KASHMIRIS in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and around the world are observing October 27, 2026, yet again as the first darkest day in their history, continuing their protest against the occupation of their territory, which India forcibly took over on this day in 1947. The long-unresolved Kashmir dispute remains a source of lingering tension and conflict between the neighbouring nuclear powers, India and Pakistan. The dispute originated when the people of Jammu and Kashmir were denied their fundamental right of self-determination following the partition of the Indian subcontinent and the emergence of two separate independent states, Pakistan and India, on August 14, 1947.
At that time, it was generally presumed that Kashmir, as a contiguous state with a predominantly Muslim population, would accede to Pakistan. However, its Hindu ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, fled to New Delhi in the face of protests by local residents and, through an improper and illegal Instrument of Accession, acceded the territory to India on October 27, 1947. On the same day, India airlifted its forces to Srinagar and forcibly occupied the valley against the aspirations of the Kashmiris. This, in brief, is the background to why Kashmiris everywhere, along with freedom- and human-rights-loving people around the world, including in Pakistan, observe October 27 every year as a protest day to mark the first darkest day in their history.
The Kashmiris continue observing the darkest day on October 27, most unfortunately in the changed circumstances following the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, through illegal amendments to the Indian Constitution by the fascist regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, thereby merging the territory into the Indian Union as an integral part of India. For more than 79 years, India has illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir against the wishes of the Kashmiri people, in blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions and, indeed, its own commitments to the people of Kashmir. Through the determined efforts of Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, the Kashmir issue has now been somewhat revived at the UN Security Council.
As such, the Kashmir issue is now occasionally discussed at international forums, where the brutalities and atrocities committed by Indian security forces in the occupied territory are condemned. The Indian government is being asked to take measures to restore normalcy there, implement UN Security Council resolutions and, accordingly, hold a free and fair plebiscite to let the Kashmiris exercise their birthright of self-determination and decide their future themselves in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions. However, it is deplorable as well as condemnable that the international community, led by the world body, continues to refrain from putting pressure on India beyond issuing condemnations, as countries have their own vested financial and economic interests in a big country like India.
Furthermore, besides the brutalities and atrocities committed by Indian security forces, the fascist Indian regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also persistently taking deliberate measures to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory in a brutal attempt to obliterate the distinct Kashmiri identity and affect the outcome of a plebiscite envisaged in UN Security Council resolutions. This action by the Indian government violates the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, as changing the demographic structure of a territory is a war crime. The Indian government is settling Indian Hindus in the territory under the guise of immi-grant Kashmiri Pandits. Changing the Muslim-majority status of Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) into a minority has long been part of the Hindutva agenda of the RSS and BJP and they are persistently implementing it in practice. The Modi government has been constructing transit accommodation camps to settle Hindus in IIOJK. Construction of transit camps for Hindus is under way in all districts of the Kashmir Valley. As the Indian occupation of Kashmir continues without the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, the indigenous, unarmed struggle for freedom by the Kashmiris also continues until they achieve their cherished objective of freedom from Indian shackles.
Through its civil and military leadership, Pakistan has all along extended full political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people and will continue to support their indigenous, just and legitimate struggle to secure their right of self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN resolutions. A peaceful, negotiated settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions has been and remains a top priority of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Without resolving the Kashmir issue, the agenda of the partition of the Indian subcontinent remains incomplete, as Kashmir is regarded as the lifeline of Pakistan. It is an internationally accepted and acknowledged fact that Kashmir itself entails a global danger of escalating nuclear and missile proliferation in both India and Pakistan, coupled with their respective domestic instabilities and historical animosities.
India can kill the Kashmiris but not their aspirations for freedom, which they will never surrender. India should honour its promises to grant the people of Jammu and Kashmir the right of self-determination. They have already rendered endless sacrifices for freedom from illegal Indian occupation. The international community must take concrete steps to end the Indian occupation of the held territory and intervene to resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute peacefully to ensure durable peace, progress and prosperity for the people of the region. India is bound under international law not to change the demography of IIOJK and the international community must forestall this move and exert all possible pressure on India’s fascist regime to honour its decades-old commitment, implement UN Security Council resolutions and let the Kashmiris exercise their birthright of self-determination. The UN and the international community should also exert greater pressure and influence on India to implement UN Security Council resolutions and let the Kashmiris exercise their birthright of self-determination.
—The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad ([email protected])
