THE movement demanding the right of self-determination, and ending the illegal Indian occupation of the State of Kashmir, continues, and the Indian state goes on using brutal repression in an attempt to end it. In its latest display of overreaction, the Indian forces fired upon a crowd in Baramullah, gathered for the funeral of a protester killed by the occupation forces earlier, wounding 39. As if to compound the bloodshed, there was also a ban slapped on the Kashmir Police Force, mostly Muslims like the population of the state, from offering taraweeh prayers. Not only does this prohibition fail to serve any useful purpose in making the movement die down, but it also exposes the hollowness of Indian claims to secularism, which have so impressed the world community, and which make freedom of religion their cornerstone. Kashmiri leaders, like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have already rejected the Indian blandishments which they had proffered at the All-Parties Conference, and by now New Delhi should have realised that nothing short of self-determination would meet Kashmiri aspirations. Thus, the UNSC Resolutions on the subject, which India had agreed to, and which call for a UN-supervised plebiscite, should be implemented, and this is all that India should be discussing, if it is indeed sincere about a just solution to the Kashmir problem. The repressive measures of the Indian state deserve widespread condemnation, even if India had no pretensions to being a democracy, which has caused the world community to pour over it undeserved adulation. This is something Pakistan should highlight, instead of bowing before Indian pressure in its desire to have talks. As the Mirwaiz has said, India only agrees to any talks on Kashmir when there is some pressure upon it, and when that pressure is removed, it claims that Kashmir is not a problem. This Indian attitude is the hurdle before which talks, whether with Pakistan or Kashmiri leaders, invariably break down. Until India changes this, and signals it clearly, neither Pakistan nor the Kashmiri leadership should dignify slaughter with talks.