Solidarity with Kashmiris 

Indian atrocities continue unabated

Like every year, people and the government of Pakistan are observing yet another Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5, 2023 to reiterate their continued unstinted moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris struggling and suffering at the hands of occupying Indian security forces for securing their birth right of self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

Hearts of Pakistanis and Kashmiris beat together, slogans of “Kashmir Baney Ga Pakistan” and “Pakistan Zindabad” are frequently raised in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory and Pakistan flags fluttered and hoisted at mosques and other public places and houses on different occasions like India’s Republic Day which the Kashmiris observed as the black day. Founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had described Kashmir as the lifeline of Pakistan.

People and the government of Pakistan have been and will continue supporting the just cause of Kashmiris, living in the longest lockdown in illegally Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, till they win freedom from forcible Indian occupation, exercise their right of self-determination and decide their future themselves in a free, fair and transparent plebiscite under UN supervision.

Through the observance of Kashmir Solidarity Day, the people and the Pakistani leadership will also be giving a clarion call through rallies and meetings for waking up the somehow sleeping international community which even after seeing, observing , noticing and condemning ongoing Indian security forces  brutalities and atrocities on innocent Kashmiri men, women, youth and children engaged in unarmed struggle against Indian occupation for more than seven decades but not  doing anything more than that.

Pakistan through its leadership has not only revived and activated  the lingering unresolved Kashmir issue at all international forums topped by UN General Assembly through its civil and military leadership but also been repeatedly and emphatically telling and warning the world at large that there will be no  durable peace and stability in South Asia until the  Kashmir dispute is peacefully and amicably  resolved on the basis of international legitimacy and  Kashmir  has quite rightly  described as a “nuclear flash point”.

UN Secretary-General  Antonio Guterres at also been on different occasions calling and stressing  upon neighbouring nuclear power  armed  India and Pakistan to come together  and seriously discuss their problems stemming from the unresolved Kashmir dispute saying there was no military solution to the decades old conflict, it is clear when seeing Pakistan and India, military confrontation between the two would be  a big disaster  of unmitigated proportion for both countries and the whole world.

India has all along been clamouring about Jammu and Kashmir being its integral part in a vain attempt to cheat its own people and befool the international community.

According to him, it was  absolutely essential to have a de-escalation on the Line of Control, as regards human rights abuses in Indian-occupied Kashmir, it was  essential  that human rights are fully respected . The world body Secretary was on record to have stated August 8, 2019, immediately after India’s unilateral action of revoking special status of Jammu and Kashmir and merging it with the Indian Union, wherein he had called for the resolution  of the Kashmir dispute based on UN Security Council resolutions  and the UN Charter.

But somehow he has always avoided out-rightly condemning India for flagrant violations of the Line of Control ( LoC) killing innocent civilians  in an unabated manner and also for its gross  human rights violations in illegally occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

One cannot help saying that the UN was itself was helpless in getting its own Security Council resolutions implemented to resolve the Kashmir dispute  even after  more than seven decades of lingering  and let the struggling, suffering and bleeding Kashmiris exercise their birth right of self-determination. .

One is reminded here also of a guerilla war which had ensued from 1975 to 1999 between Indonesia and pro-independence forces in which thousands of East Timorese were killed. In 1999 East Timor was placed under UN supervision and on May 20, 2002 Dili became the capital of newly-independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

The burning question which arises here was  that  if the UN could take East Timor under its supervision   subsequently leading to its independence from Muslim country Indonesia then why cannot the world  body can take over occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory where the bloodshed, violence and human rights violations are going on for decades together in an unabated manner and implement the Security Council resolutions by holding free and fair plebiscite to solve the lingering burning Kashmir dispute.

Was the world body afraid of big country India which is now ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS)  Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoting Hindutva at all costs ?

India has all along been clamouring about Jammu and Kashmir being its integral part in a vain attempt to cheat its own people and befool the international community .It was  an established and duly internationally acknowledged fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, India has no other claim over it than that of an occupier, like all occupiers and colonizers of the past, India wants to physically , politically and psychologically crush the indigenous Kashmiri struggle, India has become a nightmare for its minorities.

On August 5, 2019, India had not only unilaterally annulled special status of Jammu and Kashmir but also placed the entire 8 million population of occupied territory under military siege which is continuing for more than three years in an unending manner and the territory remains shut to the outside world with no means of communications, no media and no UN observers  visiting there.

Gross human rights violations in the forcibly occupied Indian territory since August5, 2019 include Kashmiris martyred 410, women widowed 22 ,  children orphaned 56, people injured 1577, people arrested under draconian laws 14487 and largely structures damaged  as of August 5,2021, according to facts and figures compiled by Kashmir Institute of International Relations through close monitoring of happenings in the occupied territory.

As for youth pellet victims and public safety act detentions since August 5, 2019, are concerned large number of Kashmiri  youth have been injured by pellets, landed and a couple of thousands arrested under Public Safety  Act (PSA).

Indian occupying security forces crimes against besieged Kashmiris since 1989 include killings of more than 100,000, 22,924 widowed, 112,131 rapes, 197,811 orphans and 110, 375 houses and infrastructures destroyed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also taking various measures in an illegal manner like genocide to turn Muslims majority into minority and getting Hindus settled there in large number under fake domicile certificates.

The Kashmiris just indigenous struggle is continuing, 900000 strong occupying security forces continuing brutalities, custodial killings and atrocities under draconian laws  in an unabated manner, people and the civil and military leadership of Pakistan also continue extending all moral, diplomatic and political support at all international forums,  the blood of the Kashmiris will certainly and surely not go waste and they are bound to secure their fundamental basic right of self-determination in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions with the continued blessings of Almighty Allah sooner or later, Inshallah.

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Muhammad Zahid Rifat
Muhammad Zahid Rifat
The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News) , Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at [email protected]

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