In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the ongoing violent cordon and search operations by Indian troops have added to the miseries of the Kashmiri people.
Indian Army soldiers and personnel of paramili-tary forces and police, many infected with coronavi-rus break, into houses, arrest or kill youth, torture women, children and elderly and vandalize proper-ties during the so-called search operations in Srina-gar, Budgam, Islamabad, Shopian, Kulgam, Pul-wama, Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipore, Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The inci-dents of extrajudicial killing of youth in fake en-counters have increased manifold after August 5, 2019 when India abrogated Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution, and during the peak days of Covid-19.
Cordon and search operations by Indian army and police coupled by the miseries inflicted by the novel virus have enormously added to the miseries of the besieged Kashmiri people.
A New York Times report has highlighted how the lockdown, enforced by the Indian government in the garb of coronavirus, has worsened the situation in occupied Kashmir’s towns and cities.
Police have blocked roads and streets with concertina wires and if any residents try to get out of their homes they are abused and beaten up.
The newspaper quoted doctors to have said that a state of hopelessness has morphed into a severe psychological crisis in the territory.
Mental health workers say Kashmir is witnessing an alarming increase in instances of depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders.
According to the newspaper, local medical professionals say they are seeing a rise in suicide tendency and disturbingly high rates of domestic violence.
Doctors and researchers say the occupied valley, with its majority-Muslim population fighting for its freedom, has few resources to cope with.
“Nearly 1.8 million Kashmiris, or nearly half of all adults, have some form of mental disorder, Doc-tors Without Borders estimated after surveying 5,600 households in 2015.
Nine of 10 have experi-enced conflict-related traumas. The figures are much higher than in India,” they added.—KMS
