Speaker 1:

It's summer in the Kashmir valley, the idyllic and Northernmost state of India, in the foothills of the Himalaya. Local legend has it that this is the true promise land that Moses never found.

It's the season when the lotus flowers are in bloom; when traditionally tourists flock to the valley in their thousands. But now, the tourists stay away. The famous houseboats are empty. The enchanting harmony of Kashmir has been shattered by a raucous new refrain.

Crowd:

[foreign language 00:00:54].

Speaker 1:

I arrived in the Kashmiri capital, Srinagar, at the start of a week of turmoil. One of the bloodiest weeks in almost four years of civil war. Within an hour or so of arriving, we found ourselves in the middle of this frenzied crowd.

Crowd:

[foreign language 00:01:17].

Speaker 1:

Two days earlier, a nine-year-old boy and his parents had been shot dead by Indian paramilitary troops. The people then took to the streets in protest. An hour before we arrived, demonstrators were shot dead. Now, the bodies of the latest victims were being paraded through the streets.

Suddenly, troops moved in, guns at the ready. They appeared about to open fire. These are the forces of the Indian army and paramilitary. Their motto is, Duty Unto Death, and death has been the hallmark of their reign. Since India imposed direct federal rule on Kashmir in January, 1990, and sent in an estimated 400,000 troops to put down a separatist uprising, they've ruled by fear.

The scene below was still volatile, but as the Muslim quarter prayer rang out, the standoff ended. The troops pulled back. There would be no more death. At least for now.

Crowd:

[foreign language 00:02:36].

Speaker 1:

Kashmir's hospitals are full of the victims of encounters like this.

Speaker 3:

[foreign language 00:02:47].

Speaker 4:

[foreign language 00:02:52].

Speaker 1:

This old man says he was shot in the chest by the security forces. This 10-year-old boy was injured the same way. Human rights activists accuse the Indian forces of targeting civilians deliberately, to crush support for the militants. The strategy seems to have the opposite effect.

Speaker 5:

[foreign language 00:03:13].

Speaker 1:

This nurse, angered by the daily flow of casualties, told me Indian troops should get out. Every medical worker who I spoke to shared that view.

By afternoon, a 24-hour curfew had been imposed throughout the city. We drove through the old heart of Srinagar, home to 700,000 people. It was deserted; like a ghost town populated only by soldiers. Our guide was a local journalist, Mukhtar Ahmad.

Mukhtar Ahmad:

The curfew has been imposed on the entire state as a precautionary measure. As the authorities, they are fearing more demonstrations. I fear that if they lift the curfew, there will be a lot of violence.

Speaker 1:

How do you see the mood of the security forces at the moment?

Mukhtar Ahmad:

On a slight provocation, I'm sure that they'll open fire.

Speaker 1:

After just a few hours in Kashmir, the terror that grips the valley was clear. What would soon become equally clear was India's determination to crush the uprising, no matter what it takes.

K.V Krishna Rao:

Right from the time I have come here, my effort has been to carry out intensified operations with a view to put down militancy.

Speaker 1:

So, ultimately, whatever it takes to crush this movement will be done?

K.V Krishna Rao:

Absolutely. There is no doubt whatsoever that we want to put down militancy.

Speaker 1:

The evidence suggests, overwhelmingly, that India's forces in Kashmir are out of control. Last April, soldiers reacting to an attack by militants, stormed through the commercial heart of Srinagar sitting dozens of buildings on fire. 12 people were killed. Three months earlier, a similar rampage by troops in a nearby town, killed 50 people. Countless abuses have been documented. The evidence also indicates India's troops use rape as a weapon of war.

Slow. Slow.

Mukhtar Ahmad:

Well, was, was ...

Speaker 1:

We heard a report that three women had been raped by soldiers. Arriving in their village, we were overwhelmed by people wanting to tell the story. My journalist guide, Mukhtar, translated their accounts.

Speaker 7:

[foreign language 00:05:39].

Mukhtar Ahmad:

They molested women after entering our houses. The soldiers, Indian army soldiers.

Speaker 7:

[foreign language 00:05:43].

Mukhtar Ahmad:

We were sitting inside, and they forced their entry. I told the soldiers that, "You should shoot me, not molest me."

Speaker 8:

[foreign language 00:05:54].

Mukhtar Ahmad:

She said this child was beaten.

Speaker 8:

[foreign language 00:05:58].

Speaker 1:

The baby was being beaten?

Mukhtar Ahmad:

[foreign language 00:06:00].

Speaker 7:

[foreign language 00:06:01].

Mukhtar Ahmad:

He was also beaten by a rifle butt.

Speaker 9:

[foreign language 00:06:05].

Speaker 1:

What is this lady saying?

Mukhtar Ahmad:

She was beaten. She is showing you the bruises. She is ... Her clothes were torn. She said that they should put a halt on these troops.

Mufti Bahau-Ud:

India thinks that it is the brutalization alone which can quell the present disturbance.

Speaker 1:

The harder India has cracked down, the more support for the militants has grown.

I met these young fighters in a derelict house in what they call their liberated zone. They're members of the Hizbul Mujahideen; the Holy Warriors of the Party of God. This boy is 17. He says he joined at 11. This one signed up because he couldn't get a job. They told me they spent six months training in the Pakistani side of Kashmir.

These fundamentalist fighters now dominate the uprising. They favour not independence, but accession to India's enemy and neighbour, Pakistan, which vigorously backs their struggle. Their numbers have been bolstered by mercenaries, recruited from other Islamic nation.

Niaz Abbassi:

It's not far. We can say this as war. We treat this as Jihad.

Speaker 1:

Holy war.

Niaz Abbassi:

Holy war.

Speaker 1:

Ali Shah Geelani is the chief of Jamat-i-Islami, the political wing of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

Ali Shah G:

So on those basis, the Jammu and Kashmir is naturally part of Pakistan because there were 85% of Muslim population and we have religious relations with Pakistan, and we hope get settled affiliations with Pakistan.

Speaker 1:

Will India ever concede that Kashmir is not an integral part of India?

K.V Krishna Rao:

Never. It will never agree. Why should it agree? I mean, it's part of the country. It is determined. It's fully resolved to ensure that Kashmir remain an integral part of India. Nothing on earth can shake this.

Speaker 1:

Nothing on earth can shake this?

At the martyr's graveyard in Srinagar, the people of Kashmir buried their latest dead. Another week of killing. Another 45 fresh graves.

Crowd:

[foreign language 00:08:41].

Speaker 1:

Funerals here are no longer private affair, but political events where a shared and intense hatred overwhelms personal grief. The people, it now seems, are ready to go on burying their dead for as long as it takes to win this fight.

It's hard to imagine Kashmir ever returning to what it was like before. The valley's natural serenity now seems more unreal than the brutality of daily life.

Mukhtar Ahmad:

[foreign language 00:09:33].

Speaker 1:

For the people of Kashmir, like journalist Mukhtar Ahmad, there seems little hope that the turmoil will soon end.

Mukhtar Ahmad:

The life of locals, it is shattered. People have, I think, lost interest in everything. People say that, sometimes, that it's living in hell.

Speaker 1:

Living in hell.

Mukhtar Ahmad:

In this paradise on earth.