“Twilight of heaven Kashmir”

Time is the incessantly ongoing activity of the heavenly bodies in motion. It takes the minor and the major incidents of humans in its fold, blanketing them with the dust and dreary darkness into mass grave of oblivion under the inexplicably pervading law of nature. India’s war in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir stretches over seventy-two long years. It has been fought by an occupational force of over seven hundred thousand troops which are seven times the maximum number of troops deployed at any time by the Soviet Union or US-Nato in Afghanistan. The region has been violently disputed by India and Pakistan since their 1947 partition, which created Pakistan as the Muslim counterpart to Hindu-majority India.

 “History is neither for excuses nor for revenge”

From many years, every Friday, there is a protest and war intermingled between Indian troops and people of Jammu Kashmir. In past 27 year, 40,000 innocent Kashmiri people have been brutally murdered by the Indian Army troops which means four people died daily. Responsibility for mass murder and genocide by Indian Hindus who are as brutal as Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. Hindus are turning India into an international pariah, tearing apart its social fabric and erodes its ability to cling on to Kashmir.

This Conflict is 72-year-old when partition of subcontinent took place. The partition was on piece of papers and the leader of Muslims Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Sardar Vallahbhai Patel of Hindus were both struggling to separate majority Muslims and Hindu provinces through plebiscite. In Sub continent there were three major states; Junagarh, Kashmir and Hyderabad, which were gall bladder to Sardar Patel but the biggest problem was Hyderabad (Muslim Majority state) because it was in the heart of India and he was not willing to give Muslim majority state to Pakistan because of geographical and security reasons. He maintained that if Hyderabad was going with Pakistan it would be “Cancer in the belly of India”. He was not willing to take Kashmir in India but Kashmiri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi were not yearning to give Kashmir to Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted to prove two nation theory wrong by taking majority Muslim state into India to prove a peaceful secular state. Later on, in 1940s Sheikh Abdullah, a Kashmiri leader and friend of Jawaharlal Nehru was willing to unite with India but Raja Hari Singh, the ruling maharaja was not in favour of India, because of Heist of power so he sent STAND STILL Agreement to both Pakistan and India in which he stated that both countries shall continue their previous arrangement until there is no solution of Jammu Kashmir and both countries signed that agreement.

Afterwards, on dispute of Instrument of Accession, Pakistani militant group attacked Jammu Kashmir. Raja Hari Singh was helpless so he asked the help from India and India on certain terms and conditions agreed to help and first war in 1948 was fought between two countries. United Nation jumped into the matter and asked to both the countries to pull back their forces as India will remain their forces in short list to maintain the peace in valley. It wasn’t settled until a 1949 cease-fire brokered by the United Nations and a resolution calling for a referendum, or plebiscite, allowing Kashmiris to decide their future for themselves. India has never implemented this resolution. Instead, India has maintained what amounts to an occupying army in Kashmir, cultivating more resentment amongst the locals than fertile agricultural products. Modern Indian founders, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi both had Kashmiri roots, which partially explains India’s attachment to the region. To India, +”Kashmir for the Kashmiris” means nothing. Indian leaders’ standard line is that Kashmir is “an integral part” of India.

In 1965, India and Pakistan fought their second of the three major wars since 1947 over Kashmir. The United States was largely to blame for setting the stage for war. The cease-fire three weeks later was not substantial beyond a demand that both sides put down their arms and a pledge to send international observers to Kashmir. Pakistan renewed its call for a referendum by Kashmir’s mostly Muslim population of 5 million to decide the region’s future, in accordance with 1949 UN resolution. India continued to resist conducting such a plebiscite

From past 72 years both the countries are at dagger drawn situation as India is unwilling to have a plebiscite in Jammu Kashmir to determine the wishes people. The strained relationship between the two countries has caused a huge loss in past 72 years, in which fundamental rights, freedom and every other right of Jammu Kashmir people has been denied.

In recent days’ Indian ruthless government deiced Article 370 and 35-A from Indian Constitution. It is now evident that Modi and his BJP-RSS cohort, a ‘final solution’ for Kashmir (through demographic transformation) and hostility towards Pakistan. They are not merely electoral artifices but they are part of their supremacist vision of a Hindu India that is to be ruthlessly realized.  Pakistan has had to adjust quickly to this ugly reality.

No doubt time is great healer but the worst master also. What we as humans are suffering today is part of the nemeses our sins and abuses of the Divine gifts have invoked. The human history under the Law of Nature never forgives rather it keeps the “truth” afloat for the posterity through infinity. This devastating history and present situation is the outcome of our negligent and non-performance of foreign policy makers and leaders. The new leadership may be good at giving statements but is unable to deliver because of old play cards. To resolve “Kashmir Issue” leadership has to make our country’s social economic structure more stable otherwise, we are going to lose a great war which is against ourselves in our own country. Despite all the handicap of the present regime in Pakistan, their firm and immediate response on the early diplomatic front is commendable. Similarly, suspension of diplomatic relations to a lower level and termination of trade was also very effective. Approaching to the UN and human rights organizations and the initiative to raise Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council show the boldness of Pakistan Government.

It is so tragic to note that like the Palestine-Israeli conflict, the conflict over Kashmir remains unresolved and like the Palestine-Israeli conflict, it is the source, and perhaps the key, to peace in region far greater than the territory in dispute.  

The writer is a legal practitioner and columnist. He tweets @legal_bias and can be reached at shahrukhmehboob4@gmail.com.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt