Peoples Union for Democratic Rights condemns the Army chief Bipin Rawat’s statement made on 15th February warning  Kashmiris who “create hurdles during (Army) operations”  that they will face “harsh action”, calling them “over-ground workers of terrorists“, and equating stone pelters and flags of Pakistan and ISIS as acts of “terrorism” carried out by “anti-nationals”. This announces a step up in repression, widening the crackdown beyond militants and as a result the blood count is bound to rise.

CDRO urges you to understand that truth has another side which must also be brought before the public. It is, therefore, Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations stands in solidarity with the peoples of J&K in their struggle to be Free and condemns the use of Pellet Guns, killing civilians including children, blinding young girls and boys, and causing injuries to tens of thousands of people.

On 27th October 2016 several organisations in Delhi came together in protest at Jantar Mantar demanding restoration of civil liberties and democratic rights in Kashmir. People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) affirms its solidarity with the people of Kashmir who have been battling a state of siege for over 100 days. In 111 days, since July 8th, the aged, the infants, the children, the youth, women, the men—have been attacked, killed, maimed, arrested and detained by the security forces and police.

PUDR strongly condemns the burning of the effigies of activists and a journalist by the Chhatissgarh Auxiliary police force across Bastar in a widely publicised ‘offical protest on 24th October. This show of strength by state forces against civilians was the latest and most brazen example of the patronage extended by the government and its systematic fostering of a Police Raj in Bastar.

Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization denounces the arrest of Khurram Parvez on the intervening night of 15-16 September at 12.30 AM from his house at Srinagar. He had returned from Delhi in the very morning of 15th September after being detained for nearly two hours and prevented from travelling to Geneva for the UN Human Rights Council's meeting. 

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights is horrified that the Rajya Sabha which debated the situation in Jammu and Kashmir on August 10, could not muster resolve to call for an immediate halt to use of pellet guns, which is not used anywhere in either India or the world for policing. Since the killing of Burhan Muzzafar Wani on July 8, the onslaught on unarmed innocent civilian continues by the armed forces and state police in the Kashmir Valley.

After bullets, pellets, deaths; after curfew, clampdowns on mobile internet and on cable television, the Indian state has further exacerbated the war on people in Kashmir. On the night of 15 July 2016, the police raided, seized and shut down the printing presses of two leading dailies, Rising Kashmir andGreater Kashmir. When Budgam police raided the office of Rising Kashmir, it seized the English and Urdu copies ofBulund Kashmirand, it also detained the staff and harassed them.

PUDR unequivocally condemns the violence and repression unleashed by the security establishment on Kashmiri civilian population since the killing of Burhan Wani on Friday evening. CID ADG SM Sahai had declared in a Press briefing on Saturday that “Our non-lethal weaponry is better than we earlier had and we will use it to prevent any further loss of human life.” However, the figures attest the insincerity of the claim, as  the death toll of 12 on Saturday, the 9th of July, has more than doubled to 30, of whom 29 are civilians.

Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation is alarmed at how a demand for justice results again in killing of civilians by a trigger happy Government force in Kashmir.

On 16th November this year, the date which is celebrated as the National Press Day, three news dailies in Nagaland ran blank columns in place of editorials. The news dailies picked up the occasion to protest a notification from the Assam Rifles dated 25th October 2015, that was received by six media houses in the state. On the same day, a joint statement by the editors of all the six newspapers in receipt of the notification was released too.