DND Special Report
“United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must hold a special meeting to review appropriate actions against India for allowing non-Kashmiris to buy property in Indian Kashmir and for giving them domiciles because these actions are in sheer violation of several UNSC passed resolutions over Kashmir.
UNSC should also constitute a body to investigate sexual abuses against children and women in Indian Kashmir committed before and after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A”.
These above-mentioned demands are shared by several international journalists, writers and Human Rights watch activists in their write-ups while commenting upon the situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir that arose after the abrogation of Indian Constitution Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019.
Indian writers Saifuddin Soz Salman Soz in their joint article titled “Gujarat model may have been a myth, but Kashmir model is coming your way” published in the Indian Express comment that over the last year, the Indian Prime Minister’s promise of development lies in tatters. And Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), in a recent report, put economic losses in the Kashmir Valley in the past year at Rs 40,000 crore. That is about a 50 per cent decline in Kashmir’s economic output (based on 2018-19 state GDP).
“The Narendra Modi government contended that Article 370 impeded development, engendered corruption, and fanned terrorism. Ending autonomy for J&K would free its people. That seemed to be the argument, mostly for international consumption. The substantive reality was about the assertion of Hindutva politics. J&K was sliced apart. Grief descended on Kashmir and some other parts of J&K. As BJP supporters and others celebrated across the country, secular India’s only Muslim majority state was no more. Kashmiris felt humiliated. As thousands, including the entire mainstream political leadership, were detained, a heavy security clampdown snuffed out any chance of large scale protests. As with so many other Modi government initiatives, this too was a “masterstroke”. The silence of Kashmiris was sold as acceptance,” wrote Saifuddin Soz Salman Soz.
Raising voice against allotments of state Kashmiri lands in Indian Occupied Kashmir to non-Kashmiri Hindus, the organization protecting rights of Kashmiri Pandit has also objected settlement of non-Kashmiri Hindus and demanded the restoration of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir.
According to India Today, the RRR has written a letter to Prime Minister Modi and demanded him to restore the statehood and special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
It may be mentioned that New Delhi is allocating State Kashmiri land to Non-Kashmiri workers of BJP and RSS in Jammu and Kashmir and over half a million non-Kashmiri Hindus have already given land in IoK after the abrogation of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir.
Rejecting the abrogation of Article 370 of Constitution (Indian Constitution) the organization demanded immediate restoration of statehood and special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Indian Constitution ensures the right to equality that extends to individuals, communities, religions, regions, and all social and political institutions. The right to equality ensures non-discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, region, or any other social and political sub-categories. Never before a state has been downgraded. This is not done in a democracy. One can’t have a military solution to a political situation and can’t go to war with their own people,” said Satish Mahaldar, Chairman of migrant Kashmiri Pandits’ organization Reconciliation, Relief, and Rehabilitation in a statement.
The Executive Editor of Kashmir Times Anuradha Bhasin in her interview to an Indian Newspaper said that Indian Occupied Kashmir is silenced and imprisoned while the economy of IoK had gone to drain.
In another article of her article “The vulnerability of children in Kashmir’s conflict” she stated that case of killing of Bashir Khan in front of his 3-year-old grandson and making photos of dead Bashir and sharing them on social media a horrific act and showed state of children in conflict zone of IOJK. She stated that Amnesty International slammed the police for releasing the picture of the three-year-old boy. “By disclosing the identity of a minor witness of a crime, Kashmir Zone Police stands in violation of Article 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It is also a breach of the “best interests of the child” principle as required to be the basis of any action by the authorities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a state party,” it said. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander! Could the same principle also apply to those who created these videos and circulated them?
“There are no easy answers. The moral and ethical questions were as much relevant when the world saw the horrifying images of children bearing the brunt of violence across the globe, whether it was Alan Kurdi, three-year-old refugee boy from Syria whose body was discovered on the shores of Turkey in 2015 or years before that of a 9-year-old girl running away from the Napalm bombings during the Vietnam war in 1972. Whatever be the debate around the compass of morality, such images have also pricked the world conscience and prompted it to respond more responsibly’” commented Anuradha Bhasin.
Turgay Evren who is a Turkish story writer, poet, songwriter and is known for raising voice against oppressed nations including for brutalities committed in Yemen, Palestine, and Kashmir raised several questions about why did world is silent over Kashmir issue?
In his article “Kashmir will not stop resisting oppression”, he wrote that India had sent almost one million soldiers to Kashmir and human rights violations had reached a new peak and Kashmiri people were experiencing the worst attack in its history.
“Many Kashmiris were taken from their homes and put in jails. Indian soldiers arrested not only men but women as well. Protesting people and even innocent kids were targeted by pellet guns and thousands of people lost their eyes in Kashmir.
