On April 22, a ghastly terrorist incident took place at Pahalgam, in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. It warrants unqualified condemnation, and its perpetrators must face the full rigour of the law.
There is little evidence of whether the perpetrators were foreign, state or indigenously orchestrated. India blames Pakistan. The latter has denied involvement. Pakistan knows it was a false flag incident, but publicly has called for an impartial, competent, credible and transparent inquiry. India is in no mood to hold any such investigations. This is worse than a crime. It is a blunder. Chanakya’s soul must be writhing in frustration. Such an inquiry by an authoritative international body would have benefited India. She could have presented the world, the United Nations Security Council, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice with the forensic truth.
Historically, India is known to have orchestrated false flag operations. The Pahalgam incident may well be one. If so, the Hindutva Modi has emulated the Nazi Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 3, 1939 under a false casus belli. Modi does not grasp the fact that his India is not Hitler’s Germany, and Pakistan is not Poland. This could be the reason for India’s refusal for a credible inquiry. The government’s reaction immediately after the incident, the public and media’s hysterical war mongering, suggests a plausible false casus belli (a false reason for war). India’s subsequent use of force against Pakistan reinforces such a plausibility.
The United Nations’ members have conferred on the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Indian leaders would have acted wisely and served their country and the world better if they had moved the Security Council.”
India’s course of action defies logic. She promptly blamed Pakistan. Threats of force were repeated ad nauseam. Planning, preparation, initiating and waging a war of aggression against Pakistan and its civilian population ensued: a crime against peace. Furthermore, India violated Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
After cold deliberations, India chose to inflict collective punishment on the people of Pakistan through aggression, which is a crime under international humanitarian law. All intended victims were civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Again, a crime under international humanitarian law.
Indian threats and use of force against Pakistan have left two nuclear powers teetering on the brink of a nuclear armageddon; nothing justifies or can justify the chain of events, causations or reactions leading to such an apocalyptic state of affairs.
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks against civilians. The proportionality rule prohibits attacks against military objectives that are expected to cause incidental loss to civilians disproportionate to the military advantage sought. India is in breach of its obligations to abide by the proportionality rule.
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter states:- “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of…self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations…” This article does not apply to India in occupied Kashmir: India cannot legally invoke its right of self-defence in occupied Kashmir; Pakistan can legally invoke article 51 after the Indian use of force against it.
To borrow slightly from Harry S. Truman, the former President of the US: Where does the buck stop? It stops with Shri Narendra Modi, otherwise known as the butcher of Gujarat: a criminal under international humanitarian law. His role in the massacre of 2000 Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and other heinous crimes is well documented. In 2005, the US declined to issue him a diplomatic visa, and the UK criticised his role in the Gujarat massacre. His government’s plots to kill Sikh separatists in the US and Canada are under investigation. Thirty-nine per cent of his cabinet ministers (28 out of 71) have criminal cases against them. It is a sad reflection of our times that Modi remains unprosecuted in India, the International Criminal Court and countries with universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity.
India’s actions are a strategic blunder. She has pushed China further into the Indo-Pak equation which is not in India’s interest. By setting the stage for a regional war, India has jeopardised her progression to economic and high tech superpower. She has seriously misjudged her opponent. Pakistan is far from a soft target. The Ukraine war has left Indian armaments short of spare parts, modernisation and enhanced supplies.
Modi’s embrace of another war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a blot on the conscience of Mahatma Gandhi’s India—the butcher of Gujarat in the arms of the butcher of Gaza as brothers-in-crime against humanity.
General Syed Asim Munir, the Chief of Pakistan Army, has emerged as the avenger of our past national humiliations. His prompt, practical actions against terrorists, Afghanistan, Iran, and now India have firmly established his reputation as a national redeemer. It appears that the Hindutva mind has misjudged him to their national detriment.
The writer is a lawyer and can be reached at sapmjsm@gmail.com
