LA Pakistani Community Protests Indian Aggression
Los Angeles: A large number of Pakistani Americans gathered in Los Angeles on Wednesday to protest against the recent unprovoked violation of Pakistan airspace by the Indian Air Force.
Holding banners and placards and spiritedly chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, ‘Long Live USA’, and ‘Kashmir Ko Azad Karo’, the protesters waved Pakistani and United States flags and listened to speeches before marching down the Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Tensions between Pakistan and India have been high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan last week, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for the February 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian planes and capturing a pilot, who was later returned to India in a peaceful gesture.
The LA protest proceedings began with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an. Several prominent members of the Pakistani-American community later addressed the charged gathering. They included Jamal Khawaja, Samin Faruqui, Dr Shoaib Patail, Mike Saifie, and Waqar Ali Khan.
Many Indian nationals belonging to the minorities in India - Kashmiri, Sikh and Christian - also joined the Pakistani Americans in the vociferous protest. Several of the Kashmiri and Sikh community leaders also addressed the gathering on the occasion.
The speakers unanimously denounced India’s aggression, motivated solely by political gains, and agreed that all issues between the two nuclear powers must be resolved through dialogue and peaceful talks rather than armed aggression and war.
Both the speakers and the crowd also expressed great concern about the mistreatment of minorities in India. The atrocities committed by India against the helpless people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir who are struggling to exercise their right of self-determination to decide their future was a truly heinous and barbaric crime that needed to be unreservedly censured and condemned by the world. The speakersexpressed solidarity with the Kashmiris who continue to suffer under the Indian state’s belligerent policies and the rampant Hindu nationalism that has gripped India.
Over 700,000 Indian troops are stationed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, ostensibly to rid the area of a few hundred militants that India claims are sponsored by Pakistan, but primarily to hold the population, which adamantly rejects Indian rule, completely captive.
The trope of Islamic radicalization fails to account for the structural violence that is embedded in the day-to-day lives of Kashmiris living under military occupation. Despite Indian assertions that Kashmir is an “integral part” of India, Kashmir remains an occupied territory, and has been disputed between Pakistan and India since 1947.
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