I am raped, humiliated, half-widow, orphan, blind, muted, and brutally killed. I am a child of Adam and Eve, yes, I am human too. Humans, what humans have to have? Its dignity; respect; love; liberty; freedom of speech & expression; justice; right to a trial; freedom from torture & slavery. Yes, I am entitled to all that without any discrimination based on race, sex, nationality, religion, ethnicity, and language. I am entitled to the right to self-determination. But, with no due respect, the advocators of human rights, you exploit my life, and many alike, with all your prejudice. In one way or other you were supporting the oppressors, whereas you were meant to be the voices of the oppressed. I am Kashmir, I am Muslim and above all, I am Human.
The muted social and international community, have you ever asked yourself regarding the legality of piercing a human soul. It is unethical, both on religious and humanity grounds. It’s been more than 70 years, I am alien in my own very home, and yes, I am occupied. My mother, daughter, and sister are raped and humiliated in front of me; my father, brother, and son died and even banished for years. After living a miserable life in the concentration camps in the illegally Indian occupied Kashmir, what on earth you expect from me, to act nobly or to become a freedom fighter and voice of the oppressed. Indeed, you all are in no position to gauge the pain, I go through daily, it’s not about the body, its soul affair. My soul is pierced every single nano-second.
Mad-led secular India is neither secular nor democratic anymore. International human rights law, a set rule book for governments’ functioning to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups even failed to defend us
I am 34 years, married with a son, a half-widow for more than a decade. Many alike with one, two, and three kids waiting for their husbands to come, and for a family reunion. Nowhere to go, no one listens and understands the agony I am loaded with. I am not the only victim of Indian political terrorism, but there are thousands and thousands. United Nations, Human Rights Watch, all are not only dumb and deaf but heartless. Does political and economic interests are above humanity. And if it is so, why, you are still intact? Was your objective to safeguard the rights of morbidness states or to be the voice of the unheard?
I am 27, recently married and even before the birth of my angle, my darling daughter, I was blind because of a pellet shot. Losing eye-sight might not be that painful than not seeing my angle face. With whom, I will be able to share this torment is huge despair.
I am 10, supposed to be youthful and lively like any other of my age, but I am in subterranean grief, an orphan and homeless, every single day is onerous and more difficult than yesterday. The word happiness shrills my soul. I wish I could have enjoyed the youthful life too.
Alas! In this very situation, how selfishly you all acted. We, in illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir, have more soldiers than food and medical facility. From 5th Aug 2019, every single breath we took, is passed through a shot of pallet gun. Alas! Alas! How a world of 7.8 billion sensible people could ignore the plight of a million people? Not a billion can stand for us.
Is there any genuine human rights body, who could listen to our voice, amplify it, and challenge the Indian State-sponsored political terrorism? Mad-led secular India is neither secular nor democratic anymore. International human rights law, a set rule book for governments’ functioning to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups even failed to defend us. The vicious acts of RSS, retraction of Article 370, Citizen Amendment Act, and inhumane behavior of the Indian government are suffocating me and your silence embolden Indian brutality against us.
The designers of civil, political, cultural, economic, and social rights; it’s time to play your role and come forward. Your deafening silence is piercing my soul deep inside. Either wake up or made this inhumanity and brutality a law too. Give them the license to stab my soul; mute the voices and blind the awaiting eyes for justice and the right of self-determination.
The writer is the Founder & Executive Director of Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR) and was a member visiting faculty Dept. of Peace & Conflict Studies, NUML, and School of Politics & IR, Quaid-I- Azam University, Islamabad