Iqbal Khan
AFTER failing to restore normalcy in India-occupied Kashmir, Indian authorities have issued a jacket advertisement in local newspapers, trying to persuade the people to end the self-imposed continued shutdown. According to Kashmir Media Service, in the first of the series of advertisements, the occupation authorities have tried to tell the people about the benefits of the repeal of special status of Kashmir. It was published in the local newspapers in the last week of August. The message in the advertisement read, “Closed Shops. No Public Transport. Who Benefits? …Think!”
This is the nature of campaign by the occupation forces against the continuous shutdown being observed by the people, in the Valley on their own, to express their resentment against Indian government’s decision of revoking the special status of the territory. Shops and main markets are shut and public transport is off the road in the Kashmir valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu as a mark of protest. Earlier this month, a pro-India US Senator, Chris Van Hollen, was denied permission to visit the occupied region. “If the Indian government has nothing to hide, they should not worry about people visiting Kashmir and witnessing the situation with their own eyes,” emphasised the Senator.
Situation in Kashmir is so alarming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that it would take four months for the IoK to return to normal. At a rally in Maharashtra on October 13, PM Modi said “I assure you that it won’t take more than four months to normalise the abnormal situation that has persisted there for 40 years.” He also said that his Government had taken necessary steps to maintain security in Jammu and Kashmir. After the withdrawal of special constitutional provisions for IoK, Modi Government had flooded the region with additional troops and imposed curfew to keep a lid on protests. Despite the curbs, Kashmiris have come out on to the streets and most of the commercial and educational activity has remained shuttered.
Indian authorities had restored call and text services for mobile phones on 14 October, following a 72-day communication blackout in the IoK. However, short messaging service (SMS) was once again blocked just hours after being restored. Communication blockade was imposed in the run-up to India’s scrapping IoK’s semi-autonomous status. Over eight million people are still cut off from the internet. Indian law enforcers arrested half a dozen women activists protesting in Srinagar. The women, carrying placards reading “Respect Fundamental Rights” and “Why downgrade Jammu and Kashmir,” had assembled in a Srinagar park on 15 October. Those arrested included the sister and daughter of pro-India former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah. Thousands of Kashmiri politicians, lawyers and others are in custody since early August, mostly without charge. During the ongoing spell, Kashmiris have been fighting over three decades; over 800,000 Indian soldiers are deployed in the occupied territory to curb the struggle for right of self-determination.
During an election rally in Haryana on 13 October, the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh mockingly offered Islamabad assistance in fighting terrorism and also threatened the disintegration of Pakistan. “Pakistan should forget Kashmir. In 1947, based on two-nation theory, India was partitioned. But in 1971 Pakistan again split into two. If the same situation prevails, then no power of the world can stop Pakistan from disintegrating,” Indian newspaper “The Hindu” quoted Singh as saying. Overtaken by the panic caused by the backlash, Indian Minister seems to have forgotten the basic etiquettes of interstate relations. Pakistan has condemned Indian defence minister’s statements calling it “highly irresponsible”. “These provocative statements from a senior minister in the Indian government provide another insight into the Bharatiya Janata Party mind-set – a mix of extremist ideology, hegemonic ambitions and obsession with Pakistan,” said Foreign Office spokesperson. The statement added: it was “highly irresponsible of the Indian Defence Minister to be threatening the splitting of a sovereign country, “We are sure that the world community would take cognisance”.
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, has warned India that if it dared to indulge in any military (mis)adventure, it would receive more robust response from Pakistan. He said that fascist policies are being pursued in India to advance BJP’s Hindutva based hegemonic agenda, and that India had crossed all limits of atrocities in occupied Kashmir but it would never succeed in suppressing the resolve of the Kashmiris for liberation from the Indian occupation. The stripping of occupied Kashmir’s special status on August 5 saw New Delhi send in tens of thousands of extra troops to what even before was one of the world’s most heavily militarised zones. Several hundred Kashmiri politicians, activists, lawyers and others remain in custody, mostly without charge. Several thousand ordinary Kashmiris were also detained, including children as young as nine, security forces are routinely indulging in provocative clashing at peaceful rallies.
Tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have died since 1989 in an uprising against Indian occupation demanding their right for self-determination. It is time to stop the pervading sense of cynicism born out of perceived selectivity and bias in the work of the United Nations. Unilateral actions in gross violation of Security Council resolutions threaten the rules based on international order and erode the credibility and legitimacy of the United Nations. Among the oldest issues on the UN agenda, the Kashmir dispute serves as an ignominious face to a cruel occupation. Pakistan will remain the voice of Kashmiris at all international forums especially at the UN until justice is done and Kashmiris are able to exercise their right to self-determination.
—The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
