Mohammad Jamil
Ayesha Siddiqa, in her recent article captioned “Can we help Kashmir’ carried by national English daily, had a few words of sympathy for Kashmiris suffering at the hands of Indian army, but never censored India. She wrote: “There has been many a time that New Delhi has tried to bring down violence in Kashmir but for those who have grown up in an environment of bitterness, mistrust and humiliation, the war will never end.” However, she tried to discourage Kashmiris who are waging struggle for implementation of the United Nations Security council resolutions. She went on to state: “What this means for the Kashmir struggle is that in the hierarchy of nations, states that matter are averse to anything labeled as terrorism or which is linked with known terror groups. Thus, the various jihadi groups in Pakistan may not necessarily be doing the Kashmiri struggle a favor with their processions.”
Ayesha Siddiqa insinuated Pakistan for supporting the heroic struggle waged by the people of Kashmir. She is known for her views about Pakistan and its institutions. In her book titled “Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy,” she had tried to tarnish the image of Pakistan military. Anyhow, Altaf Hussain wrote an article titled ‘The truth about struggle of Kashmiris’ gave details of Kashmiris struggle dating back to much earlier than partition of the sub-continent. He wrote: “The resistance against occupation, injustice and humiliation has acquired an organised form since 1931. The struggle for political emancipation, social justice and economic empowerment was throughout peaceful until 1989. Having exhausted all peaceful avenues of realising their inalienable right of self-determination, guaranteed by the UN charter, sanctified by the UN Security Council resolutions of 1948-49, the people of Kashmir were forced to pick up the gun as a last resort to seek justice.”
The heroic struggle waged by the people of Kashmir is unparalleled in the history; they are committed to continue their struggle till their objective is achieved. It has to be said that no solution can be found without participation and consensus of the people of Kashmir. Historical evidence suggests that Kashmiris have passed through the longest ordeal and faced death and destruction. They had faced repression even before the partition when the British had sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh, a former governor of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh for 7.5 million rupees. Once again at the time of partition when people of Kashmir had dreamt of freedom, the plan of annexing Kashmir was contrived and implemented by Lord Mountbatten and Nehru, and Raja Hari Singh was coerced into signing the controversial document, as he was hesitant to go against the wishes of Kashmiris.
Altaf Hussain had stated in his article that Ayesha Siddiqa out of naivety or ignorance had fallen to Indian propaganda. Perhaps, Altaf Hussain has not gone through her books and articles in which she spewed venom against Pakistan and its military. One would not label her a traitor; but she does not fit into the definition of a patriot, as patriotism is a passion of the love that people feel for their country; which of course does not mean to hate other countries. A patriot is concerned about the defence of his motherland, and is ready to sacrifice everything including his life for the sake of his country. In Pakistan, there is no dearth of pseudo-intellectuals and palmed off media men whose actions are contrary to what they profess. A genuine patriot condemns the machinations of detractors of Pakistan who malign and badmouth Pakistan’s military.
There is no denying that state violence or counter violence never helps solve the problem but the big powers should understand the gravity of the situation and help resolve the Kashmir issue. However, it does not look like if they will do it because only when public protest fits into the geopolitical designs of the US and the West that they declare it a popular movement and honour it with the award of a colour label. The orange revolution of Ukraine, the rose revolution of Georgia, the cidar revolution of Lebanon and much earlier velvet revolution of Czechoslovakia would pale before the Kashmiris’ movement for their freedom yet they were given colours by the colour-blind big powers. It has to be mentioned that in none of the above cases there was a UN mandate whereas Kashmiris have been given their inalienable right of self-determination by the UN in 1948 and 5th January 1949.
Recently, a new wave of Indian brutalities has been witnessed with the martyr of an eminent Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani, who was a great voice for freedom of IOK. The planned killing of Burhan Wani triggered protest throughout the valley, and there were protests in all parts of Kashmir. To suppress the protestors, Indian military and police opened fire on them martyring about three dozen innocent and armless Kashmiris, and he figure has exceeded 60 casualties so far. Weekly “Time” in a treatise titled ‘Why a new wave of violence has struck Indian held Kashmir’ written by Nikhil Kumar from Srinagar, stated: “He became a symbol for many disaffected Kashmiris. His funeral was attracted by as many as 200000 people, young and old, drawn to Wani’s home village across Kashmir. That it was the largest such gathering in several years did not go unnoticed.”
The recent genocide in IOK has received wide coverage in international as well as domestic Indian media, and even the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and the US have advised India to stop massacre of Kashmiris. In an Amnesty International report for 2015, more than 800 cases of torture and deaths in the custody of Indian army and other security forces in the 1990s, and hundreds of other cases of extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances from 1989 to 2013 were noted. Of course, more than 90000 Kashmiris have been martyred since 1989. Instead of accepting the reality, India resorts to implicating Pakistan for Kashmiri uprising. A peaceful, negotiated settlement of Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions should rank top on UN’s agenda. India should also realize that no freedom movement has ever been suppressed with force, and Kashmir is no exception.
