SRINAGAR (Kashmir English): The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has once again raised alarm over the massive deployment of Indian troops in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), calling the territory a vast open-air prison.
It said the presence of Indian troops has transformed civilian life into a state of perpetual fear and surveillance.
APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas in a statement issued in Srinagar said occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been under ruthless military siege since India’s illegal invasion on 27 October 1947, adding that brutal militarization has created a grave and prolonged humanitarian crisis in the territory.
He denounced the growing deployment of Indian forces across the occupied territory, stating that “every street, lane, and neighborhood in Kashmir is under military siege.”
“Indian troops are patrolling every corner of the territory. This excessive militarization is a calculated strategy to suppress the legitimate political aspirations of the Kashmiri people through fear, intimidation and brute force.”
Minhas highlighted that around one million Indian troops are stationed in the territory, effectively placing one soldier for every seven civilians — a ratio unmatched anywhere else in the world.
He said this overwhelming military footprint has led to daily harassment, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Kashmir’s disputed status
The APHC spokesman said that India cannot change the Kashmir’s disputed status through its huge military presence and called upon the international community, including the United Nations and human rights organizations, to break their silence and hold India accountable for its “systematic militarization and demographic engineering” in the disputed territory.
The spokesman further said that lasting peace in the South Asian region hinges on a just resolution of Kashmir dispute.
“The people of Kashmir are not demanding charity — they are demanding their right to self-determination, promised under UN resolutions,” Minhas said.
“No amount of military might can crush the spirit of a people determined to be free.”
He urged global media outlets to expose the human rights violations being committed under the cover of military impunity, and warned that the silence of the world community only emboldens India to continue its repression unchecked.
The APHC reaffirmed its commitment to a peaceful and just resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and UN Security Council resolutions.
