Daily Times

By all foreseeable dimensions, Kashmir is and will remain the hottest issue on the global stage. Though diplomacy must be given a fair chance in Kashmir, the grim clouds of war loom constantly in Kashmir. The virtue of peace, human rights and international law are blatantly jarred in Kashmir by the Modi’s government. Not surprisingly, the U-turn orchestrated by President Trump on the eve of the G7 Summit in France (August 26) is clearly reflective of the international establishment’s failure to deter the Machiavellian agenda set by Israel and India (the two international law abuser states). Trump’s endorsement of a bilateral settlement of Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan hibernates the scope of mediation by the powerful state to honour international law. In this backdrop, the failure of peace diplomacy propels the Kashmir issue on the brink of war between two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan.

President Donald Trump said on last Monday that India and Pakistan could handle their dispute over Kashmir on their own, but he was there should they need him. Huang Jing, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University’s Institute of International and Regional Studies, said for major powers, including China, the Kashmir issue was all about geopolitics and the Security Council meeting was a chance to see those interests play out. The two nations-India and Israel are passionate about their brutal occupations of Kashmir and Palestine. Undoubtedly, India is one of Israel’s biggest arms exports clients, spending about $10bn over the past decade. Indian police forces have been receiving training in Israel for “anti-terror” operations, which Israeli conducts against Palestinians. When India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party (BJP) decided to revoke Articles 370 and 35-A from the Indian Constitution– scrapping the special rights given to the disputed state of Jammu & Kashmir, parallels seem to have immediately drawn around the world but particularly in Pakistan with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Palestinians are calling for solidarity with Kashmir following the Indian government’s move to revoke the state’s autonomy while imposing an unprecedented lockdown. “As Palestinians, we deeply feel the suffering of the people in Kashmir under military repression that in so many cases is similar to Israeli forms of subjugation and control,” the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) said on last Tuesday. Barring China, no other UNSC member commented on the gravity of the Kashmir situation.

If Article 35A is repealed by the verdict of Supreme Court it will have more implications. Firstly, according to the Indian Express, “all 41 subsequent Presidential Orders will then become susceptible to legal challenges” because all of these orders were in essence amendments to the 1954 order. These subsequent orders have extended 94 out of the 97 entries in the Union List to the state as well as applied 260 articles of the Indian Constitution to the state. Whereas, rights given to the woman in the verdict of October 2002 will also come in question before the Indian Chief Court regarding Article 35-A . With the present move, the outsiders are legally permitted to own property in Jammu and Kashmir, there appear fears that the BJP will seek to alter the demographics of India’s only Muslim-majority territory though the settlement of Hindus – spearheaded perhaps by Hindutvadis, zealous followers of the Hindutva ideology, along the lines of ultra-nationalistic religious Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

By revoking article 370 and 35-A Modi has undermined the present status of Kashmir in terms of sovereignty, citizenship, and legislative powers. In IHK, the Indian security forces have arrested thousands of people amid imposition of continued curfew and other restrictions across since August 5. The said provocative move also caused an expected uproar in Pakistan–whereby Islamabad strongly disagreeing with New Delhi’s insistence that the constitutional changes are an internal matter. Consequently, in response, Pakistan’s parliament decided to cut trade with India, downgrade diplomatic ties and suspend bus and train services.

The fact of the matter is both India and Israel with the tacit support of international establishment wants to unjustifiably extend the present Israeli and Indian status quo in Palestine and Kashmir. But both will face hurdles in making their dream into the reality of annexing the occupied territories

If the world powers do not give a pragmatic chance for diplomacy to work in Kashmir then there is no option other than the war on this issue between India and Pakistan-an option that could cause scowling dangers for the region. Pakistan’s Strike Crops are well prepared to counter any Indian aggression along the Line of Control (LoC). Truly, for the people and the armed forces of Pakistan, the independence of the people of Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of the partition of Subcontinent which needs to be completed.” Solidarity displayed by the nation with Kashmiri brethren during the Kashmir Hour today is a strong message to the world,” the COAS General Qamar Bajwa said during his visit to the Gujranwala Corps Headquarters on Friday.

Previously, Prime Minister Khan told a rare joint sitting of Pakistan’s Parliament on 6 August that he will raise the Kashmir issue at every forum including the UN Security Council and also take the matter to the ICJ. Recently, the two key leaders in Congress Senator Robert Menendez, Ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a joint statement have questioned Modi’s India on Kashmiri rights. Indians and Pakistanis have been too quick to assume Kashmir is isolated and the world has turned a deaf ear to it. Indian’s action in taking away Kashmir’s special autonomy and flooding the area with armed occupiers is experienced by Kashmiris as ignored by the world. First, I will tell what the legislators said and, then second how it relates to reality in Kashmir, then who they are and why they matter. And yet, the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs also meets on September 2 and discusses Kashmir. The OIC has chartered strong reservations over Modi’s unilateral move on Kashmir. The fact of the matter is both India and Israel with the tacit support of international establishment wants to unjustifiably extend the present Israeli and Indian status quo in Palestine and Kashmir. But both will face hurdles in making their dream into the reality of annexing the occupied territories. It goes without saying that if justice is demonstrated by the UNSC with regard to international law violations, both Israel and India could be banned from the UN’s membership but sadly, the world lacks in taking such a moral initiative. In his astutely debated article in the New York Times, ‘The World cannot ignore Kashmir. We are all in danger’, PM Khan has rightly resuscitated the conscience of the international community by warning that:” If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, two nuclear-armed states will get ever closer to a direct military confrontation”.

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan