Sultan M Hali
INDIA observes 26 October as “Accession Day” as it (falsely) claims that on this day the Hindu ruler of Muslim majority Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to India. Kashmiris all over the world and Pakistan observe October 27 as Black Day, because on this day the Indians occupied Kashmir in violation of the Independence Act 1947, which required the people of Kashmir to decide whether they wanted to accede to Pakistan or India. Knowing well that the majority Muslims of Kashmir, who were already oppressed by the cruel yoke of tyranny under the Dogra Raj, were going to opt for Pakistan, India occupied Kashmir forcibly even before the Letter of Accession was signed.
Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, using his illicit relations with Edwina Mountbatten (a fact now confirmed by history), coerced the last Viceroy to British India Lord Mountbatten to use his influence on the Boundary Commission. Sir Cyril Radcliff, the Chairman of the Indo-Pakistan Boundary Commission bowed to the demands of the Viceroy and changed the boundary to grant Gurdaspur in Punjab to India so that it could have land access to Kashmir. Christopher Beaumont, Private Secretary to Sir Cyril Radcliff, duly noted these developments in his diary, which was published in 2007 as The Beaumont Papers by his son Robert Beaumont revealing the conspiracy.
Enraged by the odious act of India, volunteers from Pathan tribesmen and from Pakistan Army decided to liberate Kashmir. Nehru—who was by then the Indian Prime Minister and the main protagonist in the Kashmir issue, because he was a Kashmiri Pundit and also cognizant of the fact that nearly all the rivers flowing into Pakistan originated from Kashmir—was hell bent upon occupying Kashmir. When he realized that the liberators were closing in on Srinagar, Nehru approached the UN Security Council (UNSC) seeking a ceasefire. The UNSC invoked a ceasefire but also approved Resolutions necessitating a plebiscite under the aegis of the UN for the Kashmiris to decide their accession to Pakistan or India. Initially Nehru agreed to abide by the UN Resolutions and expressed the same in his subsequent addresses to the nation, duly recorded and archived. Later he reneged and the promised plebiscite never took place. Instead, in 1954, India approved Articles 370 and 35-A in its Constitution, which provided autonomy and a special status to Kashmir and forbade non-Kashmiris to acquire real estate in the IoK.
Pakistan and India went to war in 1965 and 1971 but the fate of the Kashmiris never changed. In 1989, disappointed by the world’s continued indifference, the Muslims of IoK raised the flag of independence. India tried to crush the just move by brute force, deploying 700,000 troops and imposing draconian laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and others which empower Indian troops to enter any house in the occupied territory, arrest its occupants, loot, rape and kill with impunity. According to a research report compiled and released by All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), a total of 94,906 innocent Kashmiris have been martyred by Indian occupation forces including 7,099 in custody since 1989. The same report informs that 143,185 Kashmiris had been apprehended, 107,686 children orphaned and 108,471 houses/shops destroyed by the Indian forces. As many as 22,864 Kashmiri women were widowed and 11,026 were raped by the occupation forces in last over two decades. Likewise, 11,042 women were gang raped/molested during the aforementioned period.
Narendra Modi’s advent in 2014 as Prime Minister ushered in a new era of violence for the IoK. BJP came with an agenda of hate and odium. It tried to rig the election in the Valley in 2014 so that it could gain 44+ seats in the Legislative Assembly and abrogate Articles 370 and 35-A of the Constitution. The people of IoK defeated the BJP plan by turning up in large numbers on polling day. Former Indian Army Chief General VK Singh, who is now a politician and Minister under the BJP government, has admitted to the use of secret funds under a super-secret military intelligence wing, the Technical Support Division (TSD) for covert operations in IoK, including bribing Kashmiri politicians to derail the sitting government.
Failing in his heinous plans during his first tenure, Narendra Modi came back with a vengeance. The Pulwama incident and Balakot strikes were meant to bolster BJP’s chances of victory in the April/May general election in India. The 27 February debacle of IAF was turned into a triumph through lies and deceit and Modi won an overwhelming victory at the polls. Feeling empowered, his first act was rescinding Articles 370 and 35-A and annexation of the IoK into Union Territories. Since then, IoK has been in a state of total lockdown. For the last three months, its people are besieged and deprived of food, medicine and communications to contain them. Sporadic attempts at breaking the curfew to protest have been met with slaughter and mayhem.
Pakistan has moved heaven and earth to end the misery of the incarcerated Kashmiris. International and even Indian human rights activists have come into motion to condemn Modi and his barbaric stranglehold over Kashmir. Most western nations and even leading Muslim countries apart from Turkey and Malaysia have failed to condemn Modi because of their trade relations with Modi. However, their parliaments and people have passed motions urging Modi to provide relief to the beleaguered Kashmiris. This 27 October “Black Day” will be observed in nearly all capitals of the world to mark solidarity with the Kashmiris and bring their collective weight on Modi to cease his tyranny against the hapless Kashmiris.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.
