Kashmir has often
been described as the nuclear flashpoint of South Asia; and rightly so,
because it continues to be a disputed territory between two nuclear powers-
Muslim Pakistan and the predominantly Hindu India.
According to the principle of the partition of British India into two
independent states of Pakistan and India in 1947, Kashmir with its overwhelming
Muslim population and geographical contiguity with Pakistan had to be
a part of Pakistan rather than India. But the later, in flagrant violation
of that principle and the wishes of the people of Kashmir, invaded the
territory and occupied the major portion of that former princely state.
The part which had been liberated by Muslim freedom fighters became Azad
Kashmir and is now on Pakistan’s side. The rest of the former Kashmir
and Jammu state continues to be under Indian military occupation, its
people denied their basic rights, have been kept in perpetual subjugation
by India for the last 60 years. Today the strength of the Indian occupation
forces in Kashmir is 600,000; the largest concentration of the troops
deployed any where in the world.
The Kashmiri Muslims never accepted the Indian rule and have waged a continuous
struggle for their right to decide their political future. Their right
to self determination has been recognized and supported by the Security
Council of the United Nations since 1948. But India, dispute its earlier
assurances, has defied the United Nations resolution on one flimsy pretext
or the other.
India also had three wars with Pakistan in its effort to impose a military
solution of the Kashmir dispute on Kashmiri people and on Pakistan.
The Kashmiri Muslims have, however, stubbornly refused to accept the Indian
hegemony and have been fighting against the Indian yoke on all fronts.
Since 1989-90 the Kashmiris’ resistance has taken the form of armed
uprising and, little known to the outside world, almost 100,000 Kashmiri
Muslims have sacrificed their lives fighting the Indian occupation forces.
During the last 17 years hardly a day has passed without any incident
involving the Kashmiri militants and the Indian troops. It is a long tale
of atrocities- killings, torture, kidnapping, rape and arson- by the Indian
army and police on the Kashmiri Muslims. In the month of October ’07
alone, 73 Muslim youths were martyred in acts of state terrorism by Indian
troops. According to the Kashmir Media Service, five of the 73 persons
killed, died while in the custody of the Indian army, 66 people were arrested,
76 persons subjected to severe torture, 14 women were widowed, 28 children
were orphaned and 31 homes destroyed in mortar shelling.
Ever since the armed uprising 17 years ago, which the Indian government
has dubbed as terrorism, the troops have been given extensive powers and
violence has been intensified. Human rights violations in Indian occupied
Kashmir would even surpass Israel’s record in Palestinian territories.
Statistics show that 66590 incidents of violence took place in the area
during the last 18 years; the highest number of incidents, 5946 was recorded
in 1995.
During the last few years Pakistan has made unprecedented gestures towards
India to find a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute. It has even
offered to drop the condition of implementation of UN resolution. Pakistan
has also taken some unilateral steps to reduce the tension and ease the
movement of people across the Line of Control between the two parts of
Kashmir. Besides, President Pervez Musharraf has presented a four point
formula to India towards resolving the Kashmir dispute.
These gestures have kindled a ray of hope among the Kashmiris and brought
about some reduction in the armed resistance on the part of the Kashmiri
militants. But alas, Pakistan’s gestures have not evoked a reciprocal
response from India. There has been no reduction in the troops and no
real progress in the talks between the two countries. India has also been
keeping the Kashmiri people, the real party to the dispute, out of the
talks. In fact, India has been treating Pakistan’s gestures of peace
as an opportunity to consolidate its military hold over the occupied territory.
But the Kashmiris have been getting impatient. The world may witness a
new upsurge in the freedom movement in the Indian-held Kashmir before
long.
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