By Sardar Khan Niazi
Keeping in view the Indian PM Modi’s machinations to change unilaterally the status of the Indian illegally occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), the solidarity day celebrated throughout Pakistan has special significance.
This day revives the cultural, religious, and geographical proximity the valley enjoys with Pakistan. In order to maintain its illegal control, India has continued its repressive regime in IIOJK through various intrigues.
Indian Constitution, which claims India is a secular state, was torn into pieces on August 5, 2019, when the Modi-led Indian government revoked articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the IIOJK.
Indian government bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal government. On the same day, the imposition of strict military lockdown took place in the IIOJK that continues unabated.
The Kashmir dispute is key to ensuring peace, security, and stability in the region. The only viable option is to settle this humanitarian issue in accordance with the UNSC resolutions. Pending UN resolutions need implementation.
There are continuous human rights violations by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. Human rights organizations like United Nations Council on Human Rights, Asia Watch, Amnesty International, and even Indian HR organizations have continuously been raising their voices about the manner Indian security outfits are treating Kashmiris.
Pakistan would continue to support the indigenous struggle of Kashmiris by extending unflinching political, moral, and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people. Enduring peace will only emerge if all disputes between India and Pakistan, especially the Kashmir dispute, are resolved.
Despite having deployed over 600,000 troops enabled by numerous draconian laws, India has not been able to suppress Kashmiris. Violation of International Humanitarian Law is an accepted norm and such acts are committed with impunity, as laws prevent recourse to justice by the victims of atrocities.
Occupied Kashmir is now an open prison. It remains militarized to the point of one soldier stationed for every 17 civilians. The deployment of more than 900,000 military troops in the IIOJK, who have martyred tens of thousands of Kashmiris, including women and children through brutal tactics-fake encounters, and closure of mosques, shortage of food, medicines for the patients have further worsened the plight of the Kashmiris.
Indian forces have been also availing various draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Public Safety Act, etc. in martyring the Kashmiri people, and for the illogical arrest of any individual for an indefinite period. While, under a hidden agenda, the Modi-led regime has intensified, bringing demographic changes in the IIOJK.
In this context, Indian various moves such as allowing Indian citizens to buy land in the IIOJK, issuance of domicile certificates to more than 800000 non-Kashmiris, and registration of almost 2.5 million new non-local voters in the IIOJK are noteworthy.
Actually, the very tragedy of Kashmiris started after 1947 when they were denied their genuine right to self-determination. They organized themselves against the injustices of India and launched a war of liberation, which New Delhi tried to suppress through various forms of state terrorism.
Since 1989, various forms of state terrorism have been part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian army and paramilitary forces against Muslim Kashmiris. It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacres, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounters.
Every year, people throughout Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir observe solidarity day to express unwavering political, moral, and diplomatic support for the just struggle of Kashmiri brethren, as enshrined in the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions.
