ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): India’s claims of being a “victim of terrorism,” amplified during the India-US Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Committee meeting, stand completely exposed in the face of New Delhi’s own record of state terrorism in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and its aggressive military posturing against Pakistan.
According to Kashmir Media Service, India and the United States jointly called for additional sanctions on several organisations while posturing as champions of counter-terrorism.
However, observers say India is itself responsible for gross human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, demographic engineering, and suppression of political dissent in the occupied territory.
Experts noted that India’s increasing collaboration with Western powers on “counter-terrorism” is primarily aimed at whitewashing its brutalities in IIOJK and portraying Kashmiri resistance as terrorism, despite the struggle being rooted in internationally recognised UN resolutions.
Kashmir-specific developments in recent days further undermined New Delhi’s narrative:
🔹 India admitted in Parliament that UAPA arrests have skyrocketed, rising from 227 in 2019 to over 1,200 in 2022 and 2023, showing how the draconian law is deployed to criminalise Kashmiri political activists, students, and ordinary civilians.
🔹 The Indian Police chief’s call for integrating Village Defence Guards (VDGs) — a vigilante militia historically accused of killing Kashmiri civilians — into the police force has sparked fears of a new phase of targeted violence.
🔹 Families of Kashmiri labourers killed outside the territory, such as Bilal Ahmad Sangoo, continue to report humiliation and abandonment by Indian authorities.
Indian forces are involved in fake encounters
🔹 Indian forces are involved in fake encounters and custodial killings, with rights groups warning of a steady escalation since 2019.
Meanwhile, India continues its massive militarisation push in the occupied territory.
Indian journalist Manish Prasad reported that the Indian Defence Minister will inaugurate 125 new Border Roads Organisation (BRO) projects, including 28 roads, 93 bridges, and the strategically sensitive Shyok Tunnel on the Durbuk–Shyok–DBO axis in Ladakh—infrastructure clearly intended for military advantage, not regional stability.
Experts said India’s frantic construction of war-oriented infrastructure along the Ladakh axis, combined with its aggressive posture towards Pakistan and its colonial-style repression in IIOJK, shows that New Delhi’s real challenge is not terrorism but its own expansionist ambitions.
Observers maintain that if the world seeks sustainable peace in South Asia, it must hold India accountable for state terrorism in Kashmir, rather than endorsing its manufactured victimhood.
