In the persistently prevailing horrible circumstances, it is also very necessary to frequently keep on highlighting the worsening human rights situation in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to draw the attention of the international community and human rights organizations towards the miserable life of the humanity in complete lockdown for more than three years.
There is no denying the fact that the ever-deteriorating situation in IIOJK has always been a matter of great concern and worry for global human rights watchdogs who have been time and again raising alarm over the gross and systematic violations of human rights being continuously committed with impunity by the occupying Indian security forces. But regrettably, human rights organizations as well as the international community do not put pressure on India in any manner other than merely expressing concern. The human rights situation in the occupied territory has stooped so low, particularly after India’s Modi regime stripped it of its autonomous status unilaterally on August 5, 2019. The imperialistic decision was quite rightly criticized by independent observers as an act of colonialism, pushing Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir into a quagmire of uncertainty and chaos.
The dissolution of the state and reducing its status from that of a state to a union territory and bringing it under New Delhi’s direct control was an atrocious assault on the rights of the people that has inflicted terrible psychological trauma on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The Modi regime’s actions are obviously in gross violation of the Security Council resolutions, the Charter of the United Nations, and international law. There has been a massive upsurge of state violence that has resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, particularly the youth who were killed during a cordon and search operations (CASO) and fake encounters staged by the Indian security forces and secret agencies. The toxic Hindutva ideology of RSS–BJP has resulted in the systematic targeting of Kashmiri youths through extra-judicial killings.
Apart from the deaths, the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, harassment of the unarmed innocent Kashmiris, arbitrary arrests of the youth, persecution of the political leaders, ban on human rights organizations, and a witch hunt against the dissenters especially the rights activists, media houses and journalists, at the hands of occupation authorities has made an already situation gloomy situation even worse.
Impunity for human rights violations and inaccessibility of the right to justice is among the main challenges facing the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory. The draconian laws in IIOJK i.e., Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act provide impunity to the occupying Indian security forces. The Kashmiri’s sufferings at the hands of the occupying security forces can be categorized as custodial killings, civilians arrested, enforced disappearances, structures destroyed/arson, women widowed, women half widowed, women gang-raped and molested, pellet victims particularly the Kashmiri youth, mass graves, and children orphaned.
As the civilian and military leadership as well as the people of Pakistan along with the Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and around the globe celebrate Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 05, 2023, it is pertinent to mention here that they emphatically demand revocation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August 5, 2019, unilateral action which ended the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Furthermore, there is a dire need for creating awareness among the international community about the lingering unresolved nature of the Kashmir dispute, which remains a flashpoint between the two neighboring nuclear powers and stresses to the United Nations that the world somehow continues to fail to enforce the resolutions of the Security Council. The international community also needs to be awakened from its deep slumber and be reminded of its obligations towards Kashmiris who are waging an unarmed indigenous freedom movement for the last many decades. The unilateral and illegal actions of India’s fascist Modi regime are direct violations of the UN Security Council’s resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, the United Nations Charter, and international laws. The Fourth Geneva Convention as paragraph 6 of Article 49 clearly says “that the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
As the stringent lockdown continued in IIOJK, about two years back the Indian government announced a new domicile law for the occupied territory. Under it, thousands of Hindus have been granted domicile certificates thus raising fear of demographic changes in IIOJK. The indigenous Kashmiris are thus threatened to lose their political and cultural identity, their rightful demographic majority, and ownership of their properties in their homeland. This was in furtherance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy of continuing to promote Hindutva at all costs and persisting with state terrorism not only in the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir, but also against Muslims and other minorities in India in a ruthless manner. It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Modi is currently serving his second term and is preparing the ground through his Hiindutva mindset for getting a third term. India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was elected consecutively for three terms though he had expired before completing the third term.
Pakistan, through its civil and military leadership over the years, has activated and agitated the Kashmir issue at UN General Assembly and other international forums, continuously urging the international community to play its role in ensuring the Kashmiris get their fundamental right of self-determination in accordance with the Security Council resolutions. Pakistan, through Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has been raising the Kashmir issue at all international forums and highlighting the urgent need in their interaction with world leaders, urging them to raise their support for an end to ongoing atrocities and brutalities and gross human rights violations in IIOJK.
Pakistan’s government and people are continuing to extend their moral, political, and diplomatic support to their Kashmiri brethren and agitating over the Indian brutalities and atrocities on unarmed Kashmiris. Pakistan is also persistently exerting pressure on United Nations to put more pressure on New Delhi to implement 75 years old Security Council resolutions and let the Kashmiris decide their future themselves. Thee much evasive durable peace in the region hinges on peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute. Despite all hostile and inhuman measures by the Indian government over they years, the Kashmiri indigenous struggle is continuing, and their just struggle for freedom is bound to be victorious sooner than later, Inshallah.