Dr Muhammad Khan
EACH year, Government and people of Pakistan celebrate 05 February as a Solidarity Day with the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The primary focuses of this solidarity are the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who have suffered massive human rights violations at the hands of Indian security forces since 1990. Kashmir Solidarity Day 2020 is being celebrated in a changed environment, after India unilaterally and illegally changed the status of occupied part of the state from a State to Union Territories on 05 August 2019. This is yet another criminal act of Indian Government, a violation of UN Charter, UN resolutions and a serious desecration of Humanitarian Declaration-1948. This year the people and Government of Pakistan are celebrating solidarity with Kashmiris for attaining four objectives. One; restoration of pre 05 August 2019 special status of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK). Two; emphasizing India to stop human rights violations in the IoK. Three; creating an awareness among international community about unresolved nature of Kashmir dispute. Four; stressing United Nations that this international body is still lacking in implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir and giving Kashmiris their inalienable right of self-determination. Apart from massive human right violations by Indian security forces, the occupied State has been in a state of constant curfew and siege since August 5, 2019. There has been no outside communication with the people of occupied state since last 184 days. The Kashmiri leadership has been put into jails or else under house arrest while the masses are facing the situation of an open prison in extreme cold winter where there is a freezing temperature in the Valley. Hundreds of youth have been killed and thousands have been injured since last 184 days.
Besides, thousands of the youth have been taken to torture centres and prisons outside the state boundaries in various parts of India. Indeed, the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A are meant to rehabilitate the non-Kashmiris in the occupied state, especially in the Valley of Kashmir. There are news that, Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Youth Wing of Bajrang Dal (BD) the religious Hindu militant organisation of the Vishva Hindu Parishad have been moved into the Valley to terrorize the Kashmiri masses. They are planning to execute the mass killing of Kashmiri youths, torching the houses and raping the women of Kashmir. These terrorist groups have been given total impunity by the BJP Government in the garb of Union Territories in the occupied state. Besides, Indian Government is moving Hindu settlers in the Valley area of Kashmir while there is total clamp-down in IoK. Prolongation of curfew and siege is aimed at settling the non-Kashmiri Hindus in the Valley area of occupied state. The State of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan have historical relationship, which dates back to centuries. This relationship has rooted in the joint history of these two areas over the years and later turned into a relationship of interdependency. Religious harmony, common culture, joint races on both-sides, migrations and inter-marriages further strengthened this bond between the people of two sides. Besides, these linkages, geography of the Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan are another compelling factors, which essentially unite these areas. All natural routes to various parts of the Jammu and Kashmir are from Pakistan. The only link, India exploited in 1947, through Gurdaspur (Pathankot) was an un-natural link, which India manipulated through Radcliff Award, through an unjustified division of Punjab.
Over the last seventy-two years, Kashmiris did not reconcile with the Indian rule over their state and revolted many a time against forceful Indian occupation. In the last struggle started in 1990, over 100,000 Kashmiri people lost their life at the hands of brutal Indian security forces. Indian Army and paramilitary forces are still continuing with their brutalities in IoK, taking cover of discriminatory and inhuman laws, India specially imposed ever since 1990s. Despite heavy Indian military deployment in IoK, it could not defeat the will of Kashmiris for attainment of their right of self-determination, thus forcefully and illegally changed the status of IoK. Apart from its political nature, the Kashmir dispute has become a humanitarian issue, under the massive human rights violations in IoK at the hands of Indian security forces. In fact, there is a state sponsor terrorism going on in India-occupied Kashmir. There is an organized campaign of genocide going on against the people of Indian occupied Kashmir. This is indeed the darkest aspect of India, which international community, major powers and UN are constantly ignoring. Although, United Nations, Amnesty International and many other human rights organizations have been raising their concern over Indian human rights violations but there have been no action against India on those accounts. Rather, the major powers are enhancing their political and economic linkages with India. Through Kashmir Solidarity Day-2020, the State and the people of Pakistan are once again emphasizing the United Nations, United States, European Union, major powers and rest of international community to help give Kashmiris their UN mandated right of self-determination. Let there be no more discrimination against Kashmiris. All roads to peace in South Asia pass through Kashmir; peace in Kashmir will ensure peace in the entire region and beyond. Pakistan and Kashmiris will never accept the Indian annexation of occupied Kashmir, since Kashmir is not part of India. The only way forward for peace in this nuclearized region is restoration of special status of occupied Kashmir and granting right of self- determination to people of Jammu and Kashmir as per UN resolutions.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and International Relations at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
