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1996
- January 1: According to the report of a fact-finding team of eight civil liberties and
- democratic rights' organizations carried by the Indian daily “Statesman”, an overwhelming
- majority of deaths in occupied Kashmir are the work of Indian military forces.
- January 4: Secretary General Motamar-al-Alam-Islami, Senator Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, in
- a message, draws attention of UN High Commissioner for Human rights, Joshe Ayala Lasso and
- the President of International Committee of the Red Cross, Comelio Sommaruga, towards the
- growing violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir.
- January 9: Former US National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft says he sees some room for
- private mediation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, but only if it is sought by the
- two parties to the dispute.
- January 13: A report of the Committee to Protect Journalists says, “put simply, there is no
- freedom of press in Kashmir (IHK) today. On a razor's edge is a critique of State
- oppression and censorship that prevails in the Indian held Kashmir.”
- January 15: A group of Kashmiri leaders offers to help negotiate the safe release of four
- Westerners held hostage for over six months by unknown gunmen.
- January 19: British Labour Party leaders hope that India will join Pakistan in a meaningful
- dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which one of them describes as an
- "ongoing tragedy'.
- The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook regrets that twenty years after the signing of the
- Simla Agreement no progress has been made towards reaching a solution of the Kashmir
- problem. However, the UN Resolutions on Kashmir are still valid and will remain valid.
- January 23: Shoot-on-sight orders are issued and indefinite curfew clamped in major towns
- of Doda District after Indian soldiers gun down seven members of a family.
- February 1: The former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Chairman of Jammu
- and Kashmir People Basic Rights (Protection) Commission, Justice Mufti Bahauddin Farooqui
- observes that President's rule in the occupied territory has no legal basis whatever and,
- sadly enough, constitutes a tyrannical exercise.
- A rocket attack is carried out by the Indian forces on a mosque in Forward Kahuta in Azad
- Kashmir which kills 18 people and wounds several others.
- February 11: Democratic Congressman Gary Ackerman says that the United States "stands ready
- as a friend" to alleviate the Kashmir problem out but asserts that such a role is not
- feasible unless all parties to the conflict want Washington to play a role and that such an
- invitation is not forthcoming.
- Advisor to the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan, Goga Hadaycove, says the integrity of the
- state of Kashmir should remain intact and the Kashmiris be provided a chance to decide
- their future according to their aspirations.
- February 16: APHC says, "favoring tripartite talks to end the Kashmir dispute, we appeal to
- India and Pakistan to allow our delegation to visit New Delhi, Islamabad and Azad Kashmir
- to initiate tripartite talks."
- February 24: The US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Ms Robin Raphel
- asserts that Kashmir has been a very difficult problem for Pakistan and India since their
- independence in 1947 as both the states claim it to be part of their territory and they
- have struggled over it in various ways over the years.
- March 9: A Member of the British Parliament, Tom Cox deplores intransigent attitude of
- India to solve Kashmir issue saying that there is no mark of change in her pursuits.
- March 12: APHC leaders Syed Ali Gilani, Kh Abdul Ghani Lone, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Javed
- Mir express grave concern about the safety of the life of Chairman of the Commission of
- Jurists, Jalil Andrabi.
- March 19: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sardar Assif Ahmad Ali again invites India for talks
- for the resolution of Kashmir dispute.
- March 21: Pakistan extends full support to APHC's rejection of Indian plan to hold
- elections in Indian-held Kashmir and again calls upon New Delhi not to repeat another
- farcical polls but, instead, put an end to repression of the people in the Valley and
- respond to Pakistan's offer for a meaningful dialogue on the Kashmir dispute.
- March 25: Indefinite curfew clamped and some 2,000 police and Indian paramilitary troops
- lay siege around Hazratbal Mosque a day after the Indian troops martyred 11 Kashmiri
- devotees.
- March 26: A spokesperson of the Chinese permanent mission at the United Nations in Geneva
- while commenting on a malicious and distorted news story filed by an Indian journalist on a
- Chinese delegate's statement on the right to self-determination made at the current session
- of the Commission on Human Rights, says that China's position on Kashmir is consistent and
- remains unchanged.
