United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the child casualties in Kashmir.
The report released on Monday said that the UN has verified the killing of eight children in Kashmir and the maiming of seven by the Lakshar-e-Taiba (LeT), shelling across the Line of Control and by the security forces.
The report did not give details beyond attributing 10 incidents to the security forces, one to the LeT and another to “unidentified armed elements” — usually a euphemism for militants.
It said three incidents happened during cross-border shelling.
Guterres said in the report that the casualties in Kashmir occurred mainly due to “torture in detention, shootings, including from pellet guns, and cross-border shelling”.
Guterres said that he was concerned about the detention of 68 children between the ages of nine and 17 on national security-related charges with one of them held for allegedly associating with “armed groups”.
He asked the government to take preventive measures to protect children and to ban the use of pellet guns against them.
He said that he was concerned about the arrest of children at night, and their internment in army camps, “torture in detention” and detention without due process as he urged the government to end these practices.
Discussion about this post