Shamsa Ashfaq
While observing 85th year of Kashmir Martyr’s day, Indian occupied Kashmir continues to be on boil as the death toll in firing by Indian troops on protest demonstrations triggered by killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani rose to 31 including teenage boy and a woman. On 08 July 2016, Police in Indian-administered Kashmir and 19 Rashtriya Rifles killed Burhan Muzaffar Wani. The violence, followed by his death, is the worst seen in the region for years as some 800 extra troops are being sent to help restore order.
Wani considered a terrorist by India actually represented the spirit and political aspirations of a new Kashmiri generation. Born to a highly educated upper class Kashmiri family, Burhan Wani has been victimized for pursuing the Kashmiri youth to stand against Indian injustice and oppression. In fact, Wani’s popularity can be considered as more of a manifestation of the current mood and upsurge of violence in Indian-administered Kashmir that has been influenced by several incidents. Two popular “uprisings” in 2008 and 2010 saw the death of more than 200 people, many of them civilian protesters, killed by Indian forces. The hanging of Afzal Guru also intensified anger and a sense of isolation. The authorities’ claims about maximum restraint and standard operational procedures (SOP) in Indian occupied Kashmir are mere hollow rhetoric – only pleasing to ears. The present unabated killing spree has proved that nothing of the sort actually exists on ground and the systematic genocide by repressive regime continues unabated.
Reacting over the recent killing of around three dozen protesters in the valley, renowned Indian human rights activist Gautum Navlakha has said, “Instead of pursuing a reconciliation policy New Delhi has been resorting to such inhuman actions that leads to more and more alienation. Nowhere in India, bullets are being pumped directly into the bodies of protesters. This happens only in Kashmir where armed forces are encouraged to shoot for kill.” The human rights record of Indian government in the Indian-occupied Kashmir is also clear manifestation of the fact that India is interested in topography of Kashmir alone and not in people. Terrible human rights record of Indian authorities’ is characterized by arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and extrajudicial killings. According to recent estimates, 94391 people have been killed, 135052 civilians arrested, 107569 children orphaned and 10193 women have been gang-raped/ molested. Since 1989 when liberation of Kashmir entered a new phase, Indian military troops have been using all inhuman tactics of ethnic cleansing to disturb the majority population of the Kashmiris. However, all these heinous crimes and inhuman tactics have failed to break the will of the people of Kashmir. Kashmir freedom struggle will continue to produce many other Burhan Wanis till India does not accept the disputed nature of Kashmir; or else, from Nehru to Modi, every Indian ruler will be responsible for every single killing in Kashmir. While people of Kashmir observe Martyr’s day on 13 July, the ongoing unified protest and mourning should serve as eye-opener for the world as well as New Delhi that tyranny, oppression and other means of subjugation can never suppress the voice and struggle of Kashmiris and will continue till the achievement of the desired goal. Youme Shuhada-e-Kashmir is an ideal day for the people of Jammu & Kashmir to seek inspiration to carry their struggle for freedom to its logical end. And for the international community to realize that that its silence and hypocrisy over India-sponsored violence in Kashmir will bring disaster only.
