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Acknowledgements

This report was written by Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, based on her research in Jammu and Kashmir conducted from 2004 to February 2006. Information from Azad Kashmir was gathered by South Asia researcher Ali Dayan Hasan from 2005 to 2006. Additional research was conducted by telephone, email and in meetings with NGOs and officials in New Delhi, Islamabad and elsewhere. Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director, and Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher in the Children’s Rights Division, reviewed and commented on the report. Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director; Ian Levine, Program director; Veena Siddharth, Asia advocacy director; John Sifton, senior researcher in the Terrorism and Counterterrorism program; and Saman Zia-Zarifi, Asia research director, provided additional comments. Jim Ross, senior legal advisor, provided legal review; and Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division, and Ian Gorvin, consultant in the Program office, edited the report. Andrea Holley, Veronica Matushaj, Jo-Anne Prud’homme, Andrea Cottom and Jonathan Cohen produced the report. Interns Pei Wu and Annie Paradise provided research assistance, and Burke Butler assisted with production. Robert Nickelsberg took the photographs featured in the report.

Our research in Jammu and Kashmir was conducted with the assistance of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar. Human Rights Watch would like to thank the following people and organizations for their generous assistance: Parvez Imroz, Public Commission on Human Rights; Mian Abdul Qayoom, Riaz Ahmed and numerous other lawyers from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar; Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons; Farooq Kathwari, Kashmir Study Group; Teresita Schaffer, CSIS; Chris Fair, United States Institute of Peace; Michael Krepon, Henry L. Stimson Center; Nyla Khan; Angana Chatterji; Sarita Tukaram; Mohsin Mohi-ud-din; Bashir Ahmed and Lea Terhune. We also thank the many journalists, government officials, lawyers, diplomats and NGO workers who provided invaluable assistance but would prefer that their names not be mentioned. Above all, we would like to express our gratitude to the many Kashmiri men and women in Jammu and Kashmir and Azad Kashmir, who spoke with us, recounting their personal experiences of hardship and violence, often at great personal risk.

Finally, we acknowledge with appreciation the support of Cordaid and the Ladenburg Foundation.