Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018, and General Human Rights Concerns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan

On July 8, 2016, Burhan Wani, the 22-year-old-leader of the armed group Hizbul Mujahidin, was killed by Indian security forces in Kokernag district in the then state of Jammu and Kashmir. This triggered protests on an unprecedented scale in the Kashmir Valley and in the districts of Jammu. Indian security forces responded to the protests with force, leading to casualties and alleged human rights violations, which began in the summer of 2016 and continued till 2018.Shortly after Wani was killed, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights requested the governments of India and Pakistan for unconditional access to Kashmir to assess the human rights situation there. On being denied access, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) started remotely monitoring the human rights situation in Indian-Administered Kashmir (the Kashmir Valley, and the Jammu and Ladakh regions) and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir (Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan). This report is the outcome of that monitoring from July 2016 to April 2018. (It was followed by a second report in July 2019.)The OHCHR found that the allegations of human rights violations during this period were widespread and serious, particularly the excessive use of force by the Indian security forces that led to numerous human casualties. These allegations and witnesses’ accounts of violence have been documented in this report. Drawn largely from information already in the public domain, the report reflects the research of human rights defenders and local, national and international NGOs. It also draws from official documents, such as questions in Parliament, court orders and police reports, and news reports by the Press Trust of India.