Kashmir: A Region Bleeding in Silence as the World Looks Away

In 1947, India was born amid promises of democracy, secularism, and human rights. But for the people of Indian-administered Kashmir, these ideals have remained a cruel illusion. Behind the majestic Himalayan peaks lies a valley soaked in blood, scarred by decades of state-sponsored violence, systematic oppression, and the world's collective indifference.
A Staggering Toll of State Violence

Since the eruption of the armed uprising in 1989, the people of Kashmir have endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of Indian security forces. Verified reports from independent organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), and local rights groups paint a grim picture:

Atrocity Estimated Figures Source
Civilians Killed Over 96,300 Kashmir Media Service (KMS), 2023
Deaths in Custody Over 7,300 HRW, AI
Injured (partial/complete disabilities) Over 50,000 (8,500 blinded in 2016 alone) Al Jazeera, 2017
Arbitrary Arrests Over 170,000 since 1989 AI, KMS
Enforced Disappearances Over 8,000 missing; 6,000 mass graves found UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances
Cases of Rape & Sexual Violence Over 11,260 documented, including gang rapes like Kunan-Poshpora (1991) Amnesty International, HRW
Forced Marriages Hundreds of Kashmiri women forcibly married outside the region under demographic engineering plans Local NGOs, Independent reports
Homes & Properties Destroyed Over 110,500 homes and businesses razed KMS
Orphaned Children Over 107,950 UNICEF, KMS
Widowed Women Approximately 23,000 KMS

A Land Turned into an Open-Air Prison

Today, Kashmir is less a region and more an open-air prison — heavily militarized, under surveillance, stripped of fundamental freedoms:
Armed checkpoints choke towns and villages
Thousands languish in detention centers without trial
Young men face extrajudicial killings branded as "terrorists"
Women face systemic sexual violence, humiliation, and harassment
Families mourn missing loved ones, their whereabouts buried under official silence
In recent years, the Indian government's aggressive push for demographic change — through controversial domicile laws and settlement policies — has added salt to the wounds. Local Muslims fear becoming a marginalized minority in their own homeland.
Hindutva Nationalism and Weaponized Oppression

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, guided by the hardline Hindutva ideology, has transformed Kashmir into a laboratory of repression:
Journalists are silenced, activists jailed
Internet blackouts stifle dissent
Mosques and religious sites face restrictions
Daily life is punctuated by arbitrary raids, arrests, and property seizures
Kashmiri women, in particular, suffer doubly — as victims of sexual violence and as targets of a state-driven campaign to dismantle the region's social fabric.
A Deafening Global Silence

Despite decades of UN resolutions — over 23 in total — Kashmir's plight remains largely ignored by the international community. Western powers, quick to champion human rights elsewhere, have consistently avoided holding India accountable:
The United Nations issues toothless statements
The European Union expresses "concerns" without action
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) remains fragmented and ineffective
Global human rights organizations publish reports — only to be dismissed as "anti-national propaganda" by India
Meanwhile, Kashmiris continue to bleed, mourn, and resist — abandoned by the very global system that claims to protect the vulnerable.
A Chilling Parallel with Gaza
Kashmir today increasingly mirrors the tragedy of Gaza:
Blockaded, militarized, and suffocated
Its people stripped of dignity, mobility, and hope
Collective punishment meted out under the guise of "national security"
Demographic engineering designed to alter its identity permanently
Yet, while Gaza's suffering occasionally pierces global media, Kashmir remains hidden beneath India's formidable propaganda machinery and international geopolitical convenience.
The World Cannot Look Away Forever
History has shown that buried injustices fester into explosive crises. The silence over Kashmir is not only immoral but dangerously short-sighted.
The question is simple yet haunting:
How long can the world look away as an entire people are slowly erased?
Until the international community abandons its hypocrisy and applies the same standards of justice to Kashmir as elsewhere, peace in South Asia will remain a distant, vanishing dream.