August 05 was observed as “Yum-e-Istehsal” [Exploitation Day] by Pakistan and the Kashmiris the world over to commemorate India’s illegal annexation of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) in 2019. This unilateral Indian action has violated the “Shimla Agreement” and various statutes of international laws. None of India’s neighbours is happy with its aggressive Kashmir policies.
From annexation of Jammu and Kashmir on August 05 last year to commencement of Ram Mandir construction on the site of Babri Mosque on August 05 this year marks Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s yearlong “Hate Muslim spree”; denoting “Istehsal” [exploitation] of Indian Muslims. Modi is a pathological Muslim hater, instead of giving up his game of sowing the seeds of hate he is likely to continue doing so in one way or the other.
In an exclusive July 27 interview to The Print, ahead of the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370, senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former cabinet minister of Jammu and Kashmir Naeem Akhtar described the decision as “marital rape”. Naeem Akhtar also spoke about the symbolism attached with the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 5 August 2020. “Why is this 5 August marked with Ram Mandir? Because the foundation stone of the Hindu Rashtra is Kashmir, which is now mortar brick and stone for Hindu Rashtra. Kashmir has been transformed into a Hindu versus Muslim problem something which the people of Kashmir did not believe in,” he said. Akhtar also launched a scathing attack on “Hindutva politics” of the BJP and said the prevailing geo-political situation in south Asia will not bode well.
However, just within one year, India stands isolated on Kashmir issue. China has emerged as a powerful party to the dispute. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is desperately looking for a face saving back tracking and restoration of statehood (provincial status) of Jammu and Kashmir. It is almost certain that the August 05 2019 Indian rash act to annul the statehood of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) shall be undone in due course through, Union government sponsored, yet dramatized, intervention by the Indian Supreme Court. Then after sometime, Articles 370 and 35A shall also be restored because any state assembly worth its salt would pass a resolution for doing so. Citizen Amendment Act shall also be watered down in due course.
In this regard the Indian government has given assurances to some of the politicians of IOJ&K and in all probability to international powers that be. The only pending element is that a narrative is to be evolved so that all these U-turns are sold to Indian people as a “Great Victory” easier said than done. Denial strategy is not a panacea for all ills. Modi is already in thick soup by denying China’s conquering of vast stretches of Indian territories in May-June 2020.
Over the year, the annexation issue has been extensively deliberated, the world over. Parliaments of over sixty countries reviewed the issue. The EU parliament has held discussions on Kashmir dispute in which it not only voiced concerns over the prevailing situation in IOJ&K but also demanded the resolution of outstanding dispute in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiri people. The Organisation of Muslim Cooperation (OIC) has also condemned the annexation. All leading Human Rights watchdogs have expressed their concern over the treatment of residents of annexed Jammu & Kashmir.
The UN Security Council has discussed it more than once. Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had effectively presented the case of Kashmiris before the 74th session of UN General Assembly. Pakistan’s political leadership is united on the Kashmir issue and Indian attempts to jeopardize this unanimity have been frustrated. Not only Pakistan and Kashmiri people have rejected India’s August 05 2019 illegal steps in IOJ&K, Indian political landscape is also divided on it. These Indian actions are aimed at ending the identity of Kashmiri Muslims in IOJ&K. Indian intentions were once again exposed to the world when they introduced the new domicile rule focused at changing the demography of the IOJ&K. Pakistan has decided to further enhance diplomatic outreach to significantly highlight the Indian oppressions in IOJ&K.
“The UN Security Council has discussed it more than once. Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had effectively presented the case of Kashmiris before the 74th session of UN General Assembly. Pakistan’s political leadership is united on the Kashmir issue and Indian attempts to jeopardize this unanimity have been frustrated. Not only Pakistan and Kashmiri people have rejected India’s August 05 2019 illegal steps in IOJ&K, Indian political landscape is also divided on it. These Indian actions are aimed at ending the identity of Kashmiri Muslims in IOJ&K.“
One year ago, suspense loaded events began to unfold like a horror movie. Thousands of additional law enforcing troops started converging on to Indian Occupied Kashmir, a Hindu pilgrim was cut short; rumour mill was in overdrive. On August 05, 2019 a law was enacted, while shortcutting the procedure, to revoke the special status of IOJ&K. Articles governing the special status were revoked, state status was dissolved and it was bifurcated into two Union Territories.
