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'Indian forces

strength in

held Kashmir

unprecedented'

GENEVA: Professor William Baker human rights activist and author of 'Kashmir Happy Valley, Valley of Death' has said that Kashmir was not only occupied by the Indian army but it had been under siege.

Prof. Baker, who visited Kashmir, has told a radio interviewer here that he had never seen such a concentration of an occupation by army anywhere in the world. He made these remarks when he appeared on a radio programme on Geneva-based 'freely speaking' with Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director of Washington-based Kashmiri American Council.

The American author said that it was most unfortunate that such terror was being inflicted on a people who are peace loving, intelligent and want to exercise God-given right to self-determination. He quoted extensively from his book to support his assertion that India could only continue to hold Kashmir through its 650,000 strong army of occupation. He said that the children of Kashmir, like their elders, are caught in the never-ending daily struggle to survive under Indian occupation. They have nothing to launch about, or to celebrate other than surviving another day without being shot, beaten or arrested.

Prof. Baker said that Dr Abdul Ahad Guru, the only cardio-vascular surgeon for more than four million Kashmiris, spoke on camera and on the record, detailing the daily atrocities inflicted by the more than 650,000 Indian occupation forces. He said that, during his interview, Dr Guru made it clear that, due to curfews and crackdowns, innocent Kashmiri civilians were dying, as no one was allowed to move on the roads even medical emergencies such as a 70 year old woman who experienced a heart attack. She died in her home since no ambulance was allowed to transport her to the hospital. "Thus her basic right to medical aid is denied, and she died an unnecessary death", he said.-PPI