Kashmir Watch, Nov 27
By Alam Rind
Treacherous invasion of Kashmir by Indian forces on October 27, 1947 unleashed a chain of horrific atrocities on the predominantly Muslim population of the princely state. The conspiracy of depriving Kashmir’s of their “right of self determination” was jointly hatched by All India Congress and British Raj, thanks to Nehru-Lady Mountbatten affair. It will be naive to consider that India will ever be willing to accord independence to an area which they occupied through such deceitful means. To retain the area they opted to subjugate its population to coercion. The so called biggest democracy of the world through its successive governments has failed to meet its democratic obligation of extending the right of self determination to the people of Kashmir in accordance with the UN resolutions.
The continuing uprising by the people of Kashmir is a reaction to illicit occupation of their land and widespread repression by Indian law enforcing agencies. A free hand is given to these agencies under Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Area Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Power Act. They can use lethal force against anyone who in their opinion is acting in contravention of any law or order. Around 700,000 Indian Armed Forces along with other law enforcing agencies spread allover occupied Kashmir are harassing innocent people. Owing to their inhuman and tyrannical activities a large number of Kashmiri youth have gone missing. The tails of unlawful detention, custodial killing and fake encounters are wide spread. The irony is that Indian government is keeping mum on the whole issue. There is hardly any police or army person who has been tried on account of extrajudicial killing.
Complete government machinery seems to be involved in playing down legitimate struggle of Kashmiri people by labeling it as cross border terrorism. It is an effort to mislead world community and to distract their attention from the criminal breach of human rights committed by the government functionaries in Kashmir. To give it a realistic touch, reportedly a large number of Pakistani and other nationals were picked up by Indian Intelligence agencies from Jails in Afghanistan to be used in fake encounters so that they could produce their bodies for consumption of foreign media. The whole process served an additional advantage of holding Pakistan responsible for cross border terrorism. That also helped them to build international pressure on Pakistan to give up moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri people. While Pakistan operated on the back foot responding to the allegations, India continues to build it terrorist web around Pakistan by supporting anti-state elements in tribal areas and Baluchistan. Present out burst of suicidal attacks on innocent civilians especially in Peshawar also seems to be an effort to demoralize the people of NWFP and to erode their support for Pakistan Army in war on terror. That will be perfectly in line with the Indian design to push Pakistan into further disarray. In fact India could not reconcile with the division of the Sub-continent and the missed opportunity to rule Muslims, their formal masters. Thanks to the stubbornness of Patel and Nehru that Qaid-e-Azam realized the impossibility of co-existence of Muslims and Hindus in a state.
It is due to Indian highhandedness the two countries have not been able to resolve their disputes. But unfortunately its hapless victims are Kashmiri’s. They have suffered extensively at the hands of Indian forces and have lost thousands of young men in their struggle for independence. Nameless and mass graves in two villages at Tehsil Baramulla, in seven villages at Tehsil Boniyar and in nine villages at Tehsil Uri and at many other places yet to be discovered, speaks volumes about the cruelties and cold bloodedness of Indian security agencies. The inhuman act of extra judicial killings and then depriving the families from burying their loved ones are crimes of real heinous nature. These acts constitute gross violation of human rights and exposes true face of Indian democracy.
Perpetration of barbarism by Indian forces knows no limits. To add insult to the injury exceptionally large number of women (around 10,000) have been gang raped by Indian security forces in last two decades. The number of cases which have not been reported far exceeds. This clearly reflects on psycho-social makeup of Hindu mind. Their actions are motivated by their inert hatred for Muslims and total disregard for human values. It also reflects on their religious believes, which professes class system. They certainly can’t show any mercy towards Muslims. In these depressing environment people of Pakistan feel the pain for their Kashmiri brothers. For this crime Pakistan had to fight three wars and is facing the wrath of foreign sponsored terrorism aimed at its economic degradation and to demoralize its innocent people and security agencies. In spite of all these odds Pakistan is continuously striving for alleviation of the sufferings of Kashmiri people. To find a solution to this problem besides direct negotiations even the option of back door diplomacy is being pursued for quite a long time. The process starts as a result of pressure on India and is suspended once the situation eases or they feel that the negotiations are not proceeding in the direction they desire. The present interaction of the Chairman Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq with Indian Ministers signals resumption of this process. One only hopes that it succeeds in bridging the gape between the two countries for the betterment of the people of Kashmir.
Author can be reached at: rindalam@yahoo.com
Posted on 27 Nov 2009 by
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