Dear Honorable Senator:

We are residents of the United States of America and would like to draw your attention towards the grave humanitarian crisis and abrogation of special protections of indigenious people in the Indian administered province of Kashmir. The events of recent days in the region, which have received coverage in the international media, have serious implications for the foreign policy goals and economic interests of the United States of America. Ignoring these events endangers stability within the South Asia region, consequently risking a conflagration, with American lives, significant investments, and resources at stake.

In your role as an elected official, I want to make you aware of my concern about these current events in the Indian administered Kashmir, the heaviest militarized zone in the world, where two nuclear powered armies of India and Pakistan are facing each other:

Using a false pretext, Indian government recently put the state of Jammu and Kashmir behind an iron curtain, exactly what Soviet Union did during the cold war to territories it controlled. There is no phone, internet, or physical connection to the besieged region. The Indian government has made mass arrests and deployed up to 200,000 additional troops on top of the existing 700,000 stationed troops in the region.

The right wing BJP government in India has unilaterally bifurcated the disputed region under its control and scraped the special provisions that protect the identity of an indeginous people in the region. The erstwhile ruler of the state had signed a temporary instrument of accession, only when given the guarantees of these provisions in the Indian constitution.

There are gross human rights violations taking place right now and without phone/internet and no people and vehicular movement, there are sick without access to medicine, infants without access to milk, and people suffering inside a blockaded region.

The Indian soldiers are protected by draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, and none have ever been prosecuted for human rights abuses well documented by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, United Nations Human Rights Commission or other such organizations. In 2016, hundreds of protesting civilians were blinded through the use of pellet guns and hundreds more killed. The government forces have been using similar methods to kill and injure Kashmiri civilians for many years now.

Given Indian state’s recent actions, mass protests are likely to happen, and I request that you communicate my concerns to the Indian government and ask them to follow International law as a signatory to the fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV) and protect Kashmiri civilians from any harm or injury.

Finally, with President Trump’s recent offer to mediate this long standing Kashmir dispute and plans of US withdrawal from Afghanistan as context, such Indian actions to change the demographics of a disputed region are going to increase radicalism and thwart plans for peaceful withdrawal of US forces from the region. That in itself will ensure that the US foreign policy interests will be severely hampered.

I request you to implore and show concern to the Indian government to seek a negotiated settlement of the dispute, and protect human rights as opposed to the indiscriminate use of force in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV) that protects civilians in the regions of armed conflict. It is imperative that the Indian authorities recognize that the conflict in Kashmir can only be resolved through peaceful means and according to the wishes of Kashmiris.

Respectfully,