Special Article
REEMA SHAUKAT
COVID-19isthetalk ofthetown nowadays. Countries like China got its province WuhanCorona free by completelockdown and Pakistantoo while dealing withthis pandemic has announced partial lockdown of many cities and provinces in order to prevent its further outbreak or spreadin rest of cities.While many countries announced lockdown, there is one corner of the world where India-occupied Kashmir lies and which is in state of lockdown for almost eight months. One can see how social media or Pakistani media tries to bring world attention to show how it feels like when the areas are cordoned off and now big cities and giant economies go for forced shut down in order to prevent lives of masses by this threatening virus. Imagine the life of common man in Occupied Kashmir who is facing this situation for the past many months and whenever they demand for their right of self-determination and independence from Indian brutality, they only have to face torture. Their daily life which already was at standstill is further going to be disturbed as so far seven confirmed cases of Corona are reported throughout Occupied Kashmir and PMModi has announced lockdown throughout India also for next 3 weeks. Perturbing thing is that throughout Occupied Kashmir only two ventilators are available and if the situation worsens because of Corona Virus, Kashmiris do not have better health facilities and may face more tough time. Recently a survey was conducted in the universities of Kashmir and published in Washington Times andAl-Jazeera which showed what fate students of Kashmir want regarding their state.Approximately 600 college and university students were part of the survey conducted by researchers from a university in Kashmir and New York’s Skidmore College in the wake of New Delhi’s decision to revoke the Muslimmajority region’s special status last August. According to survey, more than 90 percent of college and university students surveyed in Indian-administered Kashmir want a complete withdrawal of Indian forces from the region. The same percentage backed the holding of a referendum to decide the future status of the Muslim-majority region. It is important to note that in 1953, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised to conduct a plebiscite in Kashmir to resolve the conflict, but it was never implemented. After revoking the Articles 370 and 35-A India has deployed greater number of its military troops in Occupied Kashmir and sinister moves by BJP government show they want Hindu nationals to be placed in Occupied Kashmir as large majority, thus denying the basic rights of Muslim majority populace already living in Kashmir. Importantly US President Donald Trump, who many times has called Kashmir “a big problem between India and Pakistan” offered several times to mediate on the issue. But New Delhi, which considers it a bilateral issue, has flinched at the idea of third-party involvement. India whenever is tried to approach on the matter of Kashmir made excuses and avoided to talk to Pakistan on the matter of Kashmir, which shows its insecurities and failure to pursue the issue. India definitely lacks political will to resolve Kashmir dispute thus is always trying to conquer area via military placements. After 5August, India deployed thousands of soldiers in the streets of Kashmir and halt telecommunications and internet and detained more than 10,000 people. Over the past eight months, low-speed internet has been restored on both mobile phones and fixed-line phones. At the same time, the Indian government’s measures to firewall social media failed and world witnessed supporters of Kashmir across the globe. Therefore, Indian government has reduced internet speed to limit the damage caused to its image in the world by a rebellious population’s dissenting messages online. Now in the wake of Corona, Kashmiris are really worried and concerned too as with the unavailability of proper medical facilities or contact doctors or gain information via internet seems difficult. Dozens of businesses that depended heavily on the internet have folded and hundreds of people have lost jobs since the communications lockdown was imposed. In the wake of corona virus, schools have been closed in many countries but students there get to educate themselves via online classes or tools but Kashmir is the only place where Indian government ensures that there is a ban on offline as well as online education. It’s not the threat of corona which is alarming for residents of Occupied Kashmir, but Hindu fanatics associated with RSS, BJP and other Hindu extremist organizations pose a real and relatively bigger threat to the world peace than Corona. A number of experts working on human societies belonging to different races and religions in India during a survey said that the world, on one hand, is confronting lockdown to prevent the disasters caused by the mutated Corona Virus, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, on the other, are witnessing an RSS-backed lockdown for around eight months, now. The Hindutva philosophy of RSS, a fascist, supremacist and terrorist organization, is more dangerous than Corona Virus. Thus, peace of entire world will be at peril if the world remains silent in the face of Hindu extremism, and the menace goes unchecked. World needs to understand the dilemma of Kashmiris and something concrete to be done after such surveys. — The writer works for Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a think-tank based in Islamabad.
