EXPLOITING the situation arising out of the spread of Co rona Virus in the world, India took another step to further erode the Muslim majority status of occupied Kashmir by notifying an order to pave the way for Indian citizens to get permanent resident status as well as jobs in the occupied territory. After abrogating the special status of the occupied territory last year in August, Modi Junta has now come up with new domicile rules under which a person who has resided in Jammu and Kashmir for fifteen years will now be able to call the occupied territory his or her place of domicile. The very step has once again exposed the sordid designs of Indian government to change the demographic composition of the territory with the influx of Hindu population there. By all means, it is a blatant attempt to colonise Kashmir and populate it with new and old colonisers to make Kashmir’s indigenous citizens a minority in their own land. Observers believe the changes in the domicile law may also disenfranchise thousands of non-resident Kashmiri Muslims, as well as tens of thousands of Muslims who were exiled from the region since 1947 to Pakistan and elsewhere. This really has once again made it abundantly clear that India is hell-bent upon snatching everything from the people of Jammu and Kashmir including their identity, land and natural resources. Since Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, therefore, all such steps are contrary to international laws and conventions and the world bodies especially the UN Security Council should immediately take notice of the Indian illegal actions. The Kashmiri people themselves have very rightly called the new Indian legislation ‘a page straight out of the Israeli playbook’ which is building new settlements on the Palestinian land to usurp the land of Palestinians. With each passing day, Muslims are being pushed to the wall both in India and occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The regrettable part is that the international community does speak about the human rights protection but has never taken any concrete step to stop the extremist Indian government from its brutalities and oppression against Muslims. Whilst the world needs to rise above their political and economic expediency, it is also time that our Government and Foreign Office fulfil the obligation of protecting the rights of Kashmiri people and raise a strong voice against the Indian illegal actions in the occupied territory at the United Nations. OIC also needs to become a strong voice for the oppressed Muslims
