Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly was reassuring and reflective of the wishes of the nation. His warning that any aggression towards Pakistan or AJK to divert attention from the situation in India-held Kashmir would be met with a befitting response should be taken seriously by the quarters concerned. The hate-filled actions of the Modi government, which started in India’s pre-election months earlier this year, till the revocation of the special status of Occupied Kashmir, are aimed at escalating tension between the two nuclear states. As Pakistan has reached the United Nations Security Council and world’s major capitals to highlight inhuman conditions in India-held Kashmir, the Modi government may launch a war-like strike in Azad Kashmir only to divert the world’s attention from the ongoing genocide of Muslims in India-held Kashmir. The prime minister delivered a clear message to Delhi: “This action will be aimed at diverting world attention from occupied Kashmir, but I have a message for Narendra Modi: you take action and we will respond to your brick with stone.”

The prime minister spoke at length about the ideology of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which drive their core ideology from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. The world needs to be educated about the dreadful ideology of the RSS. It admires Hitler, while Mr Modi has been a proud member of the RSS since childhood. Delhi, ruled by such a Hindutva ideologue for the last six years, has left all religious minorities feeling unsafe. The recent Kashmir blunder might awake the world to see BJP’s Hitler-like ideology. So far, the world has been a silent spectator to the clampdown on communication in India-held Kashmir and persecution of religious minorities in other parts of India. The world’s silence has in a way fanned the waves of fanaticism in a once secular India.

Pakistan has done its part well to avoid a war on Kashmir and has been stressing the resolution of all disputes through talks. The Indian ruling party, however, has frustrated all such efforts as warmongering suits its core constituency. Earlier this year, it tried to violate Azad Kashmir’s airspace only to get its pilot captured. Pakistan was kind enough to release the pilot within a couple of days. The gesture was never reciprocated. In times of such heightened tension, any miscalculation may lead to devastation. Pakistan has warned the world to take stock of the situation. Now, it is up to the international community and India to examine the situation. The best way out is for India and Pakistan start talks on Kashmir and find a lasting solution. *