Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan has adopted a two-pronged policy on Kashmir after the Modi government’s actions in the occupied valley: to keep the domestic constituency charged, and to follow an aggressive diplomatic onslaught internationally. The revocation of the special constitutional provisions on the autonomy of India-held Kashmir, in fact, has brought life to the otherwise stagnant issue. In this connection, Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier dedicated a Friday (August 30) to the Kashmir cause where Pakistanis came out to express solidarity with the Kashmiris. This past Friday, he held a big rally in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir. The timing of the rally is of significance: India-held Kashmir has been under lockdown and communication blackout for 42 days running. Though the core constituency of India-held Kashmir may not have heard his address, Prime Minister Khan echoed the very sentiments of Kashmiris and Pakistanis. Moreover, it was a clear message to Modi sarkar that he has no place in the occupied valley to hold such a rally. The world should understand that Kashmiris simply do not want to live with India.

The prime minister delivered a stern warning (or call advice) to India as well as the world: The repression of Kashmiris by Indian troops would lead them as well as 220 million Muslims in India and other parts of the world into extremism. Pushing Indian Muslims, who have been trying to remain mainstream despite Modi-led Hindvata, into extremism will be a recipe for disaster for India itself. His message was clear: “What India is doing in Kashmir will draw a strong reaction – not only from the Kashmiris, but also from Indian Muslims as well as Muslims across the world.” He recounted lynching of Muslims by cow vigilantes and India is solely being made a for-Hindus-only. The prime minister reminded Modi that a captured Indian pilot was returned within days only in the quest for peace.

The Indian government is hell bent on creating a human catastrophe in the occupied valley. Our government needs to use all international forums to awaken the key players’ consciousness. The world should know Modi’s past as an RSS activist, his anti-peace present and likely catastrophic future. This will find a larger audience at international forums. Similarly, the world should be warned against the prospects of war between two nuclear states.

The rally was addressed by government functionaries only. The star-studded event would have been more illuminated, had opposition leaders also been invited. *