Armed opposition groups reportedly regularly kill non-combatants, including the elderly, women and children. Members of the Hindu minority and political figures are increasingly targeted for killings, although the vast majority of those killed are Muslim victims of militant bombings or encounters between the security forces and armed groups...

Since the emergence of armed insurgency in 1989, when parts of the independence movement became violent, Jammu and Kashmir has become one of the most militarised regions in the world with, around 700,000 troops reportedly based there. The population have paid a high price for the conflict: it is widely believed that since 1989 approximately 40,000 people, including thousands of non-combatants, have died as a direct result. In the year 2003, there is an average of 60 civilian casualties a month.

Armed opposition groups reportedly regularly kill non-combatants, including the elderly, women and children. Members of the Hindu minority and political figures are increasingly targeted for killings, although the vast majority of those killed are Muslim victims of militant bombings or encounters between the security forces and armed groups.

There have been persistent reports of wide scale human rights violations by the security forces. Amnesty International has received thousands of reports of extrajudicial killings, deaths-in-custody, torture including rape, and the use of excessive force. The government has used preventive detention legislation to detain political activists, including people who have not committed any offence or advocated violence. Investigations into allegations of human rights abuses rarely take place.

During state elections in autumn 2002, the People's Democratic Party, who is now part of the ruling coalition, promised the Kashmiri people an end to human rights violations. For this purpose, they published the Common Minimum Program as an answer to the continuing human rights abuses. A fundamental objective of the Common Minimum Program was to restore the rule of law in Jammu and Kashmir and to protect the people from violence. The much publicized "healing touch policy" generated a new era of hope for the Kashmiri people and all those in the international community, who are concerned with the protection and promotion of human rights.

One year after the publication of the Common Minimum Program, hardly any of the promises made about the protection of human rights have been kept. Human rights abuses by the security forces, including extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and torture, have continued to be reported on a regular basis. Often probes have been announced into allegations of human rights violations but the findings remain unknown and hardly any have resulted in the prosecution of members of the security forces. Over the last year human rights abuses by armed political groups have also persisted at a high level in Jammu and Kashmir with a reported 344 civilians killed in a targeted and indiscriminate way.

To mark the first anniversary of the Common Minimum Program (2 November 2003), Amnesty International published an "Open Letter" to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, highlighting our serious concerns about the persisting neglect of the human rights of the Kashmiri people and urging that the promises made in the Common Minimum Program be implemented as a matter of urgency.

Please write a short, simple letter to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Write in your own words or adapt the following sample postcard text:

I urge your immediate intervention to ensure the full implementation of all promises made to the population of Jammu and Kashmir about human rights in your Common Minimum Program of November 2002.

Yours sincerely,

Write to:

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
Office of the Chief Minister
Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly
Jammu
Jammu and Kashmir
India.