claims made in the report.

"There have been some human rights violations in Kashmir ... and it is a fact [that] mistakes have been made on both sides and ultimately Kashmiris have suffered," Waheed-Ur-Rehman, spokesperson for the PDP, told Al Jazeera.

"We are trying our level best to provide justice to the people who have suffered in the past. Justice can never be anti-state, people will get justice," he said.

But Gautum Navalkha, a human rights activist and editorial consultant to the Economic and Political Weekly magazine in New Delhi, described justice as "a rarity" in the disputed region.

"Because of the militancy, Jammu and Kashmir is considered a 'disturbed area' [...] and there are two types of laws: one for common Indians and another for the 'disturbed areas'."

"There is no possibility of justice in Kashmir under these circumstances," Navalkha told Al Jazeera.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to raise concerns in August at rising tensions along the de-facto border between India and Pakistan.

At the time, the UN chief urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and take all steps to ensure the protection of civilians who continue to bear the brunt of hostilities between the two nations over their claims to Kashmir.

'Serious abuses'

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since both countries gained independence in 1947. Both nations claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety, with Kashmiris still staking a claim to self-determination. Since 1988, the Indian military has deployed hundreds of thousands of security forces to quell an insurgency against Indian rule.

In July, Amnesty International accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses in the region.

According to Amnesty, more than 96 percent of all allegations of human rights violations pitted against India's personnel in the disputed territory have been declared as "false or baseless".

"Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses," Minar Pimple, a senior director of global operations at Amnesty said.

In a rare deviation from the norm, a military court sentenced five Indian soldiers to life imprisonment for the murder of three Kashmiri men in 2010. Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, described it as a "watershed moment".

Amnesty welcomed the move but cautioned that "for justice to be consistently delivered, security force personnel accused of human rights violations should be prosecuted in civilian courts".

Over the past two decades more than 60,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, and the dispute remains a perilous red herring in India-Pakistan relations.

Showkat Shafi contributed to this report from New Delhi.

Source: Al Jazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/india-covering-abuses-kashmir-report-150910003213898.html

 

[Rowdy]

Kashmiri muslims proud of ethnic cleansing of Hindus : Reality

 

[thethinker]

:blah:

Looks like Pakis are getting confused on what to post where.

Amnesty International is over here.

The Islamophobia card, baby Aylans and all that nonsense will work over there. Do mention Balochistan too over there for humanitarian sake.

 

[FRYCRY]

We should shed some light to the balochistan as pakistan has always followed the policy of kill and dump in balochistan. I've fb baloch friends who tell me horrific stories.

 

[thethinker]

Silly Pakis wasting bandwidth and time trolling on DFI. Anyway, here is a reality check from Pakland :

Human rights violations on rise in country, Senate body told
http://www.dawn.com/news/1207562/human-rights-violations-on-rise-in-country-senate-body-told

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice was told on Thursday that human rights violations are on the rise in the country and that during 2014-15 around 20,665 such cases were reported of which 3,536 were registered with the police.

However, the Minister for Law, Justice and Human rights Pervez Rashid claimed that his ministry has nothing to do with any human rights violations as after 18th amendment it has become provincial matter.

Moreover, Rashid held media responsible for exposing human rights violations and said media does not see positive things in the society as due attention is paid by his ministry on cases which are brought into its notice.

The committee was given a comprehensive briefing by senior officials of Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights on the state of human rights in the country.

Editorial: Human rights report card

The officials shared appalling facts and figures saying that “around 33 cases of missing persons, 1,547 cases of murder, 65 cases of extra judicial killings, 172 cases of targeted killings, 200 cases of rape, 34 cases of domestic violence and four cases of sexual harassment were reported”.

The ministry officials, however, apprised the committee that directives have been given to police and other concerned departments to take extra steps for the protection of human rights in the country.

The secretary for law and justice commission, Sarwar Khan, told the committee that the biggest hurdle in the way of providing cheap justice is the shortage of lower judiciary in towns and smaller cities.

Justice (retd) Raza Khan, the secretary at ministry of law, admitted the shortage of judges in the lower judiciary.

