PROTEST ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2013 AT THE INTERSECTION OF YONGE
AND DUNDAS,TORONTO CANADA FROM 11:00 AM TO 1:00 PM TO STAND UP FOR THE OPPRESSED OF MAQBOOZA
KASHMIR:
HABIB YOUSAFZAI, KASHMIR DIASPORA ALLIANCE
Assalam-o-Alaikum!
Press Release
August 15, 1947 is a day of mourning for minorities in India.
Although the Indian state perpetuates the notion that it is a diverse state, a
melting pot of religion and cultures; religious minorities such as Muslims
(Kashmiris), Sikhs, and Christians etc. are victims of gross and systematic
human rights violations and as such, they see India’s Independence Day as
significant for the start of decades of oppression and persecution. Within
India and abroad, the celebration of the Indian independence is nothing other
than farce. This is not a day of celebration as there is no true unity,
unilateral identity, or unilateral consensus on the states legitimacy due to
the process by which it initially formed.
The Indian state as it is seen today is a direct result of the
Indian regime occupying various territories. The minority inhabitants both
within these occupied territories and in general within the state are severely
persecuted. Religious freedoms are extremely limited for minorities despite the
states claims of secularism. Extremism and violent attacks by the Hindu
majority on minority religions is also commonplace as the events of Darbar
Sahib Amritsar (also mistakenly known as the Golden Temple), Babri Masjid and many other Sufi shrines in
Internationally Disputed Areas of Jammu and Kashmir (AKA Maqbooza Kashmir)
clearly attest to. Putting religious sites aside, human life is under constant
and grave threat as many instances in the past have shown.
Various human rights bodies have presented well documented and
tracked figures and through the comprising of this empirical data have stated
that more than 270,000 Sikhs of Sikh Homeland Punjab (Khalistan) and more than
200,000 Kashmiris have been killed since the birth of the Indian regime at the
hands of the state. Maqbooza Kashmir is a specific situation wherein the circumstances
are especially dire. Occupied since partition by the Indian government, not one
day goes by in the occupied territory in which innocent civilians are not
killed.
Currently, the Indian state has situated more than
700,000 Indian forces in Maqbooza Kashmir. This has militarized the region and left
it virtually devoid of human rights. No human being should have to suffer the
treatment which the people of Maqbooza Kashmir have been suffering for decades
now. Delving deeper into facts and figures, it is pertinent to note that the Indian
regime and its armed forces up to this day have killed more than 202,821
citizens, made 216,013 arrests, 110,135 civilians have disappeared, 115, 797
homes have been demolished, leaving 122,807 widows and 207,356 orphans. Just a
short glimpse into the activities of the Indian forces situated on the ground
in the occupied territory reveals a host of state administered human rights
violations including systematic rape, torture, and a plethora of other gross
human rights violations. These cruelties have been documented for decades now by
international human rights organizations such as United Nations, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, International Educational Development,
International Tribunal on Kashmir and many others. However, despite the
undeniable nature of the atrocities being committed against minorities on the
ground and the Indian states rogue nature, it has yet to suffer any repercussions
for its actions. Pressure from the international community has been almost
non-existent and international organizations such as the United Nations have
stood by idly as atrocities have been taking place.
These inactions are inexcusable in any case, but
specifically, because despite illegally occupying Maqbooza Kashmir, the Indian
state was the party which took the matter to the United Nations. The United Nations
passed Security Council Resolution in 1948 to
conduct a plebiscite in Maqbooza Kashmir for its citizens to vote to accede to
either the Indian or Pakistani state. It is worth noting that the Indian state
only brought the matter of Maqbooza Kashmir to the UN in an attempt to ignore various
other occupied territories it invaded and which it claimed as its own including
Manawa, Jungar, and Hyderabad. Yet despite these developments and the
initiation of the SC resolution over six decades ago through approaching the UN
after its occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, a plebiscite is still yet to take
place. The Indian state has been by in large a fundamental impediment in the
facilitation of the plebiscite. Despite this resolution, there is little
pressure on the Indian state to follow through with a resolution which they
themselves initiated.
With the grave atrocities committed in mind, and the fact that
there has been a lack of action by all powerful states in the international
community along with the United Nations; all those which stand for freedom and
justice are invited to speak out for those who are oppressed and do not possess
a voice of their own. The protest is taking place on Saturday, August 10, 2013,
at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, Canada from 11:00 am to
1:00 pm. The goals of this protest are to highlight the everyday situation on
the ground for those which are oppressed and occupied by the Indian state, to
put pressure on the Indian state to become a willing partner to facilitate the
right to plebiscite for the people of Maqbooza Kashmir, and, to expose the lack
of merit in identifying the Indian regime as a democratic state.
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