- March 27: Body of Chairman of Kashmir Commission of Jurists and journalist, Jalil Andrabi
- is found in a river sparking protests by Kashmiris who emphasize that he has been martyred
- by Indian forces.
- Pakistan Ambassador Munir Akram in reply to Indian delegate's remarks at the 52nd session
- of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, says Kashmir is a disputed territory awaiting
- a decision regarding its final disposition in accordance with UN Resolutions and by
- honoring its commitments on holding plebiscite in Kashmir, India will only contribute to
- the universal realization of the right to self-determination.
- March 30: The US spokesman Nicholas Burns strongly condemns the brutal murder of Jalil
- Andrabi and calls upon India to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the
- circumstances around his abduction and murder. JKLF President Shabbir Ahmad Siddiqui and 29
- others are killed as Indian troops blast a house with mortars on the outskirts of Srinagar.
- April 3: The OIC condemns massacre of 22 Kashmiris by the Indian forces at Hazratbal shrine
- in Srinagar and the custodial killing of Jalil Andrabi.
- April 7: Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao says India is committed to holding dialogue
- with Pakistan on all issues including Kashmir without any preconditions but rules out
- third-party mediation. India is sending additional 60,000 troops to occupied Kashmir to
- beef up its forces there to ensure holding of coming Lok Sabha farcical polls.
- April 9: Chairman US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jesse Helms says the best US
- response to growing tension in South Asia will be the American mediation on Kashmir with
- the vigor that was dedicated to Middle East peacemaking.
- April 10: British Labour member of the European Parliament Michael Hindley says that
- Kashmir is an international problem and should be settled through negotiations.
- April 18: British Prime Minister John Major says that he supports an approach that would
- resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.
- President and founder of Christians and Muslims for Peace, Prof. William W. Baker says that
- Kashmir once said to be a heaven on earth, has been transformed into a hell.
- April 19: Kashmiri newspaper editors announce to defy government ban on publishing
- statements issued by Muslim liberation fighters groups.
- April 25: US Congressman Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, asks the US Administration
- to forcefully condemn India's tyrannical behaviour in occupied Kashmir and to demand the
- immediate release of political prisoners.
- May 1: US Under Secretary of State Phillip Wilcox while releasing the State Department's
- annual report on "Patterns of global terrorism for 1995 says, "there is no substantial
- evidence that Pakistan is supporting terrorism in Kashmir."
- May 2: Bruce Fein, a lawyer and freelance writer specializing in legal issues, in his
- latest analysis appearing in the Washington Times observes that the self-determination is a
- time-honored concept and a plebiscite to determine Kashmir's national destiny will be no
- insult to India's dignity and global stature.
- May 8: The faith that the British Government seems to be putting into the effectiveness of
- the Indian National Human Rights Commission to investigate and prevent human rights
- violations in J&K is challenged by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group,
- Lord Eric Avebury, who in a letter to the Minister of State, Jeremy Hanley has criticized
- the government for ignoring the facts.
- May 11: Indian forces blast two mines on Srinagar-Charar Sharif road in an attempt to
- assassinate the APHC leaders on their way to attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of
- the Dargah of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali.
- May 13: In occupied Kashmir, more than 1.5 million government employees who are assigned
- election duty by the Indian authorities, go on 18-day strike at the call of JK Government
- Employees Confederation to boycott the electoral process.
- May 17: The Human Rights Watch says human rights conditions in occupied Kashmir have
- deteriorated as a result of a new policy of the Indian government to arm and protect
- irregular militias to carry out its counter-insurgency operations.
- May 18: Chinese parliamentary delegation leader Sun Fulling, who is vice chairman of the
- National Committee of CPPCC, reiterates his government's principled stand on Kashmir saying
- that the Kashmir issue be resolved through negotiations according to the UN resolutions.
- May 23: India's newly-installed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee says Article-370 of the
- Indian constitution, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is a secondary
- issue and his government will give priority to crushing what he described as uprising in
- the Held State.