Today there is a growing fear about the intention of the Indian Government, which committed numerous human rights violations, towards Kashmir. On one hand, the Indian Government is bringing non-Kashmiri people to this region and is trying to change the demographics of Kashmir, on the other hand, the Indian Army keeps committing massacres. Torture and rape are also used widely to suppress the voice of Kashmiri people. COVID lockdown worsened the already very bad situation in Kashmir as the Indian Government took advantage of the global pandemic sweeping across the world. People getting afflicted with COVID cannot have access to proper health benefits easily,” commented Turkish writer.
Lesia Senyshyn who is an Independent Political Commentator from Ukraine having a deep interest in South Asia in her article “Kashmir has turned into a bleeding wound” says that Jammu and Kashmir are completely blocked and lost not only its special status rather their social and historical uniqueness.
She said that Kashmir (read as Indian Occupied Kashmir) had turned into a bleeding wound.
“The population always becomes hostage to political or military intrigues. How can it fall in love with the “stepmother” who left them without the right to choose? Who imprisoned “their children, asked Lesia Senyshyn.
Seymour Mammadov who is a senior journalist from Eastern Europe and the Director of the International Expert Club «EurAsiaAz» in his article “We remember you Kashmir, we have not forgotten” writes that almost the entire world community has supported Pakistan, seeing very well what violations Kashmiris are facing in their region.
“Unfortunately, despite repeated appeals from authoritative international organizations, India chose to follow a completely different path, which runs counter to the efforts of the OIC and the UN in the settlement of the Kashmir issue.
If someone thinks that the problem of Jammu and Kashmir is a frozen conflict, they are deeply mistaken – there are constant clashes between Kashmiris and representatives of the Indian authorities in this region, and armed conflicts between India and Pakistan do not stop because of Kashmir, on the contrary, only intensify. Today, many countries and authoritative organizations call on both sides for restraint, for the settlement of the conflict by peaceful negotiations, but if one of the conflicting parties avoids negotiations (India), is not interested in discussing the Kashmir issue at the negotiating table, and does not comply with the UN Security Council resolutions, then how can the territorial issue be resolved through negotiations?,” wrote Mammadov.
Ulvi Ahmedli who is a Baku Based Research Journalist in his article “Conflict can trigger another war between India and Pakistan”, wrote that freedom of expression still has not been restored in Indian Kashmir even one year has passed and people have no access to social media and they can only use state-controlled websites. Indian government fears possible flare-up Muslim militant groups in the region.
“The murdering of innocent Kashmiris has not ceased and new cases were reported this year. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society reports 229 killings in the first half of 2020 including civilians, children, and women. A number of Kashmiri journalists faced arrests and stringent charges.
Although Kashmir was in lockdown, the authority imposed several restrictions during the pandemic. Until April, almost 2303 people were arrested for defying lockdown orders, mostly those who wanted to go out for getting medical care and foodstuff,” observed Ulvi Ahmedli in his article.
Former Ambassador Abdul Basit who is a retired Pakistani diplomat and is currently holding the position of President of Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) Islamabad in his article “Kashmir and Repulsive Nonchalance” said that international community has failed to play its role to save Kashmiri people.
“International community, its insouciance on Kashmir is equally criminal. They are more concerned about their economic and commercial interests rather than the 12 million Kashmiris who have been living in grisly occupation for over seven decades.
From the OIC to the UN, we have seen such a brazen show of callousness that nothing was done to take India to the task. The UN Human Rights Council could not convene a special session to even discuss the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in IOK much less to adopt a resolution against India’s continuing state terrorism against Kashmiris,” observed Ambassador Basit.
Shazia Cheema, a writer and an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Semiotics in her article “Systematic abuse continues in Valley” dealt Kashmir issue as highly intelligent and systematic abuse conducted by Indian government to numb the entire population for the purpose of successful oppression.
“Kashmiris are deliberately being cut off from the world, to present suppression as cooperation. Oppressors are pampering themselves with the thought that barring the whole society and disconnecting any possible way of communication is a successful strategic plan and now they are waiting to see the result of this experiment and thinking wishfully that now in Kashmir, the havoc of being abandoned by the civil societies of the world will trigger the same mechanism used in the slave trade times, crush every hope, no outer interaction and continuous physical and psychological abuse, an ancient recipe for enslaving mind and body will eventually work. Strangely this is not the same area, slavery has been banned long ago, human right is not a novice concept, and freedom of speech is a trendy thing. The point to consider is; if an oppressor chooses or desired to enslave an entire population how come they reach to the manifestation of this vicious desire, is unstoppable, above international law or simply nobody cares to do anything to stop him,” wrote Shazia Cheema.