Any such action required approval by state assembly, that was on purpose dissolved and governor’s rule was imposed. Mischievously, an RSS goon had already been placed as state Governor “for representing the will of the people!” This nominated governor single-headedly and single handily advised his masters in New Delhi to do all this. Concurrent to proclamation of the order, an all comprehensive clampdown was imposed on IOJ&K. Electronic blackout and perpetual curfew brought everything to a standstill; even ambulances were prevented from reaching the Medicare facilities. These restrictions continue to haunt the Kashmiris one year down the time line.
Reorganisation Act 2019 and the J&K Reorganisation Order 2020 starkly contrast with the decades-old constitutional and demographic status of IOJ&K. The J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 bifurcated the Indian-held territory of J&K into two separate Union Territories (UT) i.e. the UT of Ladakh and the UT of J&K. It practically revoked the autonomy of the state legislature of J&K that was granted by Article 370. The J&K Reorganisation Order was enforced on April 01 2020. It disempowers the state legislature of J&K from ascertaining ‘permanent residents’ and their right to employment, as was provided under Article 35-A of the Indian constitution.
Before August 2019, the permanent residence of J&K was specific to the indigenous people of J&K, the new order seeks to grant UT of J&K ‘domicile’ to a wide range of Indian citizens. The order implemented in indecent haste invoked fierce bashing response from political parties of J&K.
The political establishment, including the right-leaning newly emerged J&K Apni Party deemed the order as irresolute. The People’s Democratic Party has demanded the order to be rolled back whereas the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Gillani has urged Pakistan and the international community to take note of the demographic change in the making. The left-leaning political stream of J&K state views the amendment as cosmetic in nature that overlooks the core concerns. Forced by the unprecedented political backlash, on April 3, the Indian government issued an amendment in the reorganisation order whereby, most importantly, all gazetted and non-gazetted jobs were reserved for the UT of J&K domicile exclusively.
Indian designs of fostering Hindu settlements in the internationally disputed territory of J&K had surfaced in November 2019, when the Indian Consul General in New York Sandeep Chakravorty was reported saying that an Israel-modelled settlement could be undertaken in J&K conveniently.
Generation after generation Kashmiri men, women and children have confronted and contested Indian occupation, brutality and incarceration. Pakistan continues to provide political and diplomatic support to the people of the occupied valley. India is violating international laws in the valley. The World must take note and warn Delhi about the implications of its actions in the region. The United Nations needs to take notice of Indian atrocities in the occupied valley. Indian siege can’t conquer aspiration of Kashmiri people and asks world community to restrain apartheid Indian state’s atrocities in held valley. But no amount of brutality can break the will of the Kashmiri people & aspirations for freedom from occupation. We salute their courage. Every Pakistani stands by them in their just struggle for self determination
Former India-appointed interlocutor on Kashmir, Radha Kumar, has said that everything has become worse in occupied Kashmir since August 05, 2019. Narendra Modi-led fascist government in New Delhi had repealed the special status of occupied Kashmir on 5th August last year and placed the territory under military siege, which still continues. Radha Kumar in an interview with Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia, said, “In this one year, everything has become worse. The alienation is worse, anger is stronger, cynicism is more pronounced and the sense that India wants to quash and humiliate Kashmiris is stronger”. She cited new measures taken by New Delhi such as a domicile law where outsiders can become residents of occupied Kashmir, a media policy to control the territory’s media and a building law allowing the Indian military to buy land and make a permanent structure that are fuelling strong resentment among people.
Radha Kumar is one of the 21 high-profile Indian and Kashmiri activists who prepared a report on Kashmir released a year into India’s lockdown of the territory. The 70-page report, “Jammu and Kashmir: The Impact of Lockdowns on Human Rights,” which was recently released by New Delhi-based Forum for Human Rights a rights body comprising prominent jurists, former diplomats and academicians said that the economic, social and political impact of India’s actions had been disastrous.
