144 minors detained in Indian-occupied Kashmir: report

SRINAGAR, INDIAN-OCCUPIED KASHMIR: Indian authorities in occupied Kashmir have detained 144 minors, including a nine-year-old, since the government removed the region’s special status in August.

According to a police list seen by news agency AFP on Tuesday, sixty of the minors are under 15, according to the document submitted to a committee appointed by India’s Supreme Court to look into allegations of illegal detentions.

Reasons given by the police for detaining the minors include stone pelting, rioting and causing damage to public and private property, the committee said in its report. Most have since been released.

Indian police denied that any child was taken into “illegal detention” and said that the juveniles are “dealt strictly as per the prescribed law”.

“It happens often that when minors/juveniles indulge in stone pelting, they are momentarily held up on the spot and sent home. Some of these incidents are exaggerated beyond proportion,” the report quoted the police as saying.

India stripped occupied Kashmir of its autonomy on August 5, sending in tens of thousands of extra troops, cutting telecommunications and detaining thousands of people.

Almost two months on, many of the region’s top politicians remain in custody and mobile phones and the internet remain largely snapped in the Kashmir Valley.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said last month she was “deeply concerned about the impact of recent actions by the government of India on the human rights of Kashmiris”.

Last week Prime Minister Imran Khan told the UN General Assembly that India could unleash a “bloodbath” in the territory.