Dr Saeed Ahmad Ali
Lahore, The innocent people of the disputed territory of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have been faced with an unending ordeal of terror and trauma at the hands of Indian occupying forces.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmir in 1948, 1965, and 1999, but have been unable to settle the dispute. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent, millions of Kashmiris felt unsafe and uncertain about their fate. They were required to accede to either of the two countries based on their wishes and their geographical location.
Since 1947, Article 370 had given Jammu and Kashmir semi-autonomous constitutional status. Earlier, under its provisions, the region had freedom in all matters except its constitution, legislature, flag, foreign affairs, communications, and defense.
Anger has simmered in the region and the situation further worsened when the Modi-led regime on August 5, 2019, abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), by repealing Articles 370 and 35-A. The Modi-led BJP government has also imposed a lockdown in occupied Kashmir, allowing Indian forces to perpetrate unspeakable crimes against the masses, with complete impunity.
It is worth mentioning that in IIOJK, including other bodies, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference has strongly condemned the Modi-led fascist Indian government for forcibly implementing nefarious agenda by usurping all fundamental rights of the people of Kashmir, including social, political, economic, and religious rights.
Ending the old status of Kashmir is an attempt to usurp the rights of Kashmiri people by eradicating their fundamental rights related to their social, linguistic, cultural, economic, and political existence, former Chairperson, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Dr Mehdi Hasan told APP.
By abrogating Article 370 and Article 35A, the Indian parliament has illegally allowed non-Kashmiris to resettle in Kashmir permanently. Whereas actually, the Constitution of Kashmir first defines membership and settlement, Mehdi said. According to this amendment, non-Kashmiris are now allowed to buy property, keep it and settle in Kashmir permanently, he informed.
Moreover, the Indian forces were using rape, molestation, and sexual violence against women and children as a weapon of war, besides collective punishment, in a bid to suppress the legitimate freedom movement in the occupied valley,” Dr Mehdi informed.
Indigenous Kashmiris have faced threats to their existence as well as their inherited rights, especially ‘relative’ land rights. This will make indigenous peoples aliens. The former senator from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Sehar Kamran (TI) told the news agency that the latest controversy has been reported by international media that extrajudicial murders of Kashmiris have become a routine in the occupied territory.
Cruelty knows no bounds, and after the men were gunned down, their bodies were not returned to their families, she condemned adding that New Delhi was ’losing the battle of hearts and minds of people in occupied Kashmir.
The Indian occupation forces’ state terrorism, war crimes, and human rights violations had made life a nightmare for over one million oppressed Kashmiris, especially women, senior citizens, and children, she remarked.
Violating all fundamental rights, India had imposed a military siege on some 10 million Kashmiris by converting the territory into the biggest jail on earth, where over 900,000 Indian forces had been deployed with no regard for human rights, she lamented.
Since 1989, she said, the Indian occupation forces had committed the worst crimes, as more than 162,000 Kashmiris had been subjected to inhuman torture, including beatings with iron rods, stripping naked, heavy roller treatment, hanging from ceiling, electrocution, burning of the body with iron rods, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and other tortures including rape, molestation, and sodomy.
Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik’s wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick said that the RSS-inspired ‘Hindutva’ ideology being pursued by the BJP-led Modi government was a major threat to ‘foreign investment’ in India.
Mushaal Mullick said that the fascist Modi and the Indian Army were turning Kashmiris into a minority in the valley by issuing domiciles to Indian citizens. Over 100,000 Kashmiris had been killed by Indian forces since 1989, while more than 7,200 people were murdered in custodial torture by the Indian Army.
Replying to a query, she criticized India’s imperialistic and fascist approach to suppress every genuine and legitimate demand of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir Media Service (KMS) in its recent report said that nearly 11,000 women were raped by Indian soldiers and over 110,000 children become orphans, whereas around 23,000 women were made widows by the Indian troops.
Besides, the growing Indian atrocities in the occupied valley and the illegal August 2019 revocation have resulted in worldwide criticism of the extremist policies of the Modi-led government.
Chairman of the International Forum for Justice Human Rights Jammu and Kashmir, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, has appealed to the international community and world human rights organizations to hold India accountable for its state terrorism in the territory.
—Courtesy: APP
