THE UN human rights experts have expressed concern over India’s decision to end Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy and enactment of new laws aimed at changing the demographic composition of the occupied territory.
The very words of the human rights experts have once again exposed the true {ugly} face of India before the world, making it abundantly that smokescreen and guided visits to the valley including the recent one arranged by Modi government cannot change the ground realities.
The visit of twenty diplomats was organized only to hoodwink the international community into believing that everything is normal in Jammu and Kashmir.
The situation is quite the contrary. Ever since stripping of special status of the territory on 5th August 2019, Indian forces have unleashed a brutal campaign killing scores of innocent Kashmiris whilst blinding hundreds and thousands of others through the use of pellet guns.
This terror campaign does not end here. Rather the very identity of Kashmiris is at stake. Many laws have also been enacted including a new domicile law, which is nothing but the beginning of a colonialisation by Hindu Indian settlers aimed at engineering a demographic change in the region.
Hundreds of thousands of such domiciles have already been issued and the process is continuing unhindered to turn the Muslim majority area into a minority one. According to a census conducted by India in 2011, out of 12.5 million total population, Muslims comprise 68.31 percent and Hindus 28.43 percent in Kashmir.
Article 35 (A) had barred outsiders, including Indian nationals from other states, from settling and claiming government jobs to maintain the demographic balance in the region.
However, the Modi Junta is now playing a dangerous game as the Kashmiris who have been rendering sacrifices over the last many decades for their right to self -determination will never allow this to happen.
Time has come for the world forums especially the United Nations to move beyond mere lip service and take practical steps to protect the rights and identity of the oppressed Kashmiri people before Kashmir becomes another Palestine.
India must be pressurized to allow the UN and OIC fact finding missions visit the territory to assess the ground situation. Then those resorting to tyranny against the armless Kashmiri people must be tried for war crimes.
