Khalid Iqbal
The upcoming G-20 event in the restive Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) region is nothing but a ploy to hide Indian war crimes in the occupied territory. The G-20 is unwittingly providing a veneer of support to the facade of normalcy at a time when massive human rights violations, illegal and arbitrary arrests, political persecution, restrictions, and even suppression of free media and human rights defenders continue to escalate.
Such events cannot hide the reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an internationally recognized dispute that has remained on the agenda of United Nations Security Council for over seven decades. Nor could such activities divert international community’s attention from India’s brutal suppression of the people of IIOJK including illegal attempts to change the demographic composition of the occupied territory.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave its reaction regarding G-20 event on April 11: “Pakistan expresses its strong indignation over India’s decision to hold the G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar on 22-24 May 2023. Scheduling of two other meetings of a consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in IIOJK is equally disconcerting… For a country that has a grandiose vision about itself and its place in the world, India has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unable to act as a responsible member of the international community”.
Victimizing innocent Kashmiris is part of the India’s RSS-BJP regime’s policy to prevent Kashmiris from pursing their collective goal of exercising their right of self-determination as enshrined in UNSC resolutions. Ahead of the G-20 conference, Kashmir valley has been turned into a military fortress. Hundreds of innocent people, mostly young boys, have been arrested under the pretext of so-called “security reasons”. India’s notorious National Investigating Agency (NIA) has raided several houses in Srinagar, Kulgam, Shopian, Poonch, Baramulla, Budgam, Rajouri and other areas. Frequent raids on the houses of civilians, search operations, harassment and humiliation of ordinary citizens have become a habit of the trigger-happy occupation forces in IIOJK.
India, in a brazen violation of the UNSC resolutions, changed the special status of Kashmir, unilaterally, on 05 August 2019, and has since been remorselessly peddling lies to create a smoke-screen to hoodwink the world, into believing that all is well in the occupied territory. In this context, Indian government has been organising visits of foreign envoys stationed at New Delhi to the IIOJK territory. Dozens of diplomats, mostly from European and African countries, were invited for such visits to project “all is well in Kashmir” image and to ward off international pressure. Ground situation in Kashmir belies the Indian government’s lofty claims of normalcy.
Kashmir’s illegally detained senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader and Democratic Freedom Party Chairman, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has strongly condemned the intensification in Human Rights violations being perpetrated by Indian troops in IIOJK ahead of the G20 event. In his message from notorious Tihar jail, the APHC leader while referring to deteriorating political and human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir especially in Pir Panjal, Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu region said that the G20 countries’ participation in the event in disputed territory will be tantamount to undermining the UN credibility. He urged the G20 states to “ask India to resolve the Kashmir dispute as per UN resolutions, instead of attending the forum’s event in Srinagar”.
Six international human rights organizations have urged the Indian authorities to immediately stop the reprisals against human rights defenders in IIOJK. Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), Kashmir Law and Justice Project, and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) have, in a joint statement released on the website of AFAD, called upon the Indian authorities to end the ongoing persecution and targeting of human rights defenders in IIOJK.
A complete shutdown will be observed in IIOJK as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on May 22 against the Indian government’s illegal action of holding G20 event in Srinagar. Kashmiris living abroad plan to hold anti-India rallies and protests in all major capitals of the world on the same day sending a clear message to the world that they reject G20 meeting in internationally disputed territory. Demonstrations will be held in New York, London, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other major cities of the world to draw the attention of the international community to the on-going human rights violations in the occupied territory. Call for protests have been given jointly by the APHC and the leadership of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement on May 15, Fernand de Varennes, the United Nations special rapporteur on minority issues, accused India of seeking to normalise the “brutal and repressive denial of democratic and other rights of Kashmiri Muslims and minorities” by holding G-20 meeting in the disputed region. He said the situation in Kashmir “should be decried and condemned and not pushed under the rug and ignored”. “The government of India is seeking to normalise what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalising a G-20 meeting and portray an international ‘seal of approval’,” Varennes added.
The G-20 forum should take a holistic review of the situation, pay heed to the clarion calls and ask India to change the venue of the event. The United Nations should hold India accountable for committing war crimes in IIOJK; and take tangible steps to help resolve the Kashmir dispute as per the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people as enshrined in the UNSC resolutions.
Air Commodore Khalid Iqbal (Retd) is Director National Security at Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), Lahore Pakistan. He may be reached at [email protected]
