5th of August: Refocus on Kashmir

5th of August: Refocus on Kashmir

    By Sajjad Shaukat

Indian Constitution which claims India to be a secular state was torn into pieces on August 5, 2019 when Indian extremist government revoked articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Indian government bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal government.

India also issued an infamous map on October 31, 2019, which displayed this split and identifies Pakistani side of Azad Kashmir as well as certain areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as an Indian territory.

Besides Pakistan, China also rejected the Indian malicious acts as “unlawful and void”, saying that India’s decision to “include” some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction “challenged” Beijing’s sovereignty. While border dispute between India and China, which remains unsettled, has increased tension between the two countries.

In fact, Indian extremist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the fanatic ruling party BJP accelerated anti-Kashmir moves. Implementing the ideology of Hindutva ((Hindu Nationalism), Indian extremist rulers issued domicile certificates to more than 1.8 million non-Kashmiris to change the ethno-demographic structure of the IIOJK. 

Indian cruel actions against the Kashmiris reached climax on August 5, 2019, as New Delhi also imposed strict lockdown in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and deployed more than 900,000 troops there. Indian military and paramilitary troopers have martyred tens of thousands of the Kashmiris, including women and children through ruthless tactics, firing of pallets and extrajudicial killings. Due to the military clampdown in the IOK, shortage of food items and medicines even for the coronavirus-affected persons as well as the children, Kashmiris have been facing painful deaths. In order to conceal India’s state terrorism, Kashmir has been cut off from rest of the world.

In this regard, The Independent wrote: “Kashmir’s tight security and communications lockdown remained in place…as reports emerged of daily essentials running low. Restrictions on almost all movement…were strictly enforced…With internet and phone lines still cut off…soldiers stopping vehicles in the centre of Srinagar…a military surveillance drone flew over…The network of barbed passageways was unprecedented…entire Srinagar city has been knitted in razor wire to seek silence and obedience…closure of mosques…curtailment of this fundamental religious freedom of millions of Kashmiri Muslims constitutes a serious violation of applicable international human rights law, to which India is a party.”

BBC pointed out: “Unprecedented restrictions have put Kashmir into a state of lockdown…In one village the residents said…Two brothers were woken up and taken to an outside area…They kicked us…gave us electric shocks, beat us with cables…we screamed, they sealed our mouth with mud…We told them we are innocent…I told them don’t beat us, just shoot us. I was asking God to take me, because the torture was unbearable.”

It is mentionable that various world leaders, particularly those of the Western countries, their law-makers media and human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International etc. and UNO have repeatedly condemned Indian illegal measures and human rights violations.

In this respect, UN human rights experts on August 4, 2020 called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the “alarming” human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir—to investigate all cases of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions.”

Amnesty International said in 2020 that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir…the government had sought to punish it for that”.

Amnesty International has also stated that it is “deeply concerned about the disregard for the lives of people in Jammu and Kashmir…The right to life is laid down in major international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which India has ratified…the language publicly used by state officials in Jammu and Kashmir betrays and strengthens disregard for the most fundamental of all rights”.

In the recent past, the UN Security Council in its meetings has thrice reiterated that the Kashmir issue requires to be settled according to the related Security Council resolutions.

While, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the ex-Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi have repeatedly stated that inaction by the international community, especially West’s major powers against New Delhi, who have financial interests in India could lead to conventional war which could be culminated into nuclear war between the two countries.

During his visit to the New York City in September 2020, the then Prime Minister Khan said: “The Indian occupied region has been facing a clampdown since August 5…[Nearly] 100,000 Kashmiris have died in the past 30 years…I am disappointed by the international community. If eight million Europeans, or Christians or Jews or Americans were put under siege…you can imagine the action…The only reason why Kashmiris are subjected to this is, they’re Muslims”. 

Notably, Indian forces have been also availing various draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Public Safety Act (PSA) etc. in martyring the Kashmiri people, and for arbitrarily arrest of any individual for an indefinite period.

However, New Delhi has failed in suppressing the Kashmiris’ prolonged war of liberation.

Indian forces had also accelerated shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir by violating the ceasefire agreement across the Line of Control (LoC) and provoked the Pakistan Army to give a proportionate response. In February 2021, the Director Generals of Military Operations of Pakistan and India had agreed to strictly observe the 2003 ceasefire agreement at the LoC and other sectors, including Working Boundary from the midnight of February 24 and 25.

At present, Indian atrocities in the occupied Kashmir have come in the limelight of the international community and the media. But, without considering the fact that Kashmir remains a nuclear flashpoint, the Modi-led regime’s extremist moves have completely ended any sort of dialogue with Islamabad to settle the Kashmir issue.

Meanwhile, in reply to various threats of Indian top civil and military officials, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has repeatedly warned India, saying: “We will respond any aggression with full might”.

It is noteworthy that Indian PM Modi’s anti-Muslim chauvinism took a dangerous turn on August 5, 2020 when he laid the foundation stone for the Hindu Ram temple at bhoomi pujan ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

Nevertheless, this year, 5th of August is the third anniversary of India’s revocation of the special status of the IIOJK. On this very day, Kashmiris living on both sides of the LoC and their brethren in Pakistan, including their sympathisers, living in rest of the world celebrate this day as the black day. Especially, Pakistan will observe this very day as ‘Youm-e-Istehsal-e-Kashmir’ (Day of Exploitation in occupied Kashmir/‘Kashmir Military Siege Day’).

Conferences and rallies will be conducted in the capitals of West’s major countries, as people will protest against India, its lockdown in the IOK and brutal treatment of the Kashmiris by the Indian forces, while reminding the internal community regarding the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris as recognized by the UNO-related resolutions. Reports suggest that in some Western countries’ main cities, Kashmiris, Pakistanis and human rights activists would particularly conduct demonstrations in front of the Indian embassies. Thus, commemoration of the day will further internationalise the Kashmir issue.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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