Overview
- UN Special Procedures issued a 24 November statement alleging widespread abuses after the 22 April Pahalgam attack, citing roughly 2,800 arrests that included journalists and human rights defenders.
- The experts reported allegations of torture, incommunicado detention, denial of access to lawyers and families, and suspicious deaths in custody.
- They described punitive house demolitions and forced evictions carried out without court orders as collective punishment that contradicts a 2024 Supreme Court ruling.
- The statement cited suspensions of mobile internet and the blocking of about 8,000 social media accounts, alongside harassment of Kashmiri students and rising hate speech targeting Muslims.
- The impact was said to extend beyond Kashmir, with demolitions in Gujarat and Assam and the expulsion of nearly 1,900 Muslims and Rohingya to Bangladesh and Myanmar, as the experts urged investigations, accountability, immediate release of those arbitrarily detained, and a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.