Sajjad Shaukat
THE people of Jammu and Kashmir, living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and rest of the world have been observing 27 October as the Black Day to mark strong protest against the forced and unlawful occupation of Jammu and Kashmir for the last 73 years. During the partition of the subcontinent, the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan according to the British formula. But, Dogra Raja, Sir Hari Singh, a Hindu who was ruling over the J&K in collusion with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Governor General Lord Mountbatten joined India. The design to forcibly wrest Kashmir began to unfold on 16 August 1947, with the announcement of the Radcliffe Boundary Award. It gave the Gurdaspur District—a majority Muslim area to India to provide a land route to the Indian Armed Forces to move into the state of J&K. The state forces revolted against the Maharaja and were joined by Pathan tribesmen. Mountbatten ordered armed forces to land in Srinagar. Indian forces invaded Srinagar on 27 October 1947 and forcibly occupied the J&K in utter violation of the partition plan and against the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
When Pakistan responded militarily, on 31 December 1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to intervene and a ceasefire ultimately came into effect on 01 January 1949, following UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir. Particularly, the Security Council adopted resolution 47 (1948) of 21 April 1948, which promised a plebiscite under UN auspices to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India. On 5 February 1964, India backed out of its promise of holding plebiscite. Instead, Indian Parliament declared Kashmir an integral part of the Indian union. It is notable that Indian Parliament revoked Articles 35-A and 370 of the Constitution on 5 August 2019, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the J&K. The act split the J&K into two territories to be ruled directly from New Delhi. Thus, Indian fanatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government led by extremist ruling party BJP unilaterally annexed the India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) to turn Muslim majority into minority. Now, more than 14 months have passed, but Indian strict military lockdown in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) continues unabated.
Despite the deployment of more than 900,000 troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of Kashmiris, including women and children, through brutal tactics-fake encounters — closure of mosques, shortage of food, medicines for the patients and coronavirus-affected persons, Kashmiri freedom fighters continue war of liberation. And Indian prejudiced rulers’ various other measures such as issuance of domicile certificates to more than 430000 non-Kashmiris, blaming Indian Muslims for spreading of coronavirus in India and IIOJK show Indian anti-Muslim campaign. However, New Delhi is also violating Article 55 & 56 of the Geneva Convention—IV states that the occupying power must ensure sufficient hygiene and public health standards, as well as the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation. Owing to military clampdown in the India-occupied Kashmir (IoK)—in order to conceal India’s state terrorism, Kashmir has been cut off from rest of the world. But, under these adverse circumstances, Kashmiris are still violating the lockdown by protesting against Indian illegal actions.
Notably, Modi regime has also increased gangs of RSS-BJP volunteers permanently stationed in the occupied Kashmir. While, since 1989, Kashmiris have already been enduring various forms of state terrorism such as torture, kidnapping, rape and massacre, no Indian soldier has ever been taken to task for his heinous crimes. Hence, since the military lockdown started, Indian forces have intensified the employment of these brutal tactics. Almost, 100,000 Kashmiris have died in the past 30 years. It is mentionable that Western media, human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International etc and leaders of various countries and UNO have repeatedly condemned Indian illegal measures and human rights violations which keep on going in the IoK. In this respect, a year after India abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, UN human rights experts on 4 August 2020 called on India and the international community to take urgent action to address the “alarming” human rights situation in (IoK) Jammu and Kashmir—“to investigate all cases of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detentions.”
In this context, Amnesty International said on 29 September, this year that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts on 10 September for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir…the government had sought to punish it for that”. In the recent past, the UNSC in its meetings has thrice reiterated that the Kashmir issue requires to be settled in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter and the related Security Council resolutions, as the world has refused to believe in the Indian story that its actions regarding IIOJK are its internal matter. Nevertheless, 27 October (2020) was celebrated by the Kashmiris, living on both sides of the LoC and their brethren in Pakistan, including almost all over the world as the Black Day to protest against Indian illegal occupation of the Kashmir. In this connection, conferences and demonstrations were held in various major cities of the world to protest against India, while reminding the international community of the rights of self-determination of the Kashmiris as recognized by the UNO-related resolutions.
—The writer is freelance columnist based in Lahore.
