ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations Altaf Hussain Wani has urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to assist in putting an end to the illicit profiling campaign carried out by the police in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), camouflaged as a census.
In a collective letter to the UN Secretary-General and various UN special rapporteurs, Wani emphasised the illicit, unconstitutional, and human rights dimensions of the initiative.
He underscored the lack of transparency surrounding the campaign, initiated without formal notification from authorities, causing distress among residents already grappling with heightened anxiety due to the Modi government’s unilateral revocation of the region’s special status, a clear violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
Wani highlighted that the purported census was extracting sensitive information from residents, including family composition, contact details, Aadhar numbers, vehicle registrations, CCTV installations, and affiliations with the ongoing freedom movement.
Residents were coerced into providing photographs and precise geographic coordinates of their residences, exacerbating their sense of surveillance and insecurity.
The letter pointed out a history of Indian security forces intruding into private lives, citing instances of compiling databases of journalists, academics, civil society members, and human rights activists, undermining fundamental rights and privacy.
Wani denounced the campaign as illegal, unconstitutional, and contrary to international law, noting that even India’s legislation, such as the Census Act of 1948, prohibits such activities outside the purview of designated census authorities.
He condemned the move as an unconstitutional expansion of police powers, transforming the occupied territory into a surveillance state, with detrimental effects on fundamental freedoms and human rights.
Urging immediate UN intervention, Wani appealed to the Secretary-General to halt this illegal campaign, safeguarding the people of Kashmir from the perils of intrusive mass surveillance orchestrated by the Indian government. —APP
