The conviction of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik on terrorism-related charges may mean life imprisonment at the sentencing hearing for him later in the month. Mr Malik has been imprisoned in Tihar jail since 2019, despite his deteriorating health, and his conviction on trumped-up charges reflect the uncomfortable reality that New Delhi, under the BJP and its RSS-influenced mindset, has become ever more aggressive in its attempts to suppress the Kashmiri people and deny them their inherent right of self-determination. It is a reflection of a new overall strategy, which was reflected in the 5 August 2020 takeover of Indian-held Kashmir, splitting it into two union territories and opening them up to settlement by other Indians.
The target now seems to be the Kashmiri leadership, so that no one will be ready to take up the responsibility of leading the freedom struggle. The inherent problem seems to be that the rest of the world seems to have given India the freedom to do its worst in Kashmir. The world is acting with such irresponsibility because they all know that India is a huge market with more than a billion consumers, and offending its government would have consequences. This was why hen a foreign firm joined in Pakistan’s marking of Kashmir Solidarity Day, there were loud squawks from New Delhi, and the corporation had to face threats against its Indian operations. No corporation or country has interests only in Kashmir, which would oblige it to speak out against the Indian oppression, which is backed by more than a million occupiers.
The Indian government, ever since Partition, has tried its best to prevent the Kashmiri people from exercising their right to self-determination, first because the Nehru-Gandhi nexus leading the Congress had an ancestral link to the state, and then because the BJP sees Kashmir as an important part of the Hinduism myth it promotes through Hindutva. Pakistan continues to offer its moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people, but it is unlikely that the matter will move closer to settlement, despite an unlimited number of the kind of demarches that Pakistan made to protest the fakeness of the charges against Mr Malik. India will not be impressed, nor the world swayed, by any number of speeches at the UN. Kashmiris are in a terrible place, and need Pakistanis to help them.
