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Hindu Extremism A Threat To Sri Lanka, China And Pakistan – Kashmir Leader Tells UN

By Online Editor on 14th March 2014 • ( 0 )

‘Destroy a minority worship place and you become India’s deputy prime minister, like Advani. Kill 2,000 minority people and you become PM of India, like Modi!’

Altaf Hussain Wani at UN Human Rights Council session

By Our Special Correspondent

Rising Hindu extremism is a grave threat not only to minorities living in India but also to neighbors like Sri Lanka, China and Pakistan.

This was stated by Kashmiri representative to United Nations in Geneva Mr. Altaf Hussain Wani while speaking during a seminar organized by UK-based nongovernmental organization, Liberation, on the sidelines of the 25th session of UN Human Rights Council here at Geneva.

Liberation organized a sideline panel debate at the Palais des Nations titled, ‘Human Rights in South Asia.’ The event was attended by diplomats and civil society activists.

Mr. Wani is part of a five-member Kashmiri delegation attending a UN Human Rights Council session.

Mr. Wani said much is being discussed about Islamic extremism but less attention is being paid to rising Hindu extremism in one of the largest countries in the world: India.

He said an Indian politician, L. K. Advani, who was responsible for the demolition of the historical 16th century Muslim worship place, the Babri Masjid, built by a descendant of Genghis Khan, was never punished. Instead, he was promoted to become deputy prime minister of India.

And now the man responsible for the massacre of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujrat in the year 2000 is set to become the prime minister of India in 2014.

He said Hindu extremism was at a peak on March 2, 2014, when Kashmiri students were not only thrown out of an Indian university for rooting for the Pakistani team at a sporting event but their admissions were cancelled by the Meerut University and police charged them of sedition.

Wani said this was not the first incident of Indian hate toward Kashmiris. In the past two years, half a dozen young Kashmiri scholars at Indian universities were mysteriously killed, said Wani. In some cases, Indian university administrations colluded with Hindu extremist student organizations that harassed and physically tortured Kashmiri students and scholars that sympathized with Pakistan.

Wani said if this is how Indians treated Kashmiris inside India, imagine what those Kashmiris go through who live under Indian military occupation in Kashmir.

He said the issue of unmarked mass graves, enforced disappearances, fake encounters and arbitrary arrests remain of a grave concern. The Indian Atate, he said, has so far failed to respond to the recommendations made by UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, who called for the repealing of the draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Public Safety Act.

The Kashmiri leader said India’s Supreme Court has joined the Army and the intelligence agencies in condoning atrocities against Kashmiris.