Qammer Abbass Anka
“Let us never cease to feel compassion for those in want. Let us never tire of helping victims of injustice and oppression. He who puts his faith in the restoration of human dignity cannot be wrong”.
(Poul Hartling)
Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), the most scenic area in this part of the World, known for its beauty, gardens and gentle people has been reduced to a region of ghosts and graveyard of legitimate freedom seekers because of the tyrant means adopted by India to suppress the just voices of Kashmiris for their legitimate right of plebiscite. It is a region on earth where people are dying everywhere getting massacred in every town and village, there are people being picked up and thrown into dark jails in unknown parts, there are dungeons in the city where hundreds of young men are kept in heavy chains and from where many never emerge alive, there are thousands who disappear leaving behind women with photographs and perennial waiting, there are multitudes of dead bodies on the roads, in hospital beds, in fresh martyrs’ graveyards and scattered casually on the snow of mindless borders. The architect of this valley of death and oppression is none but India.
Genesis of IOK dispute lies much before partition of India in 1947. The plight of Kashmiri Muslims can be traced back to the reign of Hindu Dogra kings centuries back. The time has changed but tyranny, oppression and the atrocities continue to have two things in common i.e. the Muslims populace of IOK and the cruel Hindus. Generally it is perceived that Kashmir dispute started with the partition of India in 1947 when Pakistan was carved out of Indian land mass against the wishes of Indian Hindu majority. The memory of historians, however, tells a different story about the sufferings of Kashmiri Muslims as subjects of Hindu rulers. Mirdu Rai in her book titled “Hindu Rules Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights and the History of Kashmir (2004)”, argues that the origin of present political conditions and problems in Kashmir dated back hundreds of years preceding the creation of India and Pakistan, when Kashmir was ruled by a succession of Hindu Dogra Kings. The Dogras wielded power under the aegis of British imperialism and the collusion of colonial state and collaborating vassals played no small part in shaping a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject Muslim populace. Sovereignty of Kashmiri Muslims was plundered by Hindu lust to establish and legitimize authority through Hindu forms of patronage, tradition, ritual and related strategies while depriving Muslims of any share in power. The design was to establish Hindu dominance over the Muslim inhabitants.
Month of July has a special significance to the region now known as IOK. The Muslims in Kashmir despite being in majority, forcibly subjected to colonial British and Dogra rule, rose up to break the shackle of slavery under Dogra and British colonial Raj. In July 1913 a person namely Abdul Qadir was stopped to offer prayers in Kashmir and also a copy of Holy Quran was snatched from him and desecrated by a Hindu. This led to Muslim uprising in Kashmir while Dogra Police was given free hand to take stern measures against the agitating mobs. Resultantly 22 Muslims were martyred in broad day light in the month of July. History again repeated itself this year in the same month of July. This time the tyrants are Modi’s goons who quenched their vendetta by killing over three dozen innocent Muslims under the collaboration of PDP liberals led by Mehbooba Mufti. The recent wave of Kashmiri struggle for self determination started with extra judicial killing of 21 year old young lad named Burhan Muzaffar Wani near Kokarnag forest, Annant Nag on 8 July 2016. Martyred Wani had been using social media uploads to motivate the Kashmiri youth against the subjugation of India and his message was spreading like a wild fire. The Kashmiri youth which constitute about 60% of IOK’s population, bereaved over the innocent killing of Wani, despite strong fortification by Indian occupational forces, organized an attended unusually vast funeral of martyred Wani. Haunted by mass scale protests, Indian forces opened indiscriminate firing on the unarmed protestors.
Resultantly the death toll in the ongoing killing spree, unleashed by Indian troops, has risen to over 3 dozen people besides 400 critically injured. This time Indian forces are using pellet guns against the unarmed innocent Kashmiris. Indian Muslim leader Awaisi and Amnesty International have shown great concern over use of pellet guns. Ironically, Indian forces are treating Kashmiris on the lines of Palestinian people witnessing Zionist barbarity. Indian forces through pellet guns are making Kashmiri people permanently blind, handicapped and incapacitated. Moreover, in order to hide their brutalities from international community, Indian authorities have suspend mobile and internet services. Most of the Kashmiri leadership has also been arrested. All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement, issued in Srinagar, have announced to extend the joint call for the strike for another two days from 13 July. They have even termed the martyrdom of Wani, his colleagues and innocent Kashmiris as continuation of July 1913 episode and “Re-affirmation Day”.
The tragic incidents of recent genocide have also moved international community which is evident from statements of UN, USA and the Western countries. Unfortunately, these statements lack substance and like always will prove to be cosmetic in nature. Blood of Innocent Kashmiris merits serious voices of international community to put a stop to Indian brutalities. Let international community be reminded true sentiments and impartial judgment of a young Indonesian researcher Laura Schurman. The writer in her paper titled, ‘Brief Kashmir: the Geopolitical Implications & its Impact on Regional Peace and Security’ presented at Kashmir EU week at the European Parliament Brussels, Belgium in November 2013 urges, “Europe must stand up for the rights of the Kashmiris which will ultimately deliver effective results for both regional peace and security and that of the entire world. For more than six decades, the people of Kashmir have been waiting for their promised plebiscite. Their hopes have been continuously dashed, the desperate youth growing increasingly angry and the people of Kashmir forced to exist in a state of darkness in their own communities and homes. The Kashmir dispute can no longer be considered a bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan only, but one with real geopolitical implications of which the repercussions will have long term effect on regional peace and security”.
(To be continued…)
