THE people of Pakistan and Kashmiris around the world commemorate the 5th of February each year as Kashmir Solidarity Day. They reiterate their persistent support and send a loud and clear message to the world that Kashmiris are not alone in their struggle against the Indian occupying forces. This day is observed as a holiday all over Pakistan, involving the orchestration of conferences, seminars and rallies at the political level in parts of the country to highlight the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and human rights (HR) violations/atrocities being committed on the Kashmiris by the Indian security forces to crush their freedom struggle.
This year also, the 5th of February has been celebrated with full zeal and enthusiasm to show Pakistani people’s solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their struggle to get their right to self-determination. On this day, the Pakistani people highlighted and condemned the illegal actions of India. IIOJ&K has been under the brutal occupation of India for 76 years since partition. Despite United Nations resolutions calling for the determination of the will of the people of J&K state through a plebiscite, whether to accede to the state to Pakistan or India, India has failed all UNSC efforts to hold the plebiscite on flimsy grounds.
India has used above 700,000 forces to crush the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle, which they started in 1989.In the process, Indian security forces have committed endless killings, rapes, abductions, cold-blooded murders, and human rights (HR) violations. And, Pakistan and India have already fought two wars over the J&K state in 1965 and 1999 (in addition to the 1947/48 war). In utter violation of the UNSC Resolutions, on 5 August 2019, the Modi-led BJP government in India illegally amended the Indian Constitution, abrogated its articles 35 A and 370, took away state’s autonomy and divided it into two union territories under federal control.
To suppress the Kashmiris’ reaction to its 5 August 2019 illegal actions and crush their freedom struggle, the BJP has imposed Governor Rule in the IIOJ&K, has deployed above 900,000 security forces personnel and carried out a major crackdown in the state. The crackdown has continued for the last four years. While all the Kashmiri leaders and people have rejected the Indian government’s 5 August 2019 illegal action of taking away the state’s autonomy and dividing it into two union territories, to this day they are also protesting and asking India to reverse its illegal actions of 5 August 2019.
Pakistan also protested the 5 August 2019 actions and broke diplomatic and trade relations with India till it restored the pre-5 August 2019 position of IIOJ&K. The world media and many world leaders also condemned the Indian illegal action. According to BBC News dated 6 August 2019, Articles 35-A and 370 of the Indian Constitution allowed the J&K state’s part under Indian control a certain amount of autonomy, its Constitution, a separate flag and freedom to make laws. Article-370 also barred the Indians from outside the state from settling permanently or buying property in India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
Since 5 August 2019, the BJP government has been taking punitive measures to tighten New Delhi’s grip over IIOJ&K. The domicile law introduced in 2020 permits anyone who has lived in the region for 15 years or studied there for seven years to apply for a domicile certificate, will ultimately result in the state becoming another Palestine,” Badar-Ul-Islam Sheikh, a 29-year-old resident of the main city of Srinagar, told Al Jazeera.
The BJP government’s clampdown on the Kashmiris, which started a few weeks before 5 August 2019 continues to this day in many ways to break the will of the people of the state to continue with their freedom struggle. As stated by Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of the state, the last four years were “full of surveillance and raids by investigative agencies and enforcing laws leading to a change in the demographic makeup”.
Press freedom in IIOJ&K has witnessed an unprecedented crackdown since 2019. Any journalist who exposed HR violations by the Indian forces is branded as pursuing an anti-national agenda. “We have seen reporters facing summons, raids, detentions, no-fly-lists, and now passport seizures, a journalist told Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera News commented that at least 50 government employees in the India-occupied Kashmir have been terminated from their services since 2019 on vague charges of being a “threat” to the security of the state. “And, if one protests over unemployment, it is considered anti-national, and punished to break the Kashmiris’ will to resist”.
Now the BJP government in India is trying to hold the intended state assembly elections in the so-called J&K Union Territory. But the APHC has vowed to reject the farce elections and continue with its peaceful freedom struggle. Also, Umar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and their allies have stated that they will not take part in any farce state elections till the pre-5 August 2019 position of the state is restored.
That, to get their right to self-determination as granted to them by the UNSC resolutions, the leadership and the people of the IIOJ&K should vow to remain united/steadfast to continue with their peaceful freedom struggle, to draw world pressure on the Indian government to restore IIOJ&K’s pre-5 August 2019 status and to start a dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the J&K dispute in the light of the UNSC resolutions. Pakistan should continue to provide its moral, political, and diplomatic support to the people of IIOJ&K till India starts a dialogue with it to resolve the J&K dispute in light of the UNSC resolutions.
—The writer is also a former Research Fellow of IPRI and Senior Research Fellow of SVI, Islamabad
Email: hanifsardar@hotmail.com
views expressed are writer’s own.
