US Kashmiri diaspora group protests NIA raids on NGOs, business in J&K, elsewhere

Parveen Ahangar

By Our Representative

The Washington DC-based Kashmiri diaspora non-profit, the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF),taking strong exception to raids carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) on business offices of various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has qualified them as “Orwellian dragnet” on civil society, human rights organizations and and their associates.
It said, “NGOs targeted by recent raids include the J&K Yateem (orphan) Foundation, the Salvation Movement, Human Welfare Foundation, J&K Voice of Victims, Falah-e-Aaam Trust, the humanitarian outfit Athroot, and Delhi- based Charity Alliance. In addition, the NIA has searched the offices of Agence France-Presse and the Greater Kashmir Trust for ‘incriminating documents’.”

Khurram Parvez

The activists who have become “victims” of such raids, it says in a statement, include Khurram Parvez (coordinator of J&K Coalition of Civil Society), Parveena Ahanger (chairwoman of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons), “and their associates in J&K and across India.” It adds, “These two organizations have been at the forefront of extensive reporting on human rights abuses in Kashmir, including indefinite incarceration, torture, extrajudicial killings of political opponents, and the extensive impunity enjoyed by J&K's armed forces.”
The statement, even as appealing to “men and women of conscience worldwide, particularly international human rights advocacy groups and other NGOs, to redouble their efforts in highlighting the ongoing human rights abuses in J&K”, has sought a “peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute”, pointing out, these repressive measures will only “temporary silence” Kashmir’s “besieged population and their supporters.”

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