He said the relatives of prisoners on death sentences are sending letters to the law ministry for delaying the executions.

 

[avknight1408]

In July, Amnesty International accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses in the region.

According to Amnesty, more than 96 percent of all allegations of human rights violations pitted against India's personnel in the disputed territory have been declared as "false or baseless".

Amnesty International is said to have links to Muslim Brotherhood & Hamas. Have they developed links th kashmiri militant groups.?

 

[rohit.gr77]

Guys no need to freak out by a stupid report by God knows who Khurram Parvez. No body gives a damn to such reports.
Al Jazeera report only stands valid in the UN if it's related to Middle East. For rest of the world Reuters report stand valid in the UN.
Mammoth 800 pages report
Engineering students study much more than this in a night. Maybe tomorrow @Neo will write a 1,600 pages report and open another useless thread here on DFI.

 

[Srinivas_K]

@Neo what about this extra judicial killing of Balouch youth in Pakistan by your army?

 

[Mad Indian]

Yes, Indian panzies in the government covered up the ethnic cleansing of Hindus there by the Muslims.

 

[Neo]

@Neo what about this extra judicial killing of Balouch youth in Pakistan by your army?

Diverting attention to Balochistan isn't going to make the Kashmir problem disappear mate.
Sofar I haven't seen any posts on the topic. I expect better from you.

 

[Screambowl]

India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report


Kashmiri rights group documents structure of impunity and violence, including killings and enforced disappearances.

Azad Essa | 10 Sep 2015 01:22 GMT | Human Rights, War & Conflict, India, Pakistan, Asia

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months [AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan]
More to this story

• UN chief expresses 'concern' over violence in Kashmir
• Attack on convoy kills Indian troops in Kashmir
• Revoke controversial law in disputed Kashmir - Amnesty

The Indian government has covered up hundreds of cases of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a new report has alleged.

Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, told Al Jazeera on the release of the report, titled Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, that the Indian government had allowed systemic violence to take root in the Himalayan region hit by more than two decades of conflict.

Parvez, co-author of the mammoth 800-page report, released on Wednesday, said the International Peoples' Tribunal and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons had documented more than 1,080 extrajudicial killings and 172 enforced disappearances, as well as cases of sexual violence that go back to the early 1990s. The report took two years to compile.

We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley.

Khurram Parvez, Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society

The document details 333 case studies of human rights violations and names some 972 alleged perpetrators responsible for the crimes. These include 464 army personnel, 161 paramilitary personnel, 158 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and 189 "government gunmen".

"These crimes were happening with the full knowledge of higher level officers in the Indian government ... they must be all held accountable by international law," Parvez said.

'Structure of violence and impunity'

The allegations detailed in the report are supported by official records and testimonies and Parvez said that prosecution should not be limited to the individuals.

"We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley," he said.

The report calls for the UN Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate the crimes and appeals to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to exercise its power to refer the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). India is not a signatory to the ICC but the UNSC has the power to refer situations to the court.

Both Lieutenant Colonel N N Joshi, India's army spokesperson in Srinagar and Colonel Rohan Anand, India's army spokesperson in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera they had yet to see the new report and were therefore unable to comment.

Likewise, Naeem Akhtar, spokesperson for Government of Jammu and Kashmir state told Al Jazeera that he hadn't read the report yet and described the allegations leveled at the Indian government as a "generic statement".

"We are already looking into cases of human rights violations in Kashmir and we will give justice to the people"

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir state, said the party was looking into the claims made in the report.

"There have been some human rights violations in Kashmir ... and it is a fact [that] mistakes have been made on both sides and ultimately Kashmiris have suffered," Waheed-Ur-Rehman, spokesperson for the PDP, told Al Jazeera.

"We are trying our level best to provide justice to the people who have suffered in the past. Justice can never be anti-state, people will get justice," he said.

But Gautum Navalkha, a human rights activist and editorial consultant to the Economic and Political Weekly magazine in New Delhi, described justice as "a rarity" in the disputed region.

"Because of the militancy, Jammu and Kashmir is considered a 'disturbed area' [...] and there are two types of laws: one for common Indians and another for the 'disturbed areas'."

