More than 75 years have passed and the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are still struggling to get their legitimate right of self-determination as promised by the world powers at their top forum, the United Nations (UN).
On October 26, 1947, India landed its troops in Srinagar with sinister designs to annex the Muslim-majority Kashmir with New Delhi in sheer violation of the sub-continent’s partition formula, and till-date it is working on the same agenda.
When the Kashmir dispute was intentionally crafted in 1947-1948, the United States, Britain, China, France, Canada, Argentina, Belgium and Columbia championed the stand that the future status of Kashmir must be ascertained in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the territory.
Accordingly, the UN Security Council on April 21, 1948 adopted a resolution. The basic formula for settlement of the issue was incorporated in the resolutions of the UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) adopted on August 13, 1948 and January 5, 1949.
These were not the routine resolutions as their provisions were negotiated in detail by the UN Commission with India and Pakistan after getting the consent of both the governments, constituting a binding and solemn international agreement about the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
“The current situation of IIOJK is a big challenge for the international community and appealed to the world powers to help settle the lingering Kashmir dispute according to the UN resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people” said Khadim Hussain, a prominent Kashmiri leader, wrote in one of his articles.
Kashmir, he said, was the only international dispute where the solution of the conflict ‘right to self-determination’ was suggested by the parties themselves, India and Pakistan.
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 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 and 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 community knows very well the tragic story of the 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 every fundamental right.
Kashmiris had been waiting for their inalienable right for self-determination promised by the international community but despite the passage of several decades, they had not been given their due right, said Human rights activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick while talking to APP.
“The Kashmiri people had given huge sacrifices for the last seven decades and would continue to do till they achieve complete success,” she said.
Illegally detained Hurriyat leader, Abdul Samad Inqilabi in a statement in Srinagar said Kashmiri people all over the world are protesting against the atrocities on the Kashmiris by Modi-led fascist Indian government and demanded that the Kashmiris should be given their birthright to self-determination according to the United Nations resolutions.
Acknowledging the measures taken by Pakistan after India’s illegal actions of August 5, senior leader of All Pakistan Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Syed Faiz Naqshbandi said now the ugly face of India and its so-called claim of being a secular state had fully been exposed before the world.
Had Pakistan not adopted a proactive approach to effectively highlighting the lingering issue of Kashmir after the August 5 actions, he said, the world would have never realized the sinister designs of India in IIOJK.
“Now, it is the prime responsibility of the international community, especially the influential countries, to come forward and play their due role in giving the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir their legitimate right of self-determination, which has been denied since 1947,” he said in an interview with APP.
He said that millions of Indian army, security and para-military forces are deployed in every corner of Kashmir even hostels, schools and colleges are not left alone. Faiz said that mass graves, bloodshed spilling fear in every corner of the valley, they were innocent Kashmiris who were arrested, killed and thrown in mass grave just because they demanded their basic right of self-determination.
“We have never seen such tyranny”, Faiz Naqshbandi said. “Parents have no idea about their children, kids lost their guardians and living in a depress situation, one cannot imagine”, Faiz added.
On February 5, Pakistanis and Kashmiris residing in all parts of the world would express complete solidarity with the people of IIOJK, reminding the international human rights ‘champions’ of their lawful and moral obligation of ensuring the right to self-determination to Kashmiris.—APP
