In a seminar titled “Critical Phase of Kashmir Movement and Responsibility of Human Community,” attended by leading retired diplomats, journalists and some military figures, government was admonished for not pursuing the Kashmir cause with the required vigour and vehemence. The Pakistan Institute of National Affairs had organised the seminar. The general sentiment had been that most of the political parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had thrown the Kashmir issue way down their priority list, and that it was mentioned only when a crisis brewed in Kashmir.
The Kashmir Committee under the chairmanship of Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, chief of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, was called a burden on the national exchequer, while the chairman an opportunist who has been using the committee’s privileges for furthering his political interests. There was a unanimous demand for disbanding the committee. New parliamentarians with a committed vision on Kashmir should be appointed instead, some speakers argued. Maulana, it was noted, has reduced the Kashmir cause to mere rituals. There was a general observation that the Islamic countries and the rest of the world have been ignorant of the plight of the Kashmiris. However, the restraint shown by Pakistan in forming public opinion for Kashmiris, both home and abroad, was considered more chilling
and poignant.
The new wave of “insurgency” in Kashmir neither has the support of Pakistan in the way it had in the early 1990s nor is the old Kashmiri leadership, such as that of Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, being considered the only “saviours” to lead from the front. In fact, the father of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahedeen commander killed by the Indian security forces on July 8, 2016, is emerging as the leader of the protest movement in the valley.
Many young people in Kashmir are the offspring of the deceased and the survivors of the “freedom movement” in the 1990s when the valley was reduced to a ghost state with half-widows and half-orphans. Freedom for the youth, as was for their ancestors, is primarily freedom from the state terrorism that India has perpetrated against the Kashmiris. The “freedom struggle” does have Pakistan’s mark on it. However, there is an independent view emerging that sees Kashmir as a separate entity free from the clutches of this or that state.
General (Retd) Ghulam Mustafa reinforced this viewpoint during the discussion in the seminar. He emphasised that with this new turn, the role of Pakistan in the freedom movement not only changes but also assumes greater significance as a facilitator and promoter of the Kashmir cause in the world. It was demanded of Pakistan to influence public opinion for Kashmiri people.
The new role notwithstanding, some inevitable questions arise about Pakistan’s position as the arbitrator.
One: does Pakistan have the moral ground to influence public opinion for Kashmiris?
Two: does Pakistan’s Kashmir policy over the decade has left it with a choice to seek international communities’ attention to Indian atrocities against the Kashmiris?
Three: what is the status of India in the world comity vis-à-vis Pakistan to lend it the power to convince the world that Kashmir matters even if India’s economic strength shines?
The recent carnage in Quetta, where almost 75 people have died, most of them lawyers, has pushed Pakistan once again to a vulnerable position. A country, not stable within, can it even raise the voice for the instability and political unrest inflicting Kashmir? A country that cannot protect its people from suicide bombers, can it protest the death of Burhan Wani on the hands of Indian security forces deployed in Kashmir? A country whose political leadership has failed to strengthen its law enforcement institutions and allow its people to be robbed, fleeced and killed by each other, can it raise a finger at India’s leadership for making Kashmir a dungeon of human rights?
There is no denial that Kashmir is bleeding from human rights atrocities, and that the spectre of state’s brutal policies has currently reduced Kashmir to a ghost state. Since the killing of Wani, the valley has been in the grip of the worst violence meted out to innocent Kashmiris in years. So far more than 65 people have died in the clashes between the Kashmiri protesters and the Indian security forces. Pellet wounds have rendered many young people blind. These shots are targeted at the face and chest of protestors. Most of the dead are young men. This new wave of state terrorism is being seen as genocide to eliminate a whole generation of young
Kashmiri males.
In today’s world, it is hard to hide reality. No matter how many bans are imposed on the Internet and other mediums of communication, information sneaks out. The world is abreast of the atrocities being inflicted on Kashmiris. They might have closed their eyes to it as they usually close their eyes to the barbaric treatment meted out to the people of Gaza by Israel. But for Pakistan to become the harbinger of peace for the Kashmiris in the comity of world nations would remain a far cry unless its own house is first put in order. It sounds dubious when we seek the right for the Kashmiris to live a dignified life when our people are living in misery and pain.
The writer is a journalist. She can be reached at [email protected]