INDIA’S VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN MAQBOOZA KASHMIR WILL NOT GO
UNCHECKED: HABIB YOUSAFZAI THE CHAIRMAN OF KASHMIR DIASPORA ALLIANCE
Six decades later, the Kashmiri issue yet still remains
unresolved. It is very important not to lose sight of historical facts when
attempting to come to a solution for any disputed territory. Under British colonial
rule, the geographical entity known as India consisted of nine provinces and
584 princely states. The provinces are what constituted British India and their
internal and external affairs were under the dominion of the Crown. On the other
hand, the Maharajas or Nawabs who ruled the princely states, held internal
sovereignty over their domestic affairs but the external relations and defense
were under the “paramountcy of the Crown”. During the end of British
colonialism, the only viable solution sought was to divide the Indian subcontinent
on the basis of religion. As such, all Muslim majority provinces were to join
Pakistan and all Hindu majorities were to join India respectively. In the same
vein, the logic of self-determination based on religious majority was applied
across the board to the princely states despite Indian resentment towards the
idea. In contemporary times, it is on this fertile soil that Pakistan pressures
the international community to implement the process of self-determination for Maqbooza
Kashmir and the other forcibly annexed areas which has been ignored for decades.
In contrary, India violated the Indian sub-continent partition
plan not only against the aspirations of the inhabitants of Kashmir but also
annexed Sikh Homeland Punjab Khalistan (despite the Sikhs claim of not being
Hindus), Manawa, Junagarah, and Hyderabad by using its superior military force
to its advantage. We must not forget that, it was the Indian government on
October 27, 1947 which illegally occupied Kashmir on the false premise of
maintaining law and order, and to this day its troops continue to pillage,
rape, imprison and torture political prisoners, and inflict brutality upon the
innocence. Recent updates from human rights watch groups show that more than
200,000 human lives in Maqbooza Kashmir and more than 270,000 innocent Sikhs
have been ruthlessly killed. Yet, a blind eye continues to pass over all these
human rights violations. The Indian government’s illegal occupation of Kashmir acts
as an impediment to establishing a longstanding, tolerant, vibrant, and
peaceful relationship between Pakistan and India; and it renders bleak the opportunities
of solving the Kashmiri dispute and threatens regional stability. As a result
of institutional decay and the absence of a robust civil society in Maqbooza Kashmir,
the innocent Kashmiris have no voice or ability to civically oppose the
countless murders of innocent people, illegal kidnappings and torture of
political activists, rape, and subjugation committed by the Indian soldiers.
Faced by no other alternatives, the Kashmiri protestors rise in attempt to
repel and resist the oppression of the Indian army but instead are detained and
labeled as terrorists and extremists when in fact they are freedom fighters. Clearly
then, to pick up arms in the pursuit of justice when all peaceful methods have
failed to bring about a solution to the problem is not violence, but rather it
is intelligence.
With that said, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s response to the
issue is akin to the thief asking the one being robbed, why are you trying to
fight back? Furthermore, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh needs to remember that
this issue is not a few days old but rather it is an issue ongoing for decades.
To simply act as if the incident began from the point of tensions along
International Border and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir is to be
shortsighted. We must analyze the incident wholly with all the series of events
which preceded it, and when we do, it will be clear as daylight that India is
the oppressor and Pakistan stands as the defender of the UN security resolution
1948. It is vividly clear then, when Pakistan has proven unsuccessful on many
accounts in its efforts to diplomatically pressure the Indian government to
immediately withdraw its troops from Maqbooza Kashmir; the only viable solution
is for the UN Security Council to intervene in order to facilitate the process
of self-determination as the limitations of the Simla agreement signed on July
2, 1972 have proven inefficacious in solving the dispute. Only then can the
pathway be paved for the Kashmiris to decide their future. Last but not least,
the UN must not judge the transgressor and the defender by the same yardstick.