- Indian soldiers summon local leaders to demand that they turn out for parliamentary
- elections or face the army's wrath.
- May 24: The US media almost unanimously reports that the elections held in Indian-occupied
- Kashmir are "a sham, fake and a parody of democracy" with heavily armed Indian troops
- forcing people out of their houses to go and vote. The British media blasts the
- Indian-sponsored elections for the Lok Sabha seats in held Kashmir saying the people were
- forced out from their homes by Indian military forces to go to the polling stations.
- June 4: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hopes that the Kashmir conflict will be
- resolved in the light of the UN resolutions.
- June 8: APHC rejects Indian government's offer of more autonomy to J&K saying the problem
- cannot be resolved by remaining in Indian Union.
- A powerful bomb hidden in a car explodes outside the residence of APHC leader Abdul Ghani
- Lone in Rawalpora Colony in southern Kashmir causing extensive damage setting ablaze dozens
- of shops and smashing window panes of more than two dozen houses in the posh locality.
- June 17: Member of the British Parliament Garry Waller urges new Indian government to look
- into the simmering Kashmir as hundreds have been killed in the valley and many women are
- raped every day.
- June 30: Fire breaks out in 600-years-old Jamia Masjid, triggering protest demonstrations.
- July 6: Indian Prime Minister meets politicians as general strike to protest the premier's
- visit to Kashmir grips the troubled Valley.
- July 7: One-day visit to Indian-held Kashmir by the Indian Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda,
- comes in for adverse comments by the APHC chief Mirwaiz Omar Farooq that Indian Prime
- Minister should first realize the bitter reality that Kashmir is a longstanding dispute and
- shall have to be solved after negotiations take place between India, Pakistan and the
- people of Jammu and Kashmir.
- July 12: The United States welcomes the proposed resumption of talks between Pakistan and
- India and hopes that the process would lead to early resolution of their long outstanding
- disputes. Lok Sabha extends Presidential Rule in Indian-held Kashmir for six months,
- approving a bill on the same.
- July 13: US President Bill Clinton urges Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir dispute
- through direct negotiations and offers to facilitate such talks should both parties desire
- US help.
- July 17: Police shoots dead JKLF leader Hilal Beig, 34, in occupied Kashmir.
- July 19: Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel refutes that the United States is trying
- to stage a Camp David in South Asia through what is being described as 'Cohan Plan"
- envisaging an accord between Pakistan and India brokered by the United States.
- July 22: Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Sheikh rules out Camp David-like solution
- to the Kashmir issue as nonsense and even the Americans have denied any such initiative.
- July 23: The Kashmir issue is discussed at a meeting between a group of MPs and Robin Cook,
- the shadow foreign secretary, organized by the Labour Member of Parliament, Max Madden.
- August 3: Shedding its reluctance to allow US Senator Hank Brown to visit occupied Kashmir,
- the Indian government announces its decision to treat what the Senator had intended to be a
- private visit as an official one, with External Affairs Minister, I.K. Gujral extending him
- the courtesies required of him under protocol. Brown is not too popular with the Indian
- government because of the role he had played in facilitating the one-time waiver of the
- Pressler Amendment enabling US administration to give $358 million military assistance to
- Pakistan.
- August 4: US Ambassador to New Delhi Frank Wisner says his country believes that there
- cannot be a lasting settlement of Kashmir problem unless Pakistan and India come to the
- negotiating table and until the Kashmiris are allowed to express their views.
- August 6: Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Boris Shikhmuradov expresses concern over
- human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, and stresses the need for resolving Kashmir
- issue through talks to ensure peace in the region.
- August 7: Republican Senator Hank Brown during his second visit to Pakistan in four months
- says "it is really heart-breaking to see what is happening in occupied Kashmir."
- August 9: The announcement made by the Indian Election Commission about polls schedule of
- Kashmir Assembly is dismissed by APHC as yet another gimmick to mislead the world opinion
- and announces to boycott the elections.