An informal group of prominent Indian citizens “Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir” has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to revoke harsh measures in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) by balancing security considerations with the public interest. The group including seven former senior judges of the Indian supreme court and chief justices of various high courts, five ex-top bureaucrats, and three senior retired Defence officers, in a report said the constitutional changes undertaken by the Indian government on Aug 5, 2019 have bewildered Kashmiris and left them stunned and dumbfounded. The group headed by Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur, a former judge of the Supreme Court and Radha Kumar, underlined that the absence of a multi-dimensional dialogue for settling the Kashmir issue between the New Delhi and Kashmiri leaders, and India and Pakistan, has given rise to anger, despondency, and despair among people.
The Group emphasised that impact of India’s actions has been “disastrous”. “The economic, social, and political impact of these actions, and their long duration eleven months thus far have been disastrous,” said the report. The group said the impact on education has been particularly severe. ”Schools and colleges functioned for barely 100 days between 2019 and 2020, the bulk of which were pre-August 2019,” the report documented. It further said after the Covid-related lockdown when schools and universities moved to online classes across the world, in Kashmir the permission of 2G facility instead of 4G did not allow digital learning.
The report said the events after August 2019 have plunged the region into a sharp downward spiral. Quoting trade bodies, the eminent citizens’ group recorded total losses incurred to the businesses over the last one year from August 2019-June 2020 have reached 400 billion rupees ($5.3 billion). In the first four months of lockdown, Occupied Kashmir’s industries had suffered a loss of 178 billion rupees ($2.4 billion). Demanding release of all remaining political detainees and juveniles who were taken into preventive detention on or after Aug 4, 2019, the former judges noted that dozens of public interest petitions challenging human rights violations did not receive prompt judicial attention.
The Baglihar Dam constructed by India in occupied Kashmir bears testimony to the enormous human costs associated with hydroelectricity projects, a new film reveals. “The human costs of the Baglihar dam” filmed and directed by journalist, Raqib Hameed Naik, was featured in the UK-based environmental news organization, The Third Pole. The film talks about how Baglihar dam in Chenab Valley destroyed homes and livelihood of many families. It shows how, a decade after being displaced by the Baglihar dam, locals are caught in a web of poverty and debt with some experiencing mental health issues as a result of losing everything. “Dams are wreaking a disaster on the lives of locals in Jammu and Kashmir,” Raqib said. “The human aspect of dams is always missing from the public discourse in this region. This film was made with the objective to highlight those issues,” he added. A decade after being displaced by the dam, locals are caught in a web of poverty and debt with some experiencing mental health issues as a result of losing everything.
Kashmiris have been fighting against Indian atrocities and leading a freedom struggle for decades. The IOJ&K has seen at least 229 killings during more than 100 military operations since January 2020, according to a recently released report by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). From January 1 to June 30, the region witnessed the extrajudicial executions of at least 32 civilians and the killing of 54 armed forces personnel, the report stated. It also saw 55 internet shutdowns and the destruction of 48 structures. The report said three children and two women were also killed, while at least “107 cordon and search operations and cordon and destroy operations were conducted in the region”. A strict lockdown and communications blackout has been in place in occupied Kashmir since August last year.
Research Section of Kashmir Media Service has recently issued an analytical report which revealed that over 450,000 Kashmiris have laid down their lives for Jammu and Kashmir’s freedom from Indian occupation and for its accession to Pakistan during the last over seven decades. The United Nations must institute enhanced monitoring and documenting human rights abuses being committed by India in occupied Kashmir.
Decades of Indian atrocities have failed to suppress insurmountable spirit and legitimate freedom struggle of the Kashmiris, which is destined to succeed. And Kashmiris are not alone in their struggle. Pakistan has raised the issue of Kashmir on every international forum and has stressed that the World must not let Srebrenica-like massacre happen in occupied Kashmir. The entire Muslim Ummah also needs to become the voice of the people in occupied Kashmir. India is violating international laws in the valley. The world must take note and warn Delhi about the implications of its actions in the region. The United Nations needs to take notice of Indian atrocities in the occupied valley.
