Kashmiri leaders meeting with Modi
Statehood should not be in dispute. The issue is to remind India that she has to refer her claim in respect of Jammu and Kashmir to a UN-supervised vote.
Delimitation or elections should not be entertained by the Kashmiri leadership at all. Delimitation is not permissible under UN SC Resolution 91. The Indian mala fide to harm demography is floating on the surface.
The restitution of Statehood on paper has no meaning if you are ruled by IB and remain under the control of a 900000 Indian soldiers.
Therefore, there should be a demand to have 21000 (Twenty One thousand) non arms bearing soldiers as requested by India at the SC.
Valley leadership in particular and Jammu leadership in general has once again shown signs of vulnerability and hunger for any kind of negotiated power.
Otherwise, defence of UN template on Kashmir is in the interests of all citizens of Jammu and Kashmir.
If PAGD and others who participated in the meeting cave in to accept the Indian priorities, that is, delimitation, elections and then Statehood, they should pack up, lock stock and barrel and leave politics.
They would eventually become social lepers. Dr. Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai has very rightly argued, “If promises are made to be broken, then Kashmir may be summoned to prove the treacherous proposition.
Broken promises haunt Kashmir’s history and explain its tragedy.” It would be unfair to load all sins and failures on PAGD or on those outside it and on Hurriet or on those outside it alone.
They have been carrying on activities and bearing the brunt of Indian repression.
India has wronged the people and the habitat since 5 August 2019.
The situation in the Valley is so painful that even the OHCHR Report of June 2018 has recommended that “India should provide reparations and rehabilitation to all individuals injured and the family of those killed in the context of security operation”.
The Government Azad Kashmir has a higher burden of responsibility to share. It is free to negotiate with the Government of Pakistan, the kind of political, moral and diplomatic input and other appropriate guidance or support required by our people in the Valley or in Jammu. AJK Government has to re-set the compass of its priorities. It has badly fallen behind since 5 August 2019. — Concluded
—The author is President of London based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations.
