Islamabad
With every passing day, the atrocities by occupation forces intensify in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) but nothing makes the world realize the gravity of festering human tragedy in the region.
India is holding ‘Ghasbana Qabza’ for more than 70 years to suppress the Kashmiris, who have been struggling for their legitimate right to self-determination in line with the resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council from time to time. After going through the decades-long physical and mental agony, now the people of IIOJK are facing the worst type of repression at the hands of Modi-led fascist government, which has stripped the held territory of its special status, on August 5 last year, by revoking Articles 370 and 35-A on Indian constitution to change its demographic apartheid.
It is quite clear that New Delhi took this illegal, immoral and unconstitutional action out of frustration as its around-the–clock curfew, communication blackouts, arrests, killings and forceful suppression of protesters fell flat before the indomitable spirit and struggle of the Kashmiri people, whose commitment gets stronger with every intensive move of the so-called secular state.
The world knows very well the tragic story of IIOJK where around one million Indian troops are continuously putting the innocent Kashmiris under siege, killing and raping children and women with impunity, and denying them every fundamental right. According to authentic figures since 1989 till June 20,2020, Indian occupation forces have killed nearly 96,000 Kashmiris, including 7,141 custodial killings, arrested 160,523 civilians, widowed 22,916 women, orphaned 107,793 children and gang-raped/molested 11,207 women, besides looting/destroying 110,334 houses/structures,.
As per the data gathered by a civil society group of India, a large number of children of 9 to 13 years of age are among the 13,000 civilians arrested by the Indian Army during the months-long curfew and lockdown in the occupied territory since August 5, 2019. These children are still imprisoned in northern India and occupied Kashmir. They have not been released even after the outbreak of coronavirus. Other than Kashmiris’ miseries, the Kashmir issue has another important dimension and that is its potential to ignite a nuclear holocaust in the South Asian region. Often, the region goes through intense situation due to long-standing issues, mainly the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
Under the 1947 Partition Plan, Kashmir should have been part of Pakistan. Unfortunately, this could not happen due to a deep-rooted conspiracy. It was India itself that had referred the matter to UN Security Council, and offered a free and fair plebiscite for the people of Kashmir to decide about their future.
However, India later gradually renegaded from its own promises and started claiming the IIOJK as its integral part.
The UNSC has so far passed almost a dozen of resolutions that the issue would be resolved in accordance with the wishes of people of Kashmir, who want to exercise their legitimate right to self-determination and accession to Pakistan.The two neighboring countries, now atomic powers, have already fought two full-fledged wars in 1965 and 1971, and their troops stood eyeball to eyeball many times due to the longstanding core issue of Kashmir. Since the Pulwama incident and Pakistan’s befitting response against the Indian aggression in February, 2019, hardly a day passes without India’s unprovoked firing across the Line of Control (LOC) to target the civilian population.
It is an admitted reality that during the February-episode, the latest missiles had been aligned and kept ready-to-fire position after smelling anything fishy . . . anyone can imagine the scale of destruction, what will happen, if any provocation triggers a war between the two atomic powers.—APP
