Mowahid speaking at the Embassy of Pakistan on Kashmir
Kashmir Resistance Is Indomitable: Mowahid
By Link Staff Reporter
Washington, DC: The will of the Kashmir resistance cannot be subjugated, said Mowahid Hussain Shah, attorney, author, and Pakistan Link columnist, during his remarks on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day at a heavily-attended seminar convened at the Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, DC. With the Norwegian leader and parliamentarian, Lars Rise, listening, Mowahid cited how Norway resisted German occupation during World War II, and alluded to the ignominy of the fate of its collaborationist president, Vidkun Quisling, who was later shot.
The idea of resistance is sacrosanct and endures, posited Mowahid, alluding to the example of the young British Muslim girl, Noor Inayat – direct descendant of the “Tiger of Mysore” Tipu Sultan – who was martyred by the Gestapo in the Dachau death camp near Munich, and posthumously awarded the George Cross (the civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross, the nation’s highest) by the British government.
Mowahid Shah meeting Norwegian leader and parliamentarian, Lars Rise, on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day at the Embassy of Pakistan
The clearest living example is that of the inhabitants of Gaza, who have emerged taller and stronger, with their spirit unbroken despite impossible odds.
Mowahid referred to his meetings with imprisoned resistance leader, Yasin Malik, President of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, and his discussions with him in Washington, DC, focusing on how passing through the furnace of adversity can strengthen character and resolve.
During conversations later with audience members, Mowahid recalled meeting General Stanley McChrystal, Commander, United States Forces-Afghanistan, at his Washington, DC book launch in 2013. Mowahid told McChrystal that, if Kashmir and Palestine were justly resolved, 90% of militancy would evaporate.
Revealingly, General McChrystal had coined the concept of insurgent math, with this succinct explanation:
“There is another complexity that people do not understand. Let us say that there are 10 in a certain area. Following a military operation, two are killed. How many insurgents are left? Traditional mathematics would say eight would be left. But there are more likely to be as many as 20 because each one you killed has a brother, father, son, and friends, who do not necessarily think that
Mowahid addressing the International Kashmir Peace Conference, convened in Washington, DC, at the US Capitol, United States Congress Rayburn House Office Building, Gold Room, on July 20, 2006, with Yasin Malik, President, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, seated at far right
they were killed because they were doing something wrong. It does not matter – you killed them. Suddenly, then, there may be 20, making the calculus of military operations very different.”
McChrystal’s point was conclusively proven through the humiliating exit of Western forces from Afghanistan in August 2021. The message being loud and clear, that if America with all its military and technological might, couldn’t subdue Afghanistan in 20 years, could India do it in Kashmir?