- August 11: US Senator Hank Brown says that Pakistan can play a very positive role for peace
- and stability in the region adding that the United States supports a political solution of
- Kashmir problem which will greatly benefit all the people living in the entire region.
- August 13: Pakistan Prime Minister says at the inaugural session of the OIC Contact Group
- on Kashmir, "Not far from here would you hear the thunder of the Indian guns as they
- violate the Line of Control, despite the presence of the UN Military Observers, targeting
- innocent civilians in Azad Kashmir".
- August 16: Pakistan Envoy to UN Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
- Protection of Minorities Munir Akram regrets the world silence over killing of 50,000
- Kashmiris in Indian-held Kashmir at the hands of over 600,000 troops. Through its intense
- last minute efforts, Pakistan is able to thwart an attempt to delete the issues of Kashmir
- and Palestine from the list of the matters pending before the Security Council. As a
- consequence of Pakistan's timely intervention on the matter, the Kashmir issue is given a
- year's reprieve at the end of which term (ending September 15, 1997) it will be
- automatically dropped from the Security Council's agenda.
- August 20: The UN officials say that deletion of Kashmir dispute from the UN Security
- Council's agenda items can result in withdrawal of the UN military observers mission
- (UNMOGIP) from the Line of Control. Besides, it can also be deleted from the agenda items
- in the General Assembly if the Council's decision of July 30 is not reversed.
- August 25: Indian Home Minister Indrajit Gupta says the government's new plan for more
- autonomy for J&K includes separation of Ladakh region from Muslim majority Valley area to
- contain the freedom movement and place the Budh majority Ladakh under Center's direct rule.
- August 27: Norwegian Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Gondal, says that his country is ready to
- play the role of a mediator for resolving Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India if
- the two sides are willing to accept Norway's mediation.
- August 28: The Security Council working group agrees to recommend the retention of Kashmir
- and some other issues on the Security Council's agenda but clamps a crippling proviso by
- subjecting it to annual review and notification.
- September 14: To make the process of so-called elections to the state assembly successful,
- the Indian troops arrest the whole leadership of the APHC.
- September 15: Underscoring that the "Kashmir dispute cannot be resolved through fraudulent
- elections", US Congressman Tim Johnson asks President Bill Clinton, "to use the US
- influence to promote lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the will of
- the Kashmiri people."
- September 16: There is a widespread coercion of voters by the Indian forces during the
- second phase of the state assembly elections in J&K. A BBC correspondent reports airing at
- some places loud-speaker messages from mosques by the Indian army asking people to come out
- while at other places people complain they were forced to cast vote. Newsmen see buses and
- trucks commanded by paramilitary forces to bring out reluctant voters.
- September 22: Reiterating that US position on Kashmir issue remains unchanged, US
- ambassador to Pakistan Thomas W. Simons says the Kashmir question must be resolved
- peacefully through bilateral negotiations between Pakistan and India taking into account
- the aspirations of Kashmiris.
- October 6: APHC representatives from Indian-held Kashmir and Azad Jammu and Kashmir at a
- joint meeting in Washington discuss various aspects of the freedom movement and the role of
- the world community in promoting a just and peaceful settlement of the Kashmir imbroglio.
- They adopt a statement called the Washington Declaration.
- November 7: Robin Cook expresses concern over the unstable situation in the Indian-held
- Kashmir saying that after having a five-day visit to the Valley, he is now in a better
- position to understand the unsatisfactory situation and measures being taken by the Indian
- forces to suppress the free will of the Kashmiri people.
- November 14: Twelve US Congressmen write a joint letter to the Indian government expressing
- concern over the abuse of poll process in Kashmir and the post-election situation
- prevailing there.
- December 13: The Amnesty International calls on India to ensure that all political
- prisoners are tried promptly and fairly and all allegations of torture and deaths in
- custody are investigated and justice brought to those responsible.
- The OIC Foreign Ministers Conference in its communiqué issued in Jakarta condemns the
- continuing massive violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people and calls for the
- respect of their human rights including the right of self-determination.
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