Daily Times

Like every year, people and the government of Pakistan are observing yet another Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5, 2023, to reiterate their continued unstinted moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris struggling and suffering at the hands of occupying Indian security forces for secure their birth right of self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. The hearts of Pakistanis and Kashmiris beat together. Slogans of “Kashmir Baney Ga Pakistan” and “Pakistan Zindabad” are frequently raised in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory and Pakistan flags fluttered and hoisted at mosques and other public places and houses on different occasions like India’s Republic Day, which the Kashmiris observed as the black day. Founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had described Kashmir as the lifeline of Pakistan.

People and the government of Pakistan have been and will continue supporting the just cause of Kashmiris, living in the longest lockdown in illegally Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, till they win freedom from forcible Indian occupation, exercise their right of self-determination and decide their future themselves in a free, fair and transparent plebiscite under UN supervision. Through the observance of Kashmir Solidarity Day, the people and the Pakistani leadership will also be giving a clarion call through rallies and meetings for waking up the somehow sleeping international community which even after seeing, observing, noticing and condemning ongoing Indian security forces’ brutalities and atrocities on innocent Kashmiri men, women, youth and children engaged in an unarmed struggle against Indian occupation for more than seven decades but not doing anything more than that. Pakistan through its leadership has not only revived and activated the lingering unresolved Kashmir issue at all international forums topped by the UN General Assembly through its civil and military leadership but has also been repeatedly and emphatically telling and warning the world at large that there will be no durable peace and stability in South Asia until the Kashmir dispute is peacefully and amicably resolved on the basis of international legitimacy and Kashmir has quite rightly described as a “nuclear flash point”.

Founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had described Kashmir as the lifeline of Pakistan.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at also been on different occasions calling and stressing upon neighbouring nuclear power armed India and Pakistan to “come together and seriously discuss their problems ‘ stemming from the unresolved Kashmir dispute saying there was no military solution to the decades-old conflict, it is clear when seeing Pakistan and India, military confrontation between the two would be a big disaster of unmitigated proportion for both countries and the whole world. According to him, it was absolutely essential to have a de-escalation on the Line of Control, as regards human rights abuses in Indian-occupied Kashmir, it was essential that human rights are fully respected. The world body Secretary was on record to have stated August 8, 2019, immediately after India’s unilateral action of revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and merging it with the Indian Union, wherein he had called for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute based on UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Charter. But somehow he has always avoided out-rightly condemning India for flagrant violations of the Line of Control ( LoC) killing innocent civilians in an unabated manner and also for its gross human rights violations in the illegally occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. One cannot help saying that the UN itself was helpless in getting its own Security Council resolutions implemented to resolve the Kashmir dispute even after more than seven decades of lingering and letting the struggling, suffering and bleeding Kashmiris exercise their birthright of self-determination. One is reminded here also of a guerilla war which had ensued from 1975 to 1999 between Indonesia and pro-independence forces in which thousands of East Timorese were killed. In 1999 East Timor was placed under UN supervision and on May 20, 2002, Dilli became the capital of the newly independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

The burning question which arises here was that if the UN could take East Timor under its supervision subsequently leading to its independence from Muslim country Indonesia then why cannot the world body can take over occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory where the bloodshed, violence and human rights violations are going on for decades together in an unabated manner and implement the Security Council resolutions by holding a free and fair plebiscite to solve the lingering burning Kashmir dispute. Was the world body afraid of big country India which is now ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoting Hindutva at all costs? India has all along been clamouring about Jammu and Kashmir being its integral part in a vain attempt to cheat its own people and befool the international community. It was an established and duly internationally acknowledged fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, India has no other claim over it than that of an occupier, like all occupiers and colonizers of the past, India wants to physically, politically and psychologically crush the indigenous Kashmiri struggle, India has become a nightmare for its minorities.

On August 5, 2019, India not only unilaterally annulled the special status of Jammu and Kashmir but also placed the entire 8 million population of occupied territory under military siege which is continuing for more than three years in an unending manner and the territory remains shut to the outside world with no means of communications, no media and no UN observers visiting there. Gross human rights violations in the forcibly occupied Indian territory include 410 martyred, women 22 widowed, 56 children orphaned, 1577 people injured, 14487 people arrested under draconian laws and large structures damaged, according to facts and figures compiled by the Kashmir Institute of International Relations through close monitoring of happenings in the occupied territory. As for youth pellet victims and public safety act detentions since August 5, 2019, are concerned, a large number of Kashmiri youth have been injured by pellets and blinded and a couple of thousands arrested under Public Safety Act (PSA). Indian occupying security forces’ crimes against besieged Kashmiris since 1989 include more than 100,000 killings, 22924 widows, 112131 rapes, 197811 orphans and houses and 110375 infrastructures destroyed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also taking various measures in an illegal manner like genocide to turn the Muslim majority into a minority and getting Hindus settled there in large numbers under fake domicile certificates. The Kashmiris’ just indigenous struggle continues, with 900000 strong occupying security forces continuing brutalities, custodial killings and atrocities under draconian laws in an unabated manner, people and the civil and military leadership of Pakistan also continue extending all moral, diplomatic and political support at all international forums, the blood of the Kashmiris will certainly and surely not go waste and they are bound to secure their fundamental basic right of self-determination in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions with the continued blessings of Almighty Allah sooner or later, Inshallah.

The writer is a Lahore-based freelance journalist, columnist and retired deputy controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad. He can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com.