Daily Times

The address to the mammoth public rally in Muzaffarbad by Prime Minister Imran Khan was a pragmatic and visionary discourse of a statesman par excellence who was unravelling the gravity of the situation in IOK to his people in the backdrop of the unilateral action by the Modi government to end the special status of IOK and mobilizing their support for thwarting any indiscretion by India; it was an expression of unflinching solidarity with people of Kashmir and commitment to support their cause irrespective of the cost involved; It was a loud and clear message to India that it would not be allowed to get away with its indiscretion and any miscalculation on her part would be forcefully retaliated; it was reiteration of Pakistan’s commitment to peace but at the same time an unequivocal assertion of the fact that it was capable of meeting security challenges of any proportions; It was a genuine warning to the world community about the lurking dangers and the looming human crisis of unimaginable magnitude in IOK and a passionate call to it why it must act now to stop the fascist RSS ideology in its tracks before it destroys the regional peace with horrendous consequences.

The world has already witnessed the scale of death and destruction that the ideologies pursued by Hitler and Mussolini inflicted on humanity. The philosophy of Hindutva pursued by RSS and the BJP government in India headed by its child-hood devotee Nrendra Modi, takes inspiration from them. Hindutav means India for Hindus to the exclusion of all other ethnicities and minorities. The scrapping of article 370 and 35 A by the Modi government on 5th August ending special status of the state is meant to change demographic features of the valley and breaking the will of the Kashmiri freedom fighters through ruthless killings which amply reflect the anti-Muslim bias of the policies being pursued by the Modi government. Stripping 1.9 million Muslims of Bengali origin in Assam living there for centuries is yet another ranting proof of that irrefutable reality.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was right on money to say that oppression and atrocities give rise to militancy and radicalize communities. Kashmir has been a hot spot since 1989 when the people of Kashmir picked up arms to win their freedom after having been frustrated by the Indian intransigence to give them their right of self-determination. According to figures compiled by different Human Rights Organizations including Amnesty International, since January 1989 till 31st August 2019, the Indian security forces have killed 95,438 people including 7128 custodial killings, gang-raped 11,140 women and destroyed 109,409 homes. The movement got a new lease of life after the killing Burhan Wani in 2016 and notwithstanding the fact that Indian security forces have killed 1031 people, arrested and tortured thousand of them besides a number of custodial deaths, caused injuries to 10298 people with pellet guns and gang-raped nearly one thousand women, it roll on with greater ferocity. Reports of people defying the Indian imposed curfew imposed for the last more than forty days and Indian security forces continuing their oppression with guns, disruption of means of communication, internet facilities and a complete lockdown , prove beyond any doubt that the Indian action has provided a fodder for more radicalization of the Kashmiri youth.

Never before, any Pakistani leader has advocated the Kashmir cause so vociferously and with such unswerving determination. His advocacy of the Kashmir cause inviting the world attention to the humanitarian crisis likely to unfold in IOK at different international forums, interface with international media and interactions with world leaders has surely produced positive results. It is undoubtedly due to those efforts that Kashmir issue has been internationalized. The endorsement of UNSC of its resolutions on Kashmir as a means to resolving Kashmir dispute; EU showing concern on human rights violations in Kashmir emphasizing solution of the dispute on the basis of UN resolutions; scathing criticism of violation of human rights in IOK by Chairman Human Rights Council ; call by OIC for resolving the Kashmir issue in the light of relevant UN resolutions and endorsement of the precarious humanitarian situation in IOK by the internal media and human rights organizations are surely the gains of diplomatic offensive unleashed by the PTI government under the stewardship of Imran Khan, an uncompromising leader when it comes to humanitarian causes and inalienable right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir.

He is the best–ever advocate of the cause of Kashmiris and rightly calls himself as their Ambassador. He has vowed to raise the issue at the coming session of the UN General Assembly to stir the conscience of the world community. The Prime Minister rightly lamented the fact in his address as well as interview with Russia Today that the world community has not reacted to the situation in IOK as it should have because of some of the bigger powers looking at the crisis through the prism of their strategic and economic interests. Kashmir is undoubtedly a nuclear flash-point. The situation created by India in IOK can easily push to the two nuclear neighbours into an armed clash, as rightly warned by the Prime Minister.

The UN and the big powers need to act immediately to defuse the situation, persuade India to rescind its action of 5th August and facilitate the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in conformity with the UN resolutions. That is the only possible solution to save the humanitarian crisis brewing in IOK and thwarting the impending dangers to the peace and security in the region. Continued indifference of big powers to the suffering of the people of Kashmir and looking the other way over Modi government’s anti-Muslim policies in pursuance of its fascist agenda could even jeopardize strategic and business interests of the big powers.