By Sayyidah Kausar Fatima
Imagine being an inmate in the largest concentration camp in the world you are being held incommunicado and under a constant fear of death. Imagine where having no means of communication, no access to the internet and not have been able to get emergency medical assistance. For anyone living and thriving in Canada this would be the stuff of a horror film but for millions of Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir this is an everyday reality. India which is a self-proclaimed defender and champion of Human Rights, is demonstrating to the world that multilateralism and pacific settlement of disputes are for the faint of heart. The occupying state should be like a juggernaut free to prey upon its captives if it feels that it is too populous or too important commercially to be taken to task. But history tells us that braggadocio and delusions of grandeur have played havoc with world peace. If India`s repression of Kashmiri and aggression against Pakistan and its nonchalance towards Pakistan’s constant call for negotiation leads to a conflagration between two nuclear armed countries, one does not need to be an Einstein to understand the ramifications.
The echoes of Kashmir’s tumultuous history continue to resonate through the valley. Despite promises of autonomy and self-determination, the rights of Kashmiris have been consistently eroded and their voices have gone unheard. Beside scrapping the special status of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir; forced disappearances of thousands of young men; use of rape as an instrument of war; and arbitrary detentions, India has embarked upon a cynical campaign to re-engineer the demography of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir by making it possible for any non-Kashmiri to take up residence and buy property in the Occupied Territory. The revocation of article 35 (A) of the Indian Constitution is a clear violation of Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention. India’s tall claims of being a secular country and world’s largest democracy have been blown to shreds by these actions. Since 1989, over 96 thousand Kashmiris have been killed and more than 7,000 custodial killings are reported. Thousands of Kashmiris have disappeared. Tens of thousands have passed through torture chambers. Kashmiri teenagers have been blinded with pellet guns. Thousands of young boys have been arbitrarily detained. Protests have been violently suppressed. Women have been subjected to sexual harassment, humiliation and intimidation.
The Kashmir dispute has become the focus of attention at the global level after the illegal actions taken by the Modi regime on and post August 05, 2019 in IIOJK. Pakistan’s arduous efforts and the grave human rights situation caused by the continued military siege in the illegally occupied territory convinced the UNSC to hold its session on Kashmir thrice first time after the period of over 50 years. Following India’s action to change the disputed status and demographic composition of IIOJK, the solution of the Kashmir dispute has become more imperative for ensuring permanent peace in the region and the world at large. The slow moving yet relentless tsunami of cruelty should not be ignored by champions of human rights. Hapless Kashmiris hearken for the world to put an end to this orgy of bloodshed and intolerance. Pakistan hopes and strives for an amicable resolution. Let us empower rationality and humanity and not strengthen the narration of those who espouse and advocate violence as a means of settling disputes.
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