Saman Hamid
AQIS (Al-Qeada in Subcontinent) made Indian headlines recently and this time the reason was not too negative for the land of Mr. Modi. Recently they asked Kashmiris to not trust Paksitan as they seek gains from this conflict. Around September this year the very next day of PM Nawaz Sharif’s UNGA address (September 23, 2016) they vehemently described Pakistanis as traitors to the Kashmiris, serving their own interests, in a message very conveniently translated in 11 major languages of the subcontinent this group seemed to have changed their focus from the Americans, to Pakistan, asking to distinguish between “friend and foe”. This perhaps is a tool aimed at trying to stop Kashmiris from chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” and burying their martyrs in our flag. The origins of the group as the name suggests seem to be linked to the original AlQaeda, the spokes person Usama Mehmood first surfaced in September 2014, claiming responsibility of PNS Zulfiqar on Pakistan navy’s ship. The group has been mostly in the shadows and interestingly changes targets, starting our as anti Americans, against APS Pakistan attacks yet killing Pakistani civilians, Anti-Indian, Malaysian, Philllipines. Interestingly researching for this terror outfit in November seems to have a branch that is claiming terror attacks in Karnataka (India).The Kashmiri intifada is on the nerves of Indians.
Indians are fighting multiple fronts in the Wast. Suppress the Kahsmir issue and divert attention. The Armed forces already deployed in Kashmir armed with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in October alone 17 people were martyred including two young boys. The number of critically injured including scores of pallet gun victims is more than 1200 and 1546 people have been arrested mostly Hurriyat activists. Inspection teams from UN were unable to reach affected areas and organizations like Amnesty International were ostracized for raising their voice for Kashmiris. All in all more than 100 days of curfew, media and internet gag have instilled more will the people to fight for their rights. The Kashmiri leadership is not falling prey to any of Indian tactics and being resilient as always. They also recognize Pakistan’s efforts towards the cause and accept our status as a stakeholder. The senior leadership like Mir Waiz Omer Farooq, Syes Ali Shah Geelani are all under house arrest and new recently surfaced of noted leaders like Yaseen Malik suffering from wrong medicinal treatment in confinement.
Akin to inflicting a larger wound in order to divert attention away from a wound or pain in the body, the second part of the Indian strategy is to divert attention by engaging Pakistan, explicitly and implicitly. Starting from Kulbhushan Yadav to people like Bramdagh Bugti voicing the plight of a nonexistent Balochistan movement clearly denounced by the people since his infamous interview post Independence Day propaganda in Indian media is coming out with their big guns on each incident and or event in Pakistan mainly aiming to damage Pakistan’s image. Explicitly post Uri attacks, the surgical strikes saga and singing in tune with Afghans, suddenly the nuclear neighbors have escalated tensions at the border and threats as preposterous as annulling Indus Water Treaty. On the latter Indians are utilizing the current developments to green signals projects that violate the treaty. The whole scenario is also being exploited to create hurdles for the ultimate game changer CPEC.
India must realize that despite managing to oust the issue from the UN in 2010, the people have not changed despite whatever delusions the Vajpayee regime indulged in. The issue is not going away even if Pakistan is engaged and blamed, at the end of the day estimated more than half a million troops deployed in 200,000 square Kilometers is not an internal issue or a looming threat, it is an oppression that quite simply put egos cannot quell. Burhan Wani is not a symbol he is an indication that the freedom struggle is an ideology that is not time bound. The world seems to be trying its level best to uphold the soft image of the biggest democracy of the world mainly due to geostrategic and economic interests but the humanitarian crisis is inescapable. Although a lot more is desired but at the global level Pakistan has managed to bring the whole issue on the surface despite the impediments and vehement commitment is the best strategy for us. The blood of the innocent will not go in vain as the end seems to be near.
