Daily Times

It is a well known fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a UNSC recognized dispute between Pakistan and India.Both the countries fought the first war over the accession of the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947/1948, when India occupied a major part of Jammu and Kashmir through its military intervention.When the Pakistan army countered the Indian military invasion, on January 1, 1948, under Article 35 of the UN Charter, India referred the Kashmir dispute to the UN Security Council. On 20 January 1948, the UNSC passed Resolution 39, calling for an urgent investigation into the dispute to avoid a major war, to be done by the newly establishedUN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP).

On 21 April 1948, the UNSC adopted the Resolution 47, asked for the cease fire, and decided that the accession of the state to Pakistan or India will be done through a free and impartial plebiscite, as was agreed by both, Pakistan and India. The Resolution also instructed the UNCIP to visit the subcontinent and to mediate and facilitate both the countries to hold a plebiscite.In the later years, India foiled all the UNSC and UNCIP efforts to hold the plebiscite on one pretext or the other, as India knew that if an impartial plebiscite was held, then the Muslim majority population of Jammu and Kashmir will vote for accession to Pakistan.

Experiencing India’s long intransigence, since 1989, the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir have launched their peaceful freedom struggle and India has deployed above 700,000 security troops to crush the freedom struggle, and the security forces have committed rampant HR violations and genocide in the Kashmir valleywith full impunity under the protection of draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA).

India has converted a UNSC declared disputed territory between Pakistan and India, into its integral part, which is in total violation of the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir

As per Kashmir Media Service (KMS), since 1989, around 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian occupation forces in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). Out of these, more than 7,120 persons have been killed in Indian custody. 109,200 structures have been destroyed. 22,896 women have been widowed, 107,754 children have been orphaned and more than 11,110 women have been raped and gang raped by Indian occupation forces.As of January 2019, 8500 Kashmiri youth have been injured due to Pellet Gunshots. Of these, 207 have been blinded in one eye, while 130 have been made totally blind.

Crossing all the limits, on August 5, 2019, the Modi government abrogated Articles 35-A and 370 of India’s constitution and took away the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir; dividing the state into two Union territories. India has converted a UNSC declared disputed territory between Pakistan and India, into its integral part, which is in total violation of the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.

To preempt Kashmiris’ reaction, while India has increased its security forces number from 700,000 to above 1100,000, it has also clamped lockdown/curfew in the Kashmir valley, which is still there and internet services in Kashmir are also blocked. India has also apprehended/ jailed all the Kashmiri leaders/youth and the Indian forces are busy in carrying out genocide in the Kashmir valley.

When Pakistan referred the matter to the UNSC in August/September 2019, except China, the other veto power members even did not condemn Indian actions, although they asked India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute through bilateral talks. The UNSC also could not agree to adopt a binding resolution to constrain India’s from unilaterally changing the status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir by dividing it into two union territories and for ending restrictions and genocide in Kashmir.

In view of the above mentioned precarious situation prevailing in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, to draw the attention of the international community and the UNSC veto powers towards India’s barbarism,as announced by the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu&Kashmir, Kashmiris living on the both sides of LOC (line of control) and across the world will observe Blackday on 5th of August 2020by organizing the protest processions and programmes,against the illegally abrogated Article 370 of Indian constitution on August 5, 2019, to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir,and the genocide being committed in the Kashmir valley.

In this context, the AJK PM will lead the protest procession in Muzaffrabad, and will present a protest memorandum to the UN observer mission to draw the attention of the UNSC towards the genocide being committed by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.The protest processions will also appeal to UNSC members that they should adopt a fresh binding resolution on Kashmir, to ask India to lift the restrictions, end the genocide in the Kashmir,and reverse the steps it had taken on 5 August 2019.And that,India should also be bound to either preparefor holdinga plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, or hold a dialogue with Pakistan with out any preconditions, to resolve the Kashmir dispute with in a maximum period of next 5 years.

The writer is a former Consultant and Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), and Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Islamabad