Srinagar
Having exhausted all brutal measures of suppression and repression on the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, particularly after August 5, 2019, to break their resolve for freedom, Indian forces have eventually admitted their failure in removing the prevailing sense of alienation among the Kashmiri masses.
In an attempt to portray a so-called soft- image, Indian Army vehicles in Kashmir are moving with white and blue flags “to address the feeling of alienation among (IIOJK) citizens” as per the statement of Indian Army Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Emron Musavi in Srinagar.
He said, the colours of flags on army vehicles and flags carried by soldiers have been changed from red to blue and white while pictures of Indian army vehicles displaying a so-called message—“Kashmiri Ko Salam” circulated on the social media.
“Earlier, the army vehicles used to have red flags and even the soldiers in Road Opening Parties carried red flags while clearing way for convoys.
The road barriers in sensitive zones have also been given a new look,” the army spokesman said. He said that these steps have been taken to address the “feeling of alienation in the citizens at the security checks and drills.”
Lt Col Musavi claimed that these visual steps are a desire to minimise the discomfort to the citizens.
“The intent is to improve the citizen-soldier connect so that both work jointly to address the challenge of militancy in J&K,” he said.
While commenting on Indian Army’s cosmetic moves to ‘address the sense of alienation’, experts on Kashmir said that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute, which has to be resolved through exercise of right to self-determination as pledged by the United Nations, while Indian forces are occupational forces in the territory.
Leaving aside the brutalities, perpetrated by these forces on innocent Kashmiris for their aforesaid demand for right to self-determination, mere presence of these forces is enough to create the alienation feeling in the territory.—KMS
