WHILST in the rest of the world, Muslims were enjoying Eid-ul Azha festivities with their loved and dear ones, Kashmiri people in India-occupied Kashmir were probably the only ones who were not given the liberty by the occupying forces to celebrate their religious festival, in contravention of all international norms and laws.
Due to continued curfew and communication blackout enforced well before the revocation of special status of the territory, the Kashmiri people could not offer their Eid prayers and slaughter sacrificial animals on the Eid day. Announcements were made on loudspeakers to warn people not to come out of their houses. All the mosques and the shrines including Kashmir’s largest mosque, Jamia Masjid Srinagar, were closed. Such were the restrictions that the Kashmiri people could not talk to their relatives residing in India or other countries. All this was done definitely to stave off the protests. The observers also noted with serious concern that no such restrictions were witnessed in the valley in the past. Whilst the environment for minorities in India itself is not very safe where extremists Hindu have been given free hand, but the situation has gone really alarming in the IoK which should be a cause of worry for the so-called champions of human rights and the important capitals. The rights groups and the UN should strongly condemn the Indian tactics of denying the Kashmiri people their basic rights. The world community should not turn its back to the situation prevailing in the valley rather use their influence on New Delhi to reverse its controversial steps and allow the Kashmiri people to exercise their birth right to self-determination.
There is also responsibility on the Muslim countries to take notice of the situation prevailing in occupied Kashmir where the Muslims are being denied of their religious and other basic rights. Proving true advocate of Kashmiri people, it was the Pakistani people who also marked Eidul Azha in a rather mundane and simple manner to express solidarity with their oppressed and under siege Kashmiri brothers. Sharing their pain and grief, special prayers were offered in mosques for the liberation of Kashmiri people from the cruel and evil clutches of India. Not only this, Pakistani government has also taken practical steps such as downgrading diplomatic ties and cutting trade links with India giving an emphatic message to the world that it cannot go to any extent for the protection of rights of their Kashmiri brothers and sisters. If the same kind of reaction had come from other important Muslim countries, especially the Gulf, the situation in occupied Kashmir today would have been different. Anyway, Modi junta must also realize that it cannot lay a permanent siege in the occupied valley rather with each passing day, these restrictions will prove to be boiling up the sentiments and anger of the local population – the eruption of which will have volcanic consequences – something which tens of thousands of troop reinforcements will not be able to control through tear gas and pellet guns. Such is the firm resolve of the Kashmiri people that the Indian forces will not succeed in suppressing their voice for freedom. Sanity demands that India firstly lifts all sorts of restrictions in the occupied territory and then move towards the resolution of this lingering dispute through meaningful negotiations with Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership. Scrapping of special status does not end the disputed nature of Kashmir. Modi’s claim in his address to the nation that the constitutional changes were needed to bring peace and prosperity to the valley was not more than a joke as the current bleak situation only speaks of an imminent volcano eruption.
