Syeda Mazhar
Before the Uri attack, prominent newspapers and television channels in the United States did a series of reports and articles on Kashmir, pointing out that Indian forces had killed more than 100 people and injured thousands in their efforts to suppress a peaceful civilian uprising. After the Uri attack, however, the focus shifted to militancy and the possibility of a war between Pakistan and India. Attention has turned to India-Pakistan tensions. Although it s clearly known to both the countries that it is just another staged event like that of the boat incident and the Pathan kot incident. This was just a mere distraction on part of the Indians to try to divert the International community’s attention form the atrocities and brutalities carried out by them in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The Indian Government hoped to mobilize the international community to pile pressure on Pakistan and ‘isolate’ it as a state sponsoring terrorism.While they were happily contemplating to get the desired results,their immature strategies backfired as usual putting them to shame. Meanwhile, the crisis in J&K continues to become more complicated. The diplomatic bid to pressurize Pakistan depended crucially on an improvement in the ground situation in J&K. But the upheaval shows no sign of abating. Meanwhile, investigating agencies may never find anyconclusive evidence of the Pakistani hand behind the Uri attack as it was yet another feeble attempt by the Indians themselves and their own government has admitted that like in the case of the Pathankot attack, there have been serious security lapses. As expected by the Indians none of the major world powers has finger-pointed at Pakistan. On the contrary, they continue to engage Pakistan. Last week alone in New York, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif has had friendly exchanges with his Chinese counterpart, presidents of Turkey and Iran, US Secretary of State, among others. Russia and Pakistan are, at present are conducting their first-ever military exercise since 1947. Sharif handed over a dossier to the UN Secretary General containing details of alleged Indian atrocities in Kashmir and demanded that the world body should depute a fact-finding mission to J&K. He spoke of Pakistan’s intention to begin sounding out the Security Council members. The situation in the Valley has already figured in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Evidently, Pakistan is not facing the cold blast of isolation and is in diplomatic offensive.
Pakistan’s position was reflected strongly in a statement of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which not only condemned the Indian atrocities but also emphasised the need for giving the Kashmiri people the right to decide about their future.In separate meetings with Prime Minister Sharif, other Muslim leaders also emphasised the two points, while Turkey announced its intention to send a fact-finding mission to the India-held region.
The UN Human Rights Council’s pledge to send a similar delegation also echoed at the General Assembly and Pakistan invited it to send the team to Azad Kashmir to expose India’s claims about that part of the region. The department recognised the Kashmir issue as a bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India, rejecting the Indian claim that it was an internal issue.
The Indian diplomacy will be hard-pressed to brand the upheaval as a manifestation of cross-border terrorism. The Indian government simply cannot countenance exploring any such ingenuous ideas to cultivate international opinion. Also, the use of so-called pellet guns turns out to be the proverbial albatross around India’s neck, bringing disrepute to rule of law, which willhaunt India’s so called shining image internationally.
In fact, the US readout of the meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Sharif in New York last Monday contains their consensus opinion regarding Kashmir: “The Prime Minister and Secretary Kerry expressed strong concern with recent violence in Kashmir – particularly the (Uri) army base attack – and the need for all sides to reduce tensions.” Clearly, Washington links the Uri incident to the upheaval in the Valley and advises Delhi to engage Islamabad in an effort to restore normalcy in J&K. Therefore, the Indian government’s decision to launch a diplomatic offensive to isolate Pakistan can be seen as diversionary tactic, which failed miserably infact backfired into making India look small with their white lies. Any manipulativediplomacy on part of India today is hampered because the peace in J&K has steadily dissipated during the past two-year period due to lack of leadership in Delhi to consolidate our gains. This brings the focus back on ‘Kashmir problem’, which Pakistan highlights is the root cause of terrorism in India. Simply put, Pakistan has seized the high ground.
Indeed, Pakistan will keep the Kashmir pot boiling until the Modi government is frogmarched by the international community to the negotiating table.
