- Jamil Chughtai
On Thursday 14 February 2019 Kashmiri freedom fighters handed down the hardest blow to the occupation forces when a suicide bomber rammed explosive-laden vehicle into a bus of Indian paramilitary convoy killing 43 soldiers and injuring scores of them. The incident, which took place on Srinagar-Jammu highway in Awantipora area of Pulwama district, is being termed as a just yet long over-due response of oppressed Kashmiris to the Indian forces that have crossed all limits of cruelty and brutality against the hapless locals during the past few weeks. Adil Dar, the young martyr who laid his life for the grand cause, has instantly become a new icon of freedom movement representing resilient Kashmiri mindset which has refused to bow down to cruel India that treacherously imposed slavery upon them some 70 years ago.
As usual, in a knee-jerk response that is expected from the ring-leader of an angry, frenzied and hysterical mob, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only blamed Pakistan for the said occurrence but also spewed out hatred and howled for Muslim blood as revenge; may it be from Pakistan, Kashmir, or anywhere inside India. Outrightly negating what had in fact prompted young Adil Dar to take such a grave and daring step, the Indian military junta not only mounted violence on innocent Kashmiris in occupied valley but also let the public rage unleash on Kashmiri community all over India. Incidents have been reported about serious thrashing given to Kashmiri students in Dehradun, Utterkhand, Ambala and Jaipur which forced them to flee to Chandigarh and save their lives for the time being. The vengeful sentiments have been allowed to swell up after Pulwama attack to such an extent that a Pakistani prisoner Shakirullah was also beaten to death by a group of inmates in an Indian jail to avenge death of soldiers in the incident. Hindutva-based aggression that Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) has purposely injected into Indian masses has blinded even the logical minds in India making them stray away from the real cause of violence in Kashmir.
Human history is full of examples where certain communities and nations have remained under appalling slavery or oppression for centuries and then at some point of time they heaved up such a daring retaliation that the tyrants had to finally submit to their freedom rights. In each such occurrence of liberation, one fact remained glaringly constant that on the way to achieving their freedom, the oppressed had to display indomitable resilience against incessant atrocities and had to make huge sacrifices before being called free men, free communities and free nations. In contemporary world, the creation of Pakistan and transformation of South Africa from an apartheid state to the present parity-based country under Nelson Mandela are the best examples to this effect.
For the last 70 years, people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) have been facing ignoble hostilities and violence perpetrated by the Indian forces. Right from the beginning, Kashmiri Muslims have spurned the Hindu conspiracy theory aimed at transforming them into ‘forced citizens’ of Indian Union. To substantiate their legitimate standpoint, millions of Kashmiri men and women have sacrificed their lives, got maimed, borne terminal injuries and faced beastly rapists on way to their struggle for freedom. Since 1990s over seventy thousands Kashmiris have sacrificed their lives seeking liberation from the evil clutches of India. The more Indian forces unleashed tyranny on hapless Kashmiris, regardless of gender and age, more intense the fire of retaliation is becoming especially among the youth who remained the main target of Indian victimization during the last few years. India has badly failed to comprehend as to what is making every Kashmiri youth to tread the fatal path of Burhan Muzaffar Wani. For sure, it is not Pakistan which infuses militancy within Kashmir, rather it is the inhuman treatment and cruelty the young Kashmiris have been consistently subjected to which has led each sufferer to pick up arms against the tormentors. Like Burhan Wani, the 20-year old Pulwama bomber Adil Dar was also beaten up by Indian security forces in 2016 when he was returning from school along with his friends in village Lethipora. Indian soldiers made the boys draw lines around their jeep by dragging nose on the ground.
There are no two opinions about the fact that current ‘Intifada’ in occupied Kashmir is a purely indigenous uprising that got huge impetus after the martyrdom of young Wani who went down fighting against the occupation forces in July 2016. Verily, it is India that is driving the Kashmiri youth towards militancy. Again, it is India that is behind the deaths of 43 soldiers in Pulwama – not really painful for higher Indian echelon as 90% victims were low-cast Dalits and Sikhs. Nevertheless, the stage has now come in the freedom movement where people of IOK have understood that with each passing day Indian state-sponsored violence would continue to mount so as to undermine their spirits and shake-up their determination.
Pulwama incident bears testimony to the fact that young Kashmiris are now fully convinced that unless they demonstrate consummate character of resistance and retaliation, the dream to liberate Kashmir cannot be realized as per their wishes. The current uprising in IOK, the crave of Kashmiri youth for freedom and Indian handling of Kashmir issue over the years have been appropriately summed up by the Indian scholar Yashwant Sinha that “India is not on way to losing Kashmir but has already lost Kashmir by losing the battle of hearts and minds in the valley”. The saner heads in India have already taken Pulwama incident as warning shots for the occupation forces with the message that a quick count-down on freedom of Kashmir from Indian suppression has already started.
