Kashmiris Defiant on 63rd Anniversary of India's Military Occupation
By Riaz Haq
CA
Srinagar was completely shut down as Kashmiris continued to protest on the 63rd anniversary of India's brutal military occupation. As the occupation enters its 64th year, India continues to deploy over half a million troops who have killed hundreds of thousand of unarmed innocent civilians demanding freedom from Indian rule.
At least 110 people have been killed and thousands injured by Indian military and police since June in the latest series of entirely grassroots and homegrown protests leading up to yet another anniversary. A protest march was fired upon by the Indian forces that reportedly hurt five protesters who broke the ongoing punitive curfews in the valley on the anniversary.
" India is not scared of the guns here in Kashmir -- it has a thousand times more guns. What it is scared of is people coming out in the streets, people seeing the power of nonviolent struggle," says Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the senior leader of the moderate wing of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, Hurriyat, and a key organizer of the current civil disobedience campaign that began in 2008, filling the air with chants of azadi. The number of armed attacks in the valley, meanwhile, has dropped to its lowest since the insurgency began in 1989, according to Indian officials.
How has India responded to the peaceful movement for freedom in Kashmir? Not recognizing the reality of change on the ground, the Indian government has attempted to demonize the struggle as LeT-led terrorism. Beyond that, it has continued to use force against unarmed, peaceful civilian protesters on the streets of Kashmir. Wall Street Journal reported the situation in Kashmir in late 2009 as follows: Indian troops often resorted to lethal force, killing more than 50 Kashmiri civilians. Scores of protesters and separatist politicians have been thrown behind bars or placed under house arrest. Indian officials say these detentions are necessary to preserve public peace, and that the troops have to use force to maintain law and order. Some half a million Indian soldiers and policemen remain deployed in the Indian-administered part of Jammu and Kashmir, home to 10 million people. (About 5 million people live in Pakistani-held Kashmir.) Indian laws grant troops in Kashmir almost total immunity from prosecution, including in cases of civilian deaths. Srinagar, once India's prime tourist destination, is dotted by checkpoints, its indoor stadium, cinemas and hotels surrounded by sandbags and converted into military camps. Broadcast media are censored ... As Kashmir descended into chaos after these killings of innocent civilian demonstrators, India responded with increasingly severe curfews and lockdowns that continue. Often they come without prior warning or formal announcement, as in Srinagar over the past weekend.
Now it's not just the Kashmiri civilians who are being muzzled and killed by Delhi. The Indian government has recently turned its attention to Indian rights activists like Ms. Arundhati Roy who is now being threatened with arrest for speaking out on behalf of the oppressed Kashmiris. In response to a question put to her by The Guardian, Ms. Roy said: "I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world;for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state."
Even as Ms. Roy expressed support for Kashmiris' inalienable right to self-determination, she told the Kashmiris that she was "hurt" by one particular anti-India slogan ringing in the valley: "Nanga Bhooka Hindustan, Jaan Se Pyara Pakistan". It is understandable that, as a patriotic Indian, she found the slogan offensive.
As a potential nuclear flashpoint between India and Pakistan, Kashmir remains probably the most dangerous unresolved international disputes in the world. To a large context, other issues in the region such as the situation in Afghanistan are linked to India-Pakistan rivalry rooted in Kashmir. It is therefore very important for world leaders to learn about it, pay attention to it, and help resolve it.
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a prominent Pakistani peace activist and physics professor, has produced a video on Kashmir which makes the following points:
1. Nationalist and religious fervor has been on the rise in both India and Pakistan with Kashmir as the flashpoint
2. Diverse people of Kashmir are trapped in the middle.
3. Over 100,000 Kashmiris have died, many have sought refuge in Pakistan, with Hindu pandits seeking refuge in India.
4. Hindu pandits are a privileged class in Kashmir. A 1990 study showed that 86% of senior government jobs are held by pandits.