"There is no possibility of justice in Kashmir under these circumstances," Navalkha told Al Jazeera.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to raise concerns in August at rising tensions along the de-facto border between India and Pakistan.

At the time, the UN chief urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and take all steps to ensure the protection of civilians who continue to bear the brunt of hostilities between the two nations over their claims to Kashmir.

'Serious abuses'

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since both countries gained independence in 1947. Both nations claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety, with Kashmiris still staking a claim to self-determination. Since 1988, the Indian military has deployed hundreds of thousands of security forces to quell an insurgency against Indian rule.

In July, Amnesty International accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses in the region.

According to Amnesty, more than 96 percent of all allegations of human rights violations pitted against India's personnel in the disputed territory have been declared as "false or baseless".

"Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses," Minar Pimple, a senior director of global operations at Amnesty said.

In a rare deviation from the norm, a military court sentenced five Indian soldiers to life imprisonment for the murder of three Kashmiri men in 2010. Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, described it as a "watershed moment".

Amnesty welcomed the move but cautioned that "for justice to be consistently delivered, security force personnel accused of human rights violations should be prosecuted in civilian courts".

Over the past two decades more than 60,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, and the dispute remains a perilous red herring in India-Pakistan relations.

Showkat Shafi contributed to this report from New Delhi.

Source: Al Jazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/india-covering-abuses-kashmir-report-150910003213898.html

Why don't you care about Muslims in Syria and abuse in Syria. Where were you and your Ummah when ISIS bombed the Muslims. Or you think, ISIS are islamic and the rest are not? Or your turkish or Arabi blood in you is now contaminated.

Any how, why do kill Shudas in Pakistan? Are they Munafiqs?

Care about your falling Ummah in Arab world!

 

[rock127]

Diverting attention to Balochistan isn't going to make the Kashmir problem disappear mate.
Sofar I haven't seen any posts on the topic. I expect better from you.

Betaaa.... Kashmir is a integral part of India.

UN gave you a chance to behave by telling you to completely pull out your pussy Pak Army but that time is over and UN is not concerned anymore.UN actually laughs at you now since Pakistan is official Terrorist State and gave suport to Osama.Actually there SHOULD be a case in UN about Pakistan doing World terrorism.

You LOST Bangladesh/Siachin because of Kashmir and got humiliated by surrendering all of your Armed Forces to India.Now try again and Balochistan would free themselves... we give them fultuuuuu "moral support".

Sudhar ja Paki nahi to tera naksha bigad denge... literally.

Kashmir hua purana... ab time hai Balochistan ka... where is UN??? Pakistan is illegally occupying Balochistan since 1947 by doing genocide of Muslim Baloch people.

 

[Srinivas_K]

Diverting attention to Balochistan isn't going to make the Kashmir problem disappear mate.
Sofar I haven't seen any posts on the topic. I expect better from you.

India is a functioning democracy and the facts are all out in the open, they are open to discuss.

But Pakistan raising India is more about political motives, one cannot create terror in the valley and cry human rights violations when Indian army tries to defend that territory.

Pakistan is the last nation on earth to talk about human right abuses in Kashmir, because this nation is the direct instigator of terror in the Kashmir and is the main reason for the suffering of Kashmiris in the last two decades.

 

[thethinker]

Pakistanis preaching about human right abuses in Kashmir is the same as prostitutes preaching on how to remain virgins.

Seriously, it's funny at first but then becomes boring.

 

[Screambowl]

More over Gilgit people don't really get along with other Pakistanis, because they are Shias, Hussainis. They also do not have same Mosques.. More over, they don't celebrate Eid with enthusiasm like other sunni Pakistanis do .. rather Mourne on Moharram.


February 2012 Kohistan Shia massacre (in Pakistani Occupied Kashmir)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2012_Kohistan_Shia_massacre

August 2012 Mansehra Shia massacre( In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2012_Mansehra_Shia_massacre




These Pakistanis are pissing on their present and future because they are in deep identity crisis.

 

[thethinker]

India is a functioning democracy and the facts are all out in the open, they are open to discuss.

