In the last 73 years, Indian occupied Kashmir has experienced a more cruel, monstrous and barbaric onslaught on its freedom and civil liberties than perhaps any other region in the world. It has seen its youth population being deprived of opportunities and murdered extra-judicially; children and the elderly being blinded by pellet guns and land mines being spread over the region by the state of India.
Now, while Kashmir was under a severe communications blockade, the coronavirus pandemic has also hit the region. The total number of reported cases of coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir now stands at 75. This is with the Indian army brutalising the Kashmiris and there being hardly any proper health care facilities.
Yet, in the worst period to befall Kashmir, the Indian government has announced a new set of laws amending domicile rights for Indian occupied Kashmir intended at reshaping the Muslim-majority state’s demographic status.
The new law provides that those residing for a period of 15 years in Indian occupied Kashmir or studying for a period of seven years will now become new permanent residents. The new laws also provide permanent resident status to the children of officials of the occupying Indian government who have plunged a reign of terror on Kashmiris.
Pakistan, as a matter of practice, reacted sharply to the move and termed it another attempt by the Indian government to alter the demographic of Muslim-majority Kashmir under Indian control. Yet our government should have always been ready for such a move by India and preempted it. The entire purpose of the Indian government behind illegally removing article 370 and 35(A) from its constitution on August 5 was to subsequently metamorphose the demographic of the only Muslim-majority state in India. It was always in the offing since August 5, and it was just a matter of time before India would see the opportunity, what better opportunity could it have when the world is preoccupied with a pandemic?
The entire intent behind revoking Article 370 was to empower the Indian government to bring its nationals from all over the country into Kashmir, so as to permanently change its demography, and seal the fate of a referendum if any was ever to be held in its favour. When India could not succeed on the Kashmiri pandit narrative, it quickly changed its policy to legalise the settlements of Indians who had been sent there to brutalise the Kashmiri population and batter its right of self-determination.
This new law, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Order 2020 is a clear violation of the 4th Geneva Convention as rightly expressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention provides that the “Occupying Power,” in this case India, shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Yet that has been the Indian plan all along, and while the Prime Minister has tweeted the violation of fundamental international laws by India, his government has not done much.
Demographic flooding by its own citizens was the only chance India ever had of permanently annexing Kashmir as its territory
The world is currently focused on the coronavirus pandemic while the Indian government brought in the law at the height of the pandemic. It is not an accident. It is a well-calculated move, one for which Pakistan should have been ready all along. While the world saw the pandemic as a matter of grave concern, India saw it as a golden opportunity emboldened by Pakistani inaction to further ravage the legal protections of the Kashmiri Muslims stuck under India occupation.
The Indian government had pummeled the political autonomy of Kashmir on August 5 by abrogating Article 370; subsequently dividing the occupied region into two federally administered territories with no autonomy over its own land. The real motivation behind the entire exercise was the demographic flooding of Indians into the disputed territory. As things stood, the entire Kashmir was against the Indian occupation, a position persisting since 1947. Demographic flooding by its own citizens, in a severe breach of international law, was the only chance India ever had of permanently annexing Kashmir as its territory. Pakistan not challenging India at any legal forum or militarily as a matter of policy has failed. India had been preparing for this move since last year, and policymakers in Pakistan failed to see the floating object in the radar. Clearly, India was too morally bankrupt to stop politicking during a worldwide pandemic. Pakistan should have predicted this moral delinquency of India.
India has continued to violate United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and international law. The world will never take notice of Pakistan only condemning and lobbying the international comity of nations, those are only ancillary approaches. If we do not reconsider our Kashmir policy, it will get a little bit too late. Now is the time to knock the doors of the ICJ and respond to India militarily. Bhagat Singh famously said that if the deaf are to hear, the sound must be loud. The Kashmiri people are Pakistani by blood and culture, if we do not save them now, it just might be a day later and with a dollar short.
The writer is a barrister, who has an interest in Pakistani current affairs, economy, constitutional developments, foreign policy, and international law