South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

 Mary Lawlor speaks to The Wire about the situation of human rights defenders in the country, the use of repressive laws by the government and more. Several HRDs, academics and journalists have ended up in prisons for holding the state accountable. The state has used repressive laws like the UAPA to ensure prolonged incarceration and deny them their right to bail. And most of these arrests have continued through the pandemic.Sukanya ShanthaOn May 1, 2020, Mary Lawlor, a Dublin-based human rights expert with over four decades of experience engaging in human rights work, took up the mandate of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) at the United Nations. Along with her work globally, Lawlor has been closely following the deteriorating human rights conditions in India and feels the country has repeatedly failed to protect the rights and interests of HRDs in the country. 
 

Srinagar, August 20, 2021 :A Kashmiri youth serving a private company was thrashed by a gang of six persons in Gurgoan area in Indian state Haryana.The Kashmiri youth identified as Tariq Bhat, a resident of Handwara works as Financial Advisor in a financial technology company Policybazaar, was intercepted by a group of six youth in Gurgoan citys  Sector 44 in Haryana  on Thursday evening.
Tariq Bhat, 24, left his office in sector 44 of Gurgaon and was walking towards his rented accommodation – some two kilometres away from his office when a group of unidentified men grabbed his neck, another blindfolded him and the rest began beating him mercilessly.
 

Srinagar: June 23 : A clash between Kashmiri youth and Indian forces started in Shirmal area of Shopian district on Wednesday, in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, media reports said.
Reports said that a joint team of Indian Army, CRPF and SOG personnel launched a cordon and search operation in Shirmal.
A senior police officer also confirmed  about exchange of firing between Kashmiri liberation members and Indian forces.
As this report was being filed intermittent exchange of fire was going on.

Srinagar: June 23,2021 :The Indian authorities have made amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Verification of Character and Antecedents) making it binding for fresh applicants to furnish details about themselves and their relatives since the age of 15 years in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. 
Educational details, mobile numbers used in last five years, information of in-laws and details of loans have been made mandatory, to be verified by the CID Department of Police, for any fresh appointment in Jammu and Kashmir.

Abdul Hameed Mir, 45, was detained by the authorities around the same time when Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s government unilaterally announced changes in the constitutional and legal status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, effectively wiping out the semi-autonomy enjoyed by the region for generations.Picked up from his house in the Kupwara district of Kashmir, Mr Mir was then in prison for more than 18 months without charge when he lost his mother. He had moved a bail application in March to carry out the last rites. It was denied. “His mother kept waiting for nearly two years to get a single glance of her only son,” his brother-in-law, Sajjad Dar, told The Independent. “She was not granted that in life. And was denied that dignity even in death.

Srinagar, May 24, 2021: International Forum For Justice Human Rights JK (IFJHRJK) chairman  Muhammad Ahsan Untoo  urged upon the Indian authorities to release the all Kashmiri prisoners and jailed convicts on parole in view of the covid19 pandemic languishing in different jails of IIOJK and in India.  The IFJHRJK chairman Ahsan Untoo has demanded that prisoners, especially the prisoners convicted for life, should be released at earnest parole on humanitarian grounds. It added that most of the convicts are aged and suffering from multiple ailments inside prisons and thus are exposed to the COVID 19 disease.
 

  تاریخ 6 مئی 2021 سرینگر // محبوس تحریک حریت چیئر مین محمد اشرف صحرائی دوران حراست شہید ہوگئے انکی عمر 77 تھی۔ادہم پور سینٹرل جیل میں نظر بند تھے حکام نے ان کے گھر والوں کو بتایا کہ انکی خرابی صحت خراب ہے اور ۔انہیں جموں جی ایم سی ہسپتال میں داخل کرکے وینٹی لیٹر سپورٹ پر رکھا گیا لیکن وہ جانبر نہ ہوسکے اور اس دنیا کوچھوڑ کر چلے گئے جبکہ مصدقہ اطلاعات کے مطابق تحریک آزادی کے سب سے قد آور لیڈر جیل میںہی شہید ہوئے تھے 

  سرینگر 6 مئی 2021 // بھارتی افواج نے جنوبی ضلع شوپیان میں کنی گام ، امام صاحب گاوں میں تین نوجوانون کو آپریشن کے دوران شہید کردیا بھا رتی بارڈر سیکورٹی فورس ( بی ایس ایف) نے جموں و کشمیر کے ضلع سانبہ میں بدھ اور جمعرات کی درمیانی شب کے قریب ایک شخص کو گولی مار کر جابحق کر دیا ۔

 April 26, 2021Washington, D.C: The World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKA) issued the following statement in recognition of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. “There is no press freedom for Kashmir. The Indian government uses internet blackouts, police raids, and traumatic intimidation tactics on activists, journalists and civilians to crush dissent and shield its brutal military occupation and demographic engineering.