KASHMIR and IDPs

report of a study tour, from 01 to 26 JULY 2013 – Published on Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir BASJAK, by Paul  BEERSMANS, September 2013 (the study – 25 pdf pages – was for the Human Rights Council, 24th session, Geneva, 09-27 september 2013).

… 3. CONCLUSIONS:

Following conclusions can be drawn, based on the experiences of previous and the present study tour to the Indian J&K State, focused on the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh.  For the latest study tour to Jammu Province, see the report of January-February 2013 ‘J&K: TOLERANCE AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING’ on our website BASJAK.org. Comments are welcome, to be sent here:    Continue Reading…

report on the study tour of Beermans Paul, President of the BELGIAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOLIDARITY WITH JAMMU AND KASHMIR BASJAK to the Indian State of J&K, 23 January-1 February 2013 – Published on BASJAK.org, 2. April 2013.

(excerpt courtesy BASJAK): … 3. CONCLUSIONS:

Following conclusions can be drawn, based on the experiences of previous and this study tour to J&K State, especially to Jammu-region (for the latest study tour to the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh see the report of June-July 2012 on our website):    Continue Reading…

REPORT ON THE STUDY TOUR OF BEERSMANS PAUL,Président of the Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir BASJAK,to the Indian State of J&K, 28 January – 15 February 2012 – Published on BASJAK *, by Paul BEERSMANS, Geneva, March 2012.

1. INTRODUCTION:

• a. I spent a lot of time on meeting ‘the common man in the street’, in the urban and rural areas as well, all over Jammu Province.  I also had the opportunity to meet important persons from J&K State Government and administration, from political parties, from Kashmiri Pandits, from socio-educational institutions, from the press, etc.  I did not visit the Kashmir-Valley or Ladakh as I visited these regions in June-July 2011, see this PDF: Jammu and Kashmir State report, June-July 2011.
• b. I went to Katra and Reasi, where I had interaction with many local people.  A very interesting experience indeed.
• c. The situation in the visited places was normal.  No limitations or restrictions on movement, no abnormal security measures.  Shops open early in the morning and close late in the evening, busy traffic, children going to school, men and women, young and old, doing their business, their shopping, having their social meetings, conducting their day to day activities.  No strike, no curfew.
• d. I was told that Republic Day was celebrated all over Jammu Province with fervour and joy on 26 January 2012 … //

… 3. CONCLUSIONS:    Continue Reading…

Report on the study tour of Beersmans Paul, President of the Belgian Association for Solidarity with JandK to India and the Indian J and K State – from 24 June to 21 July 2010.

Linked with Paul Beersmans – Belgium, and with Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir BASJAK. – Published on BASJAK, by Paul Beersmans, September 2010.

… CONCLUSIONS:

a. J&K, as it was before partition in 1947, is at present under the rule of three countries:

• (1) China: Aksai Chin and a territory of 5.180 km2 ceded by Pakistan to China;
• (2) India: J&K State comprising Jammu-region, the Kashmir-Valley and Ladakh (Kargil and Leh districts);
• (3) Pakistan: Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas). The population of these regions is totally different from each other: culture, history, traditions, language, religion, etc.

b. In order to find a permanent solution a dialogue is necessary on three levels, as we emphasise already since so many years: Continue Reading…

Published on Sunday Pioneer, by Kanchan Gupta, January 24, 2010.

Twenty years ago this past week, Hindus were forced to flee Kashmir Valley, their ancestral land, by Islamic fanatics baying for their blood. Not a finger was raised by the state in admonition nor did ‘civil society’ feel outraged. In these 20 years, India has forgotten that outrage, a grotesque assault on our idea of nationhood. So much so, nobody even talks of the Kashmiri Pandits, driven out of their home and hearth, virtually stripped of their identity and reduced to living as refugees in their own country, any more.

Our ‘secular’ media, obsessed as it is with pandering to the baser instincts of Muslim separatists, waxing eloquent about the many sorrows of India’s least of all minorities, arguing the case for rabid mullahs and demanding ‘greater autonomy’ for Jammu & Kashmir so that the Tricolour doesn’t fly there any more, has not thought it fit to take note of the 20th anniversary of the new age Exodus.   Continue Reading…