By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) released a report on the impact of violence on the children of Jammu and Kashmir titled Terrorized: Impact of Violence on the Children of Jammu and Kashmir (2018) on Thursday, March 29, which revealed that 318 children between the age group of 1 and 17 have been killed in the ongoing conflict since 2003.
The civil society group has found that no one among the perpetrators has been brought to justice till date.
The report apart from giving details on killings also gives data on arrests, mass violence, sexual violence perpetrated against children in the last fifteen years. It provides statistics, graphs, figures, and the analysis of killings of children in the last fifteen years (2003 to 2017) in various incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
With providing examples of targeted state violence against children, the report demonstrates that children have not been viewed differently by armed forces and have been targeted and victimised as part of the state’s offensive against the general population.
The fifteen-year period from 2003 to 2017, witnessed not less than 318 killings of children (in the age group of 1 to 17) in various incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, it adds. “The killing of 318 children constitutes 6.95% of the civilian killings in last fifteen years, as 4571 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir in the same period (2003 – 2017),” reads the report.
The report finds that the pattern of killings of children in the fifteen-year period suggests that children were direct targets of state violence, as part of its stated offensive to curb uprising and militancy.
“At least 144 children were killed by Indian armed forces and state police in Jammu and Kashmir, which alone accounts for nearly half, i.e. 44.02% of the total children killed…at least 110 of them were killed in state violence were shot dead in different incidents of violence, and no less than 8 children died due to injuries inflicted from pellet shot-guns fired by government forces,” reads the report.
“Twenty-seven children died to due drowning either caused due to the negligence of armed forces in Wular lake tragedy or being chased by government forces during a protest, where victims find no way of escape from the armed forces and forced to jump into water bodies, resulting in their death.”
The report lays bare that there are no legal and normative processes or practices protecting children’s rights in Jammu and Kashmir as hundreds of minors have been booked under the repressive Public Safety Act (PSA), with total disregard to the fact of them being children.
“Children are at greater risk in Jammu and Kashmir due to the ongoing conflict and nothing has changed in last three decades and situation continues to deteriorate,” Rao Farman Ali, a political commentator and author of the book, ’History of Armed Struggles in Kashmir’ told TwoCircles.net.