5. Kashmiri Muslims are mostly impoverished.
6. Resentment against pandit domination has boiled over, with tragic consequences for Kashmiri pandits, some of whom have been killed or driven out of their homes.
7. Both Kashmiri Muslims and Hindu pandits have been massacred by extremists on both sides.
8. All elections in Kashmir have been heavily rigged by the Indian government.
9. Indian police, paramilitary and armed forces supporting Kashmir government are seen as an occupation force by almost all Kashmiri Muslims who are demanding "azadi".
10. Indian forces have continued to use overwhelming and lethal force against Kashmiri civilians.
11. Pakistan intervened in Kashmir in 1990s, and armed and trained Afghan Jihadis to fight in Kashmir, and encouraged Pakistanis to join the Kashmir Jihad against India.
12. Many Kashmiri pandits want India to invade and destroy Pakistan.
13. Extremists like VHP leader Praveen Togadia have jumped in; they want India to conquer Pakistan.
14. India's right-wing parties have flourished, as Kashmir has continued to be troubled.
15. BJP has changed the history books and the entire school curriculum to minimize or remove Islamic contributions, and emphasized Hindu kingdoms.
16. Right-wing Pakistani parties have influenced Pakistani textbooks as a means of indoctrination against Hindus.
17. Roots of anger still lie in the way the partition was carried out in 1947.
18. Nehru pledged plebiscite in Kashmir, but then went back on it.
19. Pakistan's President Ayub miscalculated by sending troops into Indian Kashmir. India responded by crossing the international border into Pakistan. The war ended with no gains for either side.
20. Siachin remains the highest battlefield.
21. Shockwaves were sent across the world by nuclear tests by both nations in 1998.
22. Pakistan's Kargil intrusion was a disaster with major casualties on both sides.
23. Nawaz Sharif's decision to pull out of Kargil was seen as a humiliation for Pakistan. Pakistan military soon forced Sharif out, and Gen Musharraf took control.
24. Military again dominated life in Pakistan in all matters, including civilian governance.
25. In 2001, Kashmiri militants attacked Indian parliament, and India responded by massing troops on Pakistani border, as the two nations came close to war.
26. India has been brutal in suppressing minorities, denying even the basic rights to them in Kashmir and elsewhere.
27. Creation of Bangladesh has shown that Islam is not enough to bind Pakistanis together into a nation.
28. Many Kashmiris want independence from both India and Pakistan. Neither Pakistan nor India accept the idea of an independent Kashmir.
Hoodbhoy's video is a rather long 46-minute presentation requiring patience, but I found the video to be the most honest account of the Kashmir problem which is surrounded by all kinds of misinformation, disinformation and spin from all sides. Hoodbhoy puts it in historical context, shows the cynical role of politicians and extremists on both sides, and talks about the realities of the Kashmir tragedy as it affects both Kashmiri Muslims and Hindu pandits who have been dispossessed and dispersed, and how it has led to the radicalization of the population on both sides.
The footage of late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's pledge of the plebiscite to the people of Kashmir to decide their own fate can be seen and heard for about 23 minutes in the 46-minute video.
I recommend this video to any one interested in understanding the Kashmir issue in depth and how it has drastically polarized the people South Asia.
Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLnuglrW34&feature
The continued Indian occupation of Kashmir is neither legal nor moral. It's illegal because it violates the Security Council Resolutions 47(1948) of 21 April, 1948, 51(1948) of 3 June, 1948, 80 (1950) of 14 March, 1950 and 91(1951) of 30 March, 1951, that are binding on all UN member nations. It's immoral because it breaks repeated pledges to the people of Kashmir in the late-40s and early-50s by Indian prime minister and various Indian officials.
As Hoodbhoy points out in the video, Kashmir has become the cause celeber for the radicals on both sides of the border and threatens the future of all of South Asia. Settling Kashmir is crucial to defeat the extremists and bring some normalcy to relations between India and Pakistan that could eventually lead to a regional SAARC common market greatly benefiting all of South Asia.
