Indian and Pakistani guns have decided to stay calm from both sides of the cease fire line. The loss of civilian life and of the two warring soldiers has come to an end. It is a fraction of the Kashmir tragedy because Indian army has killed a generation of around 100,000 Kashmiri youth. It has profiled the rest into five categories, for a daily killing. Indian soldiers kill 3-5 Kashmiri youth daily. The relief in fact has been secured for civilians living on the Azad Kashmir side and others living in the proximity of the border. The main theatre of killing in the Valley is still hot.
There is a UN brokered cease fire since January 1949 and UN Military Observer Group is stationed to report any violation of the cease fire line to the situation centre in New York. Therefore, one should not expect India and Pakistan to use Kashmir border and cause death and damage to a people, that both countries want to live with.
What are the merits of an accession with India or with Pakistan, if both countries either on purpose or by implication cause death and disturb these people? The military leadership on both sides should address this question. Armies around the world have given up their killing instincts and they are engaged in peace building and are helping in the development of communities.
Hurriyat leaders squandered precious time and golden opportunities on political tourism and relishing protocol. It is unfortunate that they failed to institutionalise and broaden the base of constitutional discipline
India and Pakistan have to co-exist and cannot continue to invoke the enemy image of each other for long. It is also clear and needs to be made clearer that Indian soldiers cannot keep on killing the people of Kashmir (Muslims in particular) and get away without a punishment. American President Joe Biden has broken with his predecessors and called the mass murder of Armenians a century ago in what is now Turkey a genocide.
India needs to bear in mind that deaths in Kashmir have been documented in newspaper columns, in civil society reports and in the OHCHR reports. The Kashmir situation has been factored by Genocide Watch to have passed seven out of ten alerts of a genocide. Genocide Watch has profiled Kashmir situation as an unfolding case of genocide on the following factors:
1. Prior genocidal massacres and continuing impunity for such killings;
2. Continued armed conflict between India and Pakistan over border areas in Kashmir;
3. An exclusionary ideology of “Hindutva” – India as Hindu nation – by Modi’s ruling BJP;
4. Authoritarian military rule without legal restraints imposed by civilian Indian officials;
5. Rule by a minority military force (Hindus and Sikhs) over majority Muslim citizens;
6. Cut-off of communications and outside access by internet, media, and trade;
7. Widespread violations of basic human rights – torture, rape, 2-year detentions without charge, arbitrary arrests and deportations of Muslim political and human rights leaders.
According to this alert Genocide Watch’s Ten Stages of the genocidal process are also far advanced:
1. Classification: Hindu and Sikh Indian Army “us” vs. Kashmiri Muslim civilian “them;”
2. Symbolization: Muslims have Muslim names (on ID cards), Kashmiri language, dress, mosques;
3. Discrimination: Hindu pandits were economically dominant until 1990; BJP reasserted Hindu power;
4. Dehumanization: Muslims are called “terrorists”, “separatists,” “criminals,” “insurgents;”
5. Organization: 600,000 (900,000 since 5 August 2019) heavily armed Indian Army troops and police dominate Kashmir;
6. Polarization: Modi and the BJP incite anti-Muslim hatred; social media spread falsehoods;
7. Preparation: The Indian Army occupies Kashmir; BJP leaders speak of the “Final Solution” for Kashmir;
8. Persecution: Kashmiri Muslims are locked down, subject to arrest, torture, rape, and murder;
9: Extermination: Genocidal massacres occurred during Partition; since 1990, there have been at least 25 massacres with death tolls over 25: 10 of Muslims by Indian troops; 15 of Hindus by Muslim militants;
10. Denial: Modi and BJP say their goals are to “bring prosperity” and “end terrorism”; they deny any massacres. No Indian Army troops or police are ever tried for torture, rape or murder. Modi’s takeover is popular in India.
Genocide Watch has called upon the United Nations and its members to warn India not to commit genocide in Kashmir. The law of limitation does not impact the consequences of any human rights abuses. Therefore future generation’s even centuries later would bring Indian atrocities into the attention of a sympathetic Indian and non-Indian audience.
Genocide alert would not hold India and Pakistan back from a realisation that they need to engage and control their losses. In the last couple of days the non-availability of oxygen and vaccine to Indian citizens and the chaos in the Indian hospitals has humbled Modi Government and has forced it to realise that India would only shine if there is a bed and an oxygen cylinder available to a Covid patient in a hospital. Indian citizens or others of Indian origin are barricaded at all the airports and entry points around the world.
The divine intervention all over India must have sent shivers down the spine of Indian army stationed in Kashmir and others who had gone mad in the use of brute force to suppress and colonise the Kashmiri Muslims. Science tells us that no one is safe unless all are safe from COVID. New Delhi wanted to use gun and Covid virus to decimate the Kashmiri Muslim. A divine intervention has spoiled its plans in Kashmir. We wish health to all affected in India and sympathise with those who are grieving on the loss of their loved ones.
These may be very difficult times in India and Pakistan but there is a mood to turn the pages in their relationship. We see that India has shepherded all Kashmiri leadership out of the State and has lodged them in Tihar and other jails. All political activity in the valley is banned. Freedom of expression and assembly and activities on social media are non-existent. Valley has been turned into a land of ‘zombies’. We do not have a reliable representation for the India-Pakistan peace table.
Even if we had these leaders out of jail today, they are not trained in the art of engagement and negotiations. They are respectable people but not experts in the discipline of dialogue. It was this reason that the five (4+1) proved as “squares in round holes” in their visits to Delhi and Islamabad. The tale of their meetings with Advani and Vajpayee is told by RAW chief A S Dulat at pages 266 and 267 of his book “Kashmir the Vajpayee years”.
Hurriyat leaders squandered the precious time and golden opportunities in political tourism and tasting the protocol. Other than Syed Ali Shah Gilani and Shabir Ahmad Shah, the rest were always riding the Chariot. It is unfortunate that they failed to institutionalise and broad base the constitutional discipline.
Indian Government has no reason to take them as prisoners but even when they were at liberty, they seem to have ignored to do the home work. They could have put together a strong contingent of Kashmiri experts (even non Kashmiri) from those living in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and the Diaspora. Dr. Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai and Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani could have helped them, as they did during Islamic Summit of December 1994 in Casablanca, in putting together a strong and reliable team of experts to help them in engagements in Delhi and Islamabad.
The five suffered from a trust deficit as well. Trust flows from the faith and respect for each other’s abilities and strengths. Unfortunately our leadership proved to be mediocre, selfish and without a vision. It is the strength of argument and your expertise that travel across the table. We are working hard for their release but we need experts to sit across with India and Pakistan.
The author is President of London based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations