More than a month after India launched its ill-advised adventure in occupied Kashmir, protests regarding the dire human rights situation in the occupied valley refuse to die down. On Friday, Prime Minister Imam Khan led a charged rally in Muzaffarabad to highlight the troubles across the LoC; he rightly warned the world that Indian repression in the held region would end up fuelling extremism, as people would opt to fight New Delhi’s brutality using “all means”. Indeed, the reports trickling out of the valley indicate a pitiful situation for the residents of India-occupied Kashmir, as they remain under lockdown with little freedom to speak of.
It is to be hoped that Pakistan’s efforts to highlight the Kashmir question internationally are having some effect. UN Secretary General Antónic Guterres says he remains “very concerned” about situation escalating into a confrontation between India and Pakistan, while adding that the situation needs to be addressed “with full respect of human rights”. Elsewhere, numerous American lawmakers have urged their President to mediate between Islamabad and New Delhi, and have called for India to lift curfew in the IoK. The situation in Kashmir has grave implications for democracy, human rights and regional stability. …” one Congresswoman has said.
Indeed, in the age of social media and breaking News, it will be very hard for India to keep a lid on the brutalities it has unleashed on the Kashmiris. Despite India’s mantra that India’s military enforcers have unleashed is slowly growing that ‘all is well’ in the held region, the realisation is slowly growing that India’s military enforcers have unleashed a right of terror in the IoK ever since Article 370 was scrapped on the 5th of August – although condemnation by governments across the globe has been disappointingly muted. But India can no longer pretend that Kashmir is an ‘internal’ matter; it stands badly exposed in the Vale. Indeed, Pakistan’s diplomats have to late proactively highlighted the deplorable situation in the IoK in key world capitals.
SAJJAD MANGI
Larkana
