In 2004, human rights activist Khurram Parvez lost his leg in a landmine blast in Kashmir. Parvez and other activists of the Jammu and Kash...
In 2004, human rights activist Khurram Parvez lost his leg in a landmine blast in Kashmir. Parvez and other activists of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society had been travelling in a car to monitor the parliamentary elections in Kashmir. Two of Parvez’s colleagues were killed in the blast.
That set off a long campaign against landmines in Kashmir. Parvez and the JKCCS collaborated with international human rights organisations and went to other countries to investigate the use of landmines by state and non-state actors.
“The campaign against landmines was one of the major success stories of the rights group,” said a Kashmiri journalist who had reported on it at the time. “Such was the pressure created by the campaign that militant groups issued written statements on not using landmines.”
In October 2007, the United Jihad Council, a conglomeration of militant groups fighting the Indian state in Jammu and Kashmir, signed a declaration pledging to stop using landmines.
The declaration was signed under the Ottawa Convention, also known as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. India and Pakistan are among the countries that are yet to sign it. However, the treaty also allows non-state actors to commit themselves against the use, production, transfer...
