Regional

Throughout the 1990s and the first years of the new century, the living conditions in the Kashmir Valley became progressively worse, as there were few breaks in the conflict between the Indian army and Kashmiri and Pakistani separatists.

After the controversial Kashmiri elections of 1989, mass demonstrations in Kashmir prompted the Indian government to send in more troops. In many ways, the presence of several thousand additional Indian soldiers worsened conditions in Kashmir, particularly for Muslims. There have been numerous reports of extremely serious human rights abuses perpetrated by members of the Indian army on the local people. They range from the executions of civilians falsely passed off as militants to multiple murders and serial rapes in Muslim towns.

Women in Pakistan's fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party shout protests against abuses by Indian troops in Kashmir - Lahore, 2005
© 2005 Getty Images, Inc.

Kashmir’s minority Hindu population hasn’t escaped injury either. Muslim militants from Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir have often raided Indian military installations as well as towns they’ve suspected of collaborating with Indian soldiers. Since 1990, tens of thousands of Hindu Kashmiris have fled their homes to refugee camps in the Jammu area, as well as parts of India. Despite squalid conditions in the refugee camps, the residents have often been too afraid to return to their homes.

Since the start of the latest peace process in 2003, conditions have improved somewhat. But the violence has never disappeared, and traveling within Kashmir—though much easier than it was—remains fraught with danger. Security and transportation problems made it extremely difficult to get food and medicine to victims of the October 2005 earthquake.

Landmines are another worry, with India and Pakistan suffering hundreds of casualties (many of them children). For years, both countries laid mines along the Line of Control. At one point, India announced it would mine all of the 1,800-mile border with Pakistan. These actions violated the terms of the Ottawa treaty on landmines and threatened to reverse the progress made since its signing in 1997. It was always a tragic irony that Indian and Pakistani soldiers who did so much to clear mines in countries like Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Bosnia were laying them in their own countries.

A Kashmiri family mourns after one of their relatives, a militant, is killed by Indian security forces - Srinagar, Kashmir, 2004
© 2004 Getty Images, Inc.

Although the mining of the Line of Control appears to have stopped, there are enough old mines to cause serious injury and death. As long as the conflict over Kashmir persists, it is highly unlikely that either side will make a concerted effort to destroy all the mines in the area it administers.