Additional Director General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar on Saturday said that a total of 172 armed freedom fighters including 42 foreign fighters were martyred in 93 operations in Indian Illegally Occupied Valley of Jammu and Kashmir this year. Maximum number of fighters are said to have been associated with LeT (108) followed by JeM (35), HM (22), Al-Badr (4) and AGuH(3) outfits.
According to these reports, three encounters took place in Bandipora district, in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, there was only one encounter, Budgam district saw three encounters, Kupwara district reported nine while Baramulla district saw eight encounters.
On the other hand, as per the Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, 180 freedom fighters martyred while 62 security forces personnel including 31 civilians have been killed during encounters this year so far.
The Indian administration releases a figure for martyred freedom fighters at the end of every month labelling them as killed terrorists or militants. This number has little veracity since it comes from the occupier, that too with conflict in figures among its own partisans, and there are no significant means of independent verification. Along with this, there are other factors at play regarding these figures.
The occupying forces in their mission to subdue armed rebellion have been consistently misrepresenting it as a dwindling resistance. The numbers are shown to be less and less every month to project the idea that Kashmiris have accepted the occupier as their master and all is well in the valley. Fact is, the numbers of martyrs have never actually decreased; they have either stayed constant (14 to 20) or increased (up to 30) at times as per local sources. Despite brutal Indian tactics, perpetual cycle of arrests, tortures and cold blooded murders, Kashmiris have never laid down arms.
The other shady side to these figures is the Indian history of fake encounters and extrajudicial murders. There are numerous reports of Kashmiri captives being taken out of the prisons and killed in far-off areas in cold blood, later whitewashed as “killed during search operation or militant cross-fire” or lies of similar ilk. The Indian army has also mercilessly killed countless civilians without provocation, those too covered up as “terrorist eliminations”.
The valiant Kashmiris are continuing to resist the occupation by all means and they shall not back down in face of the tyrant. The abnormal life of slavery has been and always will be unacceptable to this brave nation.
