Reema Shaukat
While the government of Mehbooba Mufti is busy in making allianceswith BJP, Kashmir in the month of April 2017 had witnessed again an uprising. Ever since she became chief minister in March 2016, Mehbooba Mufti’s tenure has been marred by vicious protests and political instability. Kashmir is again facing mutiny from the time when the video of a Kashmiri man who was tied to the front of a jeep by the Indian Army, went viral, sporadic protests are going on in the valley.According to reports, a youth, identified as Farooq Ahmad, was tied to the front of an army jeep which was driven through areas ostensibly to avoid attacks from stone pelters in Budgam district.
The video of the incident went viral and has invited wide criticism. Meanwhile, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav complimented an army officer responsible for tying a man to a jeep’s bonnet in Kashmir, saying “everything is fair in love and war” and the “harsh” decision saved lives of civilians and soldiers. The saffron party’s representative for Jammu and Kashmir also said the current Kashmir situation is certainly troubling but expressed confidence that the PDP-BJP government will handle it. Madhav statements clearly depicts the fraudulent propaganda of India in Kashmir where it thinks anything can be done. Justifying his statement and appreciating move by Army personnel, he said that I will compliment him for the decision that he took. He saved the lives of the people in police station, officials and all, and also his own boys. He also did not allow any civilian casualty. Had the army not done so, then the mob there would have lynched over 50 civilians and almost equal number of security personals there. Apparently, BJP and PDP are on war path because of current situation in Kashmir. Madhav defended human shield incident saying all is fair in love and war while Education Minister in coalition government Altaf Bukhari asked, one fails to understand against whom has Madhav declared war?He also mentioned thatthese statements smack of a hyper-nationalist environment in the country. Unfortunately, people with right-wing approach consider any support for human rights in Kashmir to be anti-national. Let Madhav be reminded that no civilised society can afford to use its citizens as shields for military operations.He also said modern nations operate under the presumption that in the case of an armed conflict, the State must do everything to ensure civilians are not hurt. However, Madhav seems to be justifying what is unjustifiable. Almost all general legal approaches consider human shields illegal both in domestic circumstances and international conflicts.
Such opposing statements by both sides depict the non-seriousness of authorities towards the Kashmir issue. India has left no stone unturned to add on to existing miseries of Kashmiris and PDP government has always appeared as self-centred and interest based political party. Mehbooba Mufti after the protests hit the valley turned to BJP for support and discuss future course of action. She stressed that we need dialogue. We can’t be confronting our own people for too long. We cannot hold talks when stones are being thrown from one side, and bullets are fired from the other. Mufti added that Modi has vowed to work on Vajpayee’s lines, whose policy was of reconciliation and not confrontation. According to her, Modi has an intention of holding talks but before that a conducive atmosphere needs to be created. Everything is possible if the atmosphere is conducive, and there is no way forward without talks. One must ask Ms. Mufti that it is the responsibility of her government to ensure peace in Kashmir. Where was her government when uprising strengthened after Burhan Wani’s brutal death? Not a single day in Kashmir goes by when there is no bloodshed and sacrifices made by innocent Kashmiris asking for their legitimate right of self-determination. She is always seem active in saving her regime rather than catering for the feelings of Kashmiris.
Indian Army is getting more and more virulent in their actions against Kashmiris. Alone in the month of April, twenty one persons were killed. It appears that valley is moving towards another struggle for freedom. Search operations, youth abductions, protests, stone pelting, shutter down strikes, closing of educational institutions and indiscriminate shelling by Indian Army has become routine in many areas of J&K.Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik, while reacting to Madhav’s statement that killing and terrorising Kashmiris was absolutely right thing to do said that Hitler and Mussolini killed people in gas chambers without any regret and today Ram Madhav and somebody called Ganga by issuing nonsensical statements are proving their fascist credentials.Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani too hit out at Madhav for defending the forces saying human shield incident illustrates their nationalpolicy about Jammu and Kashmir.They have declared war and his statement stands testimony. It is a clear clean chit to forces to carry massacre in state.Definitely it is red signal and carry perilous message for forces to go ahead with killings and serves an apparent threat to people. Terming it as cat is out of bag now, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that Madhav’s statement compliment the army for using a civilian as a human shield and reflects the BJP’s mind-set and approach towards the people of Kashmir.
Kashmir has been under unlawful Indian military occupation since October 1947. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have been granted the right of self-determination under the UN Charter, and under several UN Security Council resolutions, more specifically under UN (UNCIP) resolution of August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949. These and subsequent UN resolutions have affirmed that, the question of accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the political democratic method of free and impartial plebiscite. A peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions ranks top on Pakistan’s foreign policy agenda. In order to find an early and just solution to the decades old Kashmir dispute, Pakistan has always urged the international community to play an active role. Pakistan will continue extending its full political, diplomatic and moral support to legitimate Kashmir struggle and continue raising voice against Indian carnages in Kashmir on every forum.