But Pakistan raising India is more about political motives, one cannot create terror in the valley and cry human rights violations when Indian army tries to defend that territory.

Pakistan is the last nation on earth to talk about human right abuses in Kashmir, because this nation is the direct instigator of terror in the Kashmir and is the main reason for the suffering of Kashmiris in the last two decades.

Don't try to reason with Pakis. It doesn't work no matter how liberal they claim they are. You'll keep explaining same thing repeatedly and points inconvenient to discuss from Paki view will be completely ignored.

In fact, the same poster @Neo once stated that DFI is a "Hindu" forum and that he is "battling hyenas" here. The Ghazi Jihadi mentality is strong no matter a Paki is "liberal" like @Neo or a madrassa produce.

Flaming them when trying to act smart however is rather entertaining,

 

[Screambowl]

http://www.dawn.com/news/786738/time-for-shias-to-leave-pakistan
Time for Shias to leave Pakistan

 

[Screambowl]

Sectarian violence in Gilgit (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) (1988)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarian_violence_in_Pakistan_(1988)

The exact number of casualties has been disputed. According to sources 150[5] to 400 people were killed while hundreds of others were injured. A report of the International Human Rights Observer’s (IHRO) Gilgit-Baltistan chapter estimates that around 3,000 people have been killed in Gilgit-Baltistan Province since 1988. On the loss of lives and its impact, IHRO states that about 900 women have been widowed and nearly 2,500 children orphaned. “The loss to property is inestimable.

 

[rock127]

@Neo betaa... you are getting slaps after slaps on your face ... here is another TIGHT SLAP.

Did you intentionally miss the below BIG NEWS??? PoK wants to join India.

MODI Effect: PoK residents want to join India, trashes Pakistani Terrorism
New Delhi, Sept 3: Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, may create history in near future. Residents of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) now want to become Indian citizens as they are impressed by the "good governance" of Modi government.

Media reports quoted Moulana Syed Athar Hussain Dehlavi, who is the chairman of the Anjuman Minhaj-e-Rasool, as saying that PoK residents are impressed by Modi government. PoK residents, who always face trouble due to flood, earthquake and other calamities, recently greeted Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif with "Go Nawaz Go" slogans.

Sharif had gone to check flood-hit region in PoK. People in the region were hurt as they always feel neglected by Islamabad. Meanwhile, Pakistani media too started writing about demands of PoK residents who now raised pro-freedom slogans. It has been claimed this has made Pakistani government "nervous". Dehlavi, after his visit to PoK, reportedly told that PoK residents are fed up with growing extremism in Pakistan and want to lead a peaceful life. If PoK get any opportunity, they would want a referendum so that they can vote to join back India.

According to Dehlavi, PM Modi's good governance and style of handling of 2015 earthquake and 2014 flood situations impressed the PoK residents. Modi, during his visit to flood-hit Kashmir in 2014, too had promised to offer all possible help to the people of the region citing the deteriorating situation in PoK.

==================================================================
@Abhijat @A chauhan @Alien @alphacentury @Ancient Indian @anupamsurey @blueblood @brational @Bangalorean @Blackwater @bose @cobra commando @DingDong @DFI_COAS @ersakthivel @gpawar @hit&run @jackprince @Kharavela @Illusive @I_PLAY_BAD @LETHALFORCE @Lions Of Punjab @maomao @Mad Indian @OneGrimPilgrim @Peter @pmaitra @Razor @raja696 @Rowdy @Sakal Gharelu Ustad @sydsnyper @Srinivas_K @Screambowl @sorcerer @Simple_Guy @Sylex21 @wickedone @tarunraju @TrueSpirit2 @thethinker @VIP @Vishwarupa @VIP @Varahamihira @roma

@Gabriel92 : See how PoK wants to join India.

