Daily Times

The death toll in ongoing unrest in Kashmir has reached 87 after the pellet-riddled body of an 11-year-old was found in Srinagar on Saturday. Reportedly, the boy was injured in clashes between protesters and security forces in Harwan on Friday; he had gone missing immediately after the clashes. More than 40 people were injured in clashes in different areas of the Valley on Friday in addition to hundreds wounded by pellet guns. Curfew was lifted for a while but again imposed in Srinagar and towns of Baramulla, pattan, Anantnag, Shopia and Pulwama. Life continues to remain paralysed in Kashmir for the 70th consecutive day. All shops, business establishments and petrol pumps remained shut due to curfew and a strike call by Kashmiri organisations including the Hurriyat Conference. They have extended the protest to September 22, and it is likely to be extended further.

Recently, a new wave of Indian brutality has been witnessed with the death of a Kashmiri militant leader Burhan Wani, which triggered protests throughout the valley as well as in other parts of Kashmir. In the past, India always accused Pakistan of creating unrest through non-state actors, but not many people are willing to buy India’s logic this time, as it is believed that it is the genuine struggle of Kashmiris who seething with anger see the present phase of their struggle as a ‘do or die situation. Their slogans with regard to demand for ‘aazadi’ (freedom) from India are louder than they were before, and protests are different from earlier ones. The present generation, born after 1990, is in complete disconnect with India, as they have seen martyrdom of thousands of Kashmiri youth in the reign of terror let loose by Indian security forces. According to police sources, many boys who joined militant organisations had worked as Peoples Democratic Party activists and sympathisers in the 2014 elections.

Frustrated by the apathy of the international community and non-implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, Kashmiri youth took up arms in 1989. However, after 9/11, political landscape of the world changed dramatically, and since then freedom struggles of people the world over are considered as terrorism. However, A G Noorani in his recent article published in the daily The Hindu wrote: “The year 2016 only proves that the people of Kashmir have not acquiesced in the State of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India. The Third Kashmir Crisis of 2016 is far worse. The valley is no longer on the boil. It is in an incipient revolt that can get worse. It builds on the renewed awakening through militancy and is mostly local in origin. Article 370 is neither a wall nor a mountain, but that it is a tunnel. The Modi government has revived the tunnel theory.”

The plans for setting up sainik (soldier) colonies, separate townships for Kashmiri Pundits, and a new industrial policy for the state have reinforced the feeling that India is working on a plan to change Jammu and Kashmir’s demography. Earlier, Kashmiris had also protested against Indian government efforts to bring about the demographic change by facilitating Hindus to settle down in large numbers in Jammu and Kashmir. It has to be mentioned here that it was India that had taken the Kashmir issue to the UN under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which deals with the Pacific Settlement of Disputes. The Security Council had then passed the resolution on January 5, 1949 stating: “The question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.” And that would of course happen under the aegis of the UN.

Moreover, India’s Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order 1954, applies Article 253 of the Indian Constitution to Kashmir with one overriding proviso. It reads: “Provided that after the commencement of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, no decision affecting the disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be made by the Government of India without the consent of the Government of that State.” The Order of 1954 was made by the president on May 14, 1954, and the very next day the then prime minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru had said: “India still stands by her international commitments on the Kashmir issue and will implement them at the appropriate time.” Yet India continues to be in a denial mode, be it the Congress or BJP government. However, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at the helm, the situation in Kashmir has become dismal.

In his address to the nation on 15th August, India’s independence day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the situation in Balochistan. Pakistani officials said that the Indian prime minister was trying to cover up the atrocities committed by Indian security forces in the occupied Kashmir by equating the situation there with Balochistan, which is not a disputed territory. On the other hand, Kashmir is an internationally recognised dispute, and there are UN resolutions supporting the right of self-determination for Kashmiris, giving them the right to join India or Pakistan through a plebiscite.

The United States has unambiguously distanced itself from Indian Prime Minister Modi’s attempt to internationalise the Baloch issue, and in the process has also assured Pakistan of its continued support to the country’s territorial integrity. “The US government respects the unity and territorial integrity of Pakistan, and we do not support independence for Balochistan,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby told a recent news briefing in Washington. The Baloch issue came up at the State Department’s regular news briefing during the Eid holidays when an Indian journalist asked. Kirby to explain the official US policy on “human rights violations and the fight for freedom” in Balochistan.

The US position on Balochistan is a clear setback for New Delhi, which plans to use the UN General Assembly in New York next week to stop Pakistan from raising the issue of the current situation in the Indian-held Kashmir. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is determined to raise the Kashmir issue in the UN General Assembly, as he is weary of Modi’s outpourings despite his many gestures to improve the relations between Pakistan and India.

The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at mjamil1938@hotmail.com