Syeda Mazhar
As a part of India’s giant abominable vilification campaign against Pakistan, ever since its advent, the Indian media has recently accused Pakistan to have come up with a new weapon against India- the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Claims of Pakistan joining hands with the Taliban to terrorize India have been put forward by India Today in a programme called “India First”. The alleged claim is that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI is now trying to rope the terrorists from Pakistani jails in return of them waging Jihad against the Indian Army in Kashmir.
As absurd as it seems, Indian intelligence reports that Pakistan has been colluding with the terrorists they arrested post-APS attack to “get back” at India. Then, it further claimed that a secret meeting between top ISI officials and JeM Chief (Jaish-e-Muhammad), a conspiracy was hatched to launch terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley.
Least said, the morally appalling report has tried to brush the shameful acts of the Indian Army in Kashmir, under the rug. They are trying to divert the attention from the atrocities conducted by the Indian security forces to the falsely blame Pakistan and ISI for using terrorism to counter Indian terrorism on the poor Kashmiris. This unbearable situation in the Valley continues to deteriorate with every passing day.
It is not Pakistan that is sending any militants to the valley; the fire in the valley is home-grown that has consumed the peace of mind of Modi’s government. After the Uri episode, without any investigation, India’s top civil and military officials, including their media started propaganda against Pakistan by accusing that the militants who targeted the Uri base came from Pakistan’s side of Azad Kashmir and the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba controlled by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence were involved in it. Under the mask of the Uri base attack, India started mobilization of troops near the Line of Control, while claiming unproven surgical strikes on the Azad Kashmir.
The myth of Indian surgical strikes was already exposed in September 2016, when in a statement, DG of Pakistan’s the Inter Services Public Relations Lt. Gen, Asim Saleem Bajwa had said: “The notion of surgical strike linked to alleged terrorists bases is an illusion being deliberately generated by India to create false effects. This quest by Indian establishment to create media hype by rebranding cross border fire as surgical strike is a fabrication of truth.” He repeatedly stated that Pakistani troops have been giving equal response to Indian unprovoked firing across the Line of Control.
In the past, Modi’s government has been actively defaming Pakistan for being a terrorist state. Maintaining that, Pakistan has been using state-sponsored terrorism against it and has repeatedly asked the international community to take tough action against the country. India denounced Pakistan as “the land of pure terror” and branded it “Terroristan” in an explosive speech at the U.N. General Assembly, which comes on the back of deadly clashes in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
To be sure, the Modi government continues to follow the counter-insurgency tactics preferred by national security adviser Ajit Doval, who believes that New Delhi must strongly counter the stone-pelting attacks by unarmed Kashmiris through brutal force, put pressure on Pakistan by violating the 2003 ceasefire agreement and killing civilians across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, stop talking to Islamabad and play the victim card. At the same time, the Modi government is trying to take the held Kashmir out of India-Pakistan equation. But in the process, it has lost face internationally and at home. Yet it still continues with its failed efforts to discipline the Valley and assimilate it with the Indian Union.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has long been caught in a tug of war between India and Pakistan, sparking violent separatist movements in the region. India’s government wrongly blames Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir, while Pakistan has accused India of human-rights abuses against Kashmiris. The Indian government and Army is, also, notoriously known for the atrocities inflicted onto the civilians. Incidents like firing pellets into the eyes of masses of young children and randomly picking up kids, kidnapping them, raping the young girls and women in the state, are very rampant causing a lot of resentment towards the Indian state and its governing bodies in total.
Today, the word Kashmir has become synonymous with death, destruction and religious genocide in South Asia. Although the roots of the Kashmir issue lie in a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, it has evolved into a multi-faceted issue over the years. As ignorant as the world’s population maybe, the Muslims of Kashmir deserve justice and it has been long awaited. The disinterest of the political world of resolving this long standing issue is depriving the Kashmiris a chance to be able to lead a normal life while the officials sit comfortably discussing the fate of at least four generations of people indefinitely.