 

[Screambowl]

Shia genocide in Gilgit Baltistan(Pakistani Occupied Kashmir) and the role of non-state actors

Not unlike other areas of Pakistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) has suffered numerous incidents of anti-Shia violence in the last few months. In the recent wave of anti-Shia violence by Jihadi-Deobandi militant group Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaast (ASWJ), so far at least 26 lives have been lost, most of them Shias abut also a few ASWJ-SSP militants, and dozens injured. The ongoing Shia genocide in Gilgit-Baltistan is the sequel of the February incident when ASWJ-SSP militants stopped buses and vans on the Karakoram Highway in Kohistan, verified the identity of the passengers before killing 16 members of the Shia community. Gilgit city experienced reactive violence from events taking place in Kohistan. And Chilas avenged the Gilgit violence through frenzied groups of ASWJ-SSP militants that killed nine innocent citizens, Shia Muslims were dragged from passenger buses, their sectarian identity ascertained and short. It was the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba in its new incarnation of Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat that started the violence in Gilgit while protesting the arrest of one of its leaders. A mob of thousands marched to Karakoram Highway, intercepted a convoy of buses heading towards Gilgit, and killed 10 passengers after a show of ID cards. This was a repeat of what had happened earlier in Kohistan in neighbouring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa when buses travelling to Gilgit were intercepted and 16 Shia passengers were asked to disembark and then shot dead.

There is a pattern in sectarian killings in Pakistan whether one likes to see it or not. The minority sect of the Shia is first apostatised through fatwas by extremist clergy and then targeted by armed men, some of whom may have served as ‘mujahideen’ and fought the state’s proxy wars. GB’s administration is helpless, and the military moves in with its usual curfew and shoot-to-kill orders. The region has always been under the tutelage of the military because of the proximity of the Kashmir border and because non-state actors are usually affiliated with Sunni outfits. A similar situation exists in Kurram Agency where the headquarters of the agency, Parachinar, is Shia-majority but gets in the way of the foreign terrorists (most of whom belong to Deobandi-Jihadi subgroup of Sunni Islam and are rejected by majority of Sunnis) who take shelter in Pakistan and the local Taliban warlords going into Afghanistan. The Shia Hazaras of Quetta are being targeted by the same elements while in Karachi the steady rise of the sectarian Deobandi terrorist outfits is having the same effect as well. Since the non-state ‘warriors’ are anti-American, the blame is put on a “foreign conspiracy” — something that all sides buy into because of a shared revulsion for America.

The demography of the region is as follows: Gilgit has approximately one million inhabitants equally divided among Shia, Sunni and Ismaili populations. Into this map walked in the jihadi-religious parties. What was changed by the intrusion of Pakistani religious conflict was the cement of qawm (caste), language and region which had kept Gilgit peaceful for many years and had help maintain a sectarian balance.

The Shia have been squeezed a bit by the increase in the Sunni-Deobandi-Pakhtun population through ingress and through unrestrained jihadi radicalisation. The war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan set the ball rolling because the Shia were not accepted in Pakistan as mujahideen and there was a difference of approach to the Afghan war between Iran and Pakistan, the latter being allied to Saudi Arabia which headed an Arab reaction to Revolutionary Iran.

The Shia majority in the Northern Areas in no way disadvantaged Islamabad as it faced Ladakh on the Indian side. But the population began to be seen by General Zia’s regime as posing a potential threat after 1980. Sectarian violence began there in 1988 as a result of Islamabad’s Iran policy. In 1988, a Shia-Sunni dispute in Gilgit over Eid led to a Sunni-Deobandi lashkar that comprised thousands of people from Mansehra, Chilas (GB), Kohistan and other areas in the then NWFP. In the rampage that followed, hundreds, mostly Shias, were killed, scores of villages were pillaged and burned, and even livestock was slaughtered. All of this happened under the watchful eyes of Pakistan army generals.

In 1999, it was on General Musharraf’s watch as army chief that Pakistan’s Kashmir jihad policy increased the ranks of Islamic extremists in the Northern Areas. The Kargil conflict resulted in the influx of Sunni-Deobandi jihadi elements into the region. Extremist organisations like Sipah Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Al-Ikhwan and Harkatul Mujahideen opened their offices there, upsetting the demographic balance.

Today the sectarian conflict — together with the rise of the 40-partyDifah-e-Pakistan Council — is the most glaring symptom of state implosion brought on by internal loss of writ of the state and wilful international isolation.