Reema Shaukat
It’s been more than one and half year to the death of young Burhan Wani but the resilience of Kashmiris couldn’t be deterred despite Indian brutalities. Somehow Indian forces have decided to suppress Kashmiris through their fake encounters, brutal tortures and use of any kind of force to quash their will for freedom but that seems useless in front of Kashmir’s struggle for freedom fighting. Recently, on 14 November two Kashmiri youth were killed by Indian forces in fake encounters. The troops in their fresh act of state terrorism also martyred a B.Tech student Muzamil Ahmed during a cordon and search operation in Qazigund area of Kulgam district. Despite restrictions and heavy deployment of the men in uniform, thousands of people attended the funeral prayers of two youth Ashiq Ahmed Butt and Tayyeb Majeed Mir at Brath Kalan and Pattan areas of Baramulla district. The martyred youth were laid to rest amid high-pitched pro-freedom and anti-India slogans in their ancestral villages. This is not for the first time that people have chanted slogans for freedom on the funerals of youth. They wrap the bodies of their martyrs in Pakistani flag and every time convey the message to cold-blooded Indians and slumbering world that their freedom struggle cannot be crushed no matter how many sacrifices they have to made.
The Kashmir freedom movement is decades old and is still anticipating triumph. The bloody tragedy of poor Kashmiris started after 1947 when they were denied their legitimate and UN approved right to self-determination. As a natural outcome of Indian injustice, people of IOK organised themselves and launched a war of liberation, which India tried to crush through coercion and brutalities. In 1988, India positioned a very large number of Armed Forces to suppress the Kashmir struggle by gun point. Since then, Indian Occupied Kashmir has become a region which is bearing ruthless Indian acts. After so many decades to Kashmir struggle Indian forces are unable to rescind the resilience and passion of Kashmiri’s people to be part of Pakistan. Listening to lullabies of freedom, nurturing among the uproar of bullets, snooping screams and seeing humiliation of humanity on every nook and corner of its environs, a Kashmiri youngster knows well what freedom is all about. Sighting the struggle of their forefathers and growing up chanting the slogans of Azadi, this Kashmiri youth is undefeatable now. The new wave for Kashmir freedom started after death of Burhan Wani. Under the AFSPA, Indian forces are not reluctant to use of any kind of violence including shooting, use of batons, tear gas, curfews, detentions and inhumane torture in so-called detention centres along with disappearances of Kashmiri youth. One must appreciate the determination and bravery of these youngsters who defend themselves from Indian forces with only stones. According to sources causalities that have occurred since 8 July, 2016 to 13 November, 2017 in IOK are quite alarming. 169 people have been killed including women and children and 20538 have been injured. Since 2010, Indian forces have been using pellet guns to disperse protesters and crowds and after Burhan Wani uprising a total of 8291 people are sufferers of pellet guns. 73 youngsters have lost their total eye sight because of pellets and 207 have lost one eye sight while 972 are on the verge of losing eye sight. The number of youth whose sight of one eye damaged partially is 1842. Indian violence on Kashmiris doesn’t on pellet guns. Women who are equally playing role in freedom struggle suffer too in form of physical abuse and tortures, so far in more than a year time statistics suggest that 736 women were molested. 1324 siege and search operations were conducted in which 18619 general public was arrested while the number of detainees under Public Safety Act is 805. Disruption of communication lines, forced shutting down of markets and businesses, making education inaccessible for Kashmiris is very common too by Indian forces. The number of schools burnt by Indian forces is 73 and so far the number of structural damage to houses, shops and other material goods is 65,610. India has been victimising Kashmiri leaders through dirty tactics to break their will and resolve. They have been repeatedly harassed and physically intimidated. Meanwhile, the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik, while addressing people at the shrine of Makhdoom Sahib in Srinagar said that the killings, crackdowns, arrests, vandalising of properties and beating and torturing of common people had become order of the day, especially in South and North Kashmir. He said that pro-India politicians and their parties were being used for politics of deception by their masters in New Delhi. Several Kashmiri political parties have joined hands to form the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to steer the political struggle for self-determination. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference in a statement issued in Srinagar said that India with the help of its local collaborators was responsible for killings in occupied Kashmir. It maintained that all pro-India local politicians were opportunists and were hand in glove with killers. Instead of accepting the existing reality, India has sought to blame Pakistan for promoting the Kashmiri uprising. These Indian accusations against Pakistan are a tactic to delude the International Community over the Kashmir issue and a concealment of their state sponsored atrocities. It is high time for international community to take notice of Indian oppression in Kashmir and stop Indian callousness on Kashmiris.
