KASHMIRIS living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan and the world over along with the civil and military leadership and the people continuously supporting the just struggle of Kashmiris for decades together are observing August 5,2023 as another anniversary of the second darkest day also known as Youm-e-Istehsal-e-Kashmir. The first being observed every year on October 27 was to continue marking their protest and agitation against illegal and forcible occupation of their territory by India on this day in October 1947 after its last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, one of as many as 565 princely states, had fled to New Delhi and allegedly signed an Instrument of Accession opting to join India in violation of the provisions of the Sub-Continent Partition Plan and against the wishes and aspirations of the residents of the valley.
Following this rather ugliest development India had not wasted a moment and airlifted its security into the so-occupied territory. Occupying Indian security forces strength was also raised to more than a million on 5 August 2019 and given vast powers to crush and curb Kashmiris freedom movement brutally, ruthlessly and oppressively. August 5 is the darkest day in the history of Kashmir, It is remembered with different dimensions of apathy, violence and repression unleashed by the state of India on hapless Kashmiris and also signifies the death of democracy, murder of human rights and the demise of secularism.
The dawn of August 5,2019 had brought nothing but misery for Kashmiris. Their constitutional rights were usurped. The annulment of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution had devastated the ideological outlook of more than eight million Kashmiris by demeaning their demographic reality. This was merely a vile step of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to change the Muslim majority state of illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir into a minority conclave. The Indian government was issuing forged Domicile Certificates to Hindus and settling them in the IIOJK. According to Kashmiri sources, more than 3.5 million forged Domicile Certificates have so far been issued to non-Kashmiris and the process was continuing to turn the valley into a Hindu majority by changing the demographic status of the occupied territory. The fascist RSS- dominated ideology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had further galvanized the situation through introduction of certain changes that aggravated the animosity among the struggling, suffering and bleeding people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory.
Scrapping of Article 470 had led to the demolition of socio-political ideology of Kashmir and its centuries old deep roots. Tantamounting to treason, Kashmiris felt punished by the law. Marriage and Inheritance laws have since been impacted and the constitution had been vandalized and moulded to serve the Indian interests. Myriad cases of mysterious disappearances, extrajudicial executions, incarceration of journalists, lawyers and human right activists, deliberate killing of indigenous people disguised by the officials as the encounters reflected the plight of the millions of Kashmiris forcibly living under the Indian yoke as the Modi regime persisted with flagrant violations of human rights and refraining from implementation of UN Security Council resolution for plebiscite.
In a nutshell, Kashmir which till 5 August 2019 enjoyed special status was no longer the same as the occupied territory has been merged into the Union of India following abrogation of Article 370. Abrogation of Kashmir’s special status had paved the way for India for Israel-style settlements in the held valley. The demographic engineering orchestrated by the diabolical BJP intoxicated with Hindutva fervour was wheeling in the same direction as that of Israel’s agenda.
Following Kashmiris continued agitation and protests against Indian security forces and demanding their birth right of self-determination to decide their future themselves, India’s Governor General Lord Mountbatten and Prime Minister Pandit Jawahir Lal Nehru had taken the matter to the UN Security Council under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter relating to peaceful settlement of disputes.
The UN Security Council resolutions, adopted in January 1948, which India had initially accepted but afterwards continues to persistently denying their implementation, provide for holding a fair and impartial plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir under UN auspices to enable the Kashmiri people exercise their right of self-determination and join either India or Pakistan, The Indian armed intervention in the Jammu and Kashmir valley was illegal and had taken place against the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Despite the decision of the UN Security Council for holding of the plebiscite to allow suppressed, oppressed and brutally tortured people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir valley to determine their own future freely and get rid of the Indian shackle, India’s own pledge to that effect and reiteration of commitments on numerous occasions, India continues its brutal suppression in the occupied territory putting the UN Security Council, the international community and the human rights organizations to shame to say the least.
Pakistan on its part has not only been extending unstinted political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris in their just, indigenous and unarmed struggle for securing freedom from Indian shackles but also encouraging and exhorting the international community to wake up from deep slumber and play an active role and facilitate the peaceful settlement of the disputes between India and Pakistan besides calling for a peaceful negotiated settlement of the decades old Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.
Kashmiris all over the world earnestly believe that their continued observance of the darkest days on August 5 and October 27 as well as large number of black days besides other protests and rallies in the occupied territory and elsewhere will sooner or later awake the sleeping conscious of the international community and they will be getting their birth right of self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and they will be free to either stay with India or join Pakistan. They were keeping their fingers crossed and praying that the international community would brush aside their financial and economic benefits and trading with India and upheld the humanitarian concerns over their petty trading interests. They were quite hopeful that this was going to happen but were unable and unsure as to when this was going to happen.
—The writer is Lahore-based freelance journalist, columnist and retired Deputy Controller, News, Radio Pakistan
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