India and Pakistan have waged
two wars over Kashmir and are now nuclear armed.
Even before both the countries won their independence from Britain in August
1947, Kashmir was hotly contested.
India has warned Pakistan that it would pay for attack on Feb 14, Adil Ahmad , a
home-grown, local Kashmiri militant, rammed an SUV packed with explosives into
an Indian military convoy, killing 44 paramilitary personnel and himself. India
has blamed both Pakistan and Jaish-e-Mohammad, a proscribed organisation in both
India and Pakistan, for what it classifies as a ‘terrorist’ attack. Pakistan’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded stating that the attack was a matter of
grave concern and that Pakistan condemned the heightened acts of violence in the
Kashmir Valley.
Pakistan rejected India's latest accusation. It denies giving material aid to
Muslim separatist fighters in Kashmir.Prime Minister Imran Khan has strongly
stated that India’s allegations were presented without any supporting evidence;
he also referenced India’s tendency to blame Pakistan for any incidents
occurring within India-held Kashmir without engaging in dialogue to resolve the
Kashmir issue.
"We have repeatedly seen India arrogating to itself the role of judge, jury and
executioner," the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement.
Since their independence 72 years ago, India and Pakistan have fought three
warswhich they both claim in full but rule in part.
India has long accused Pakistan of training and arming militants and helping
them infiltrate across the heavily militarized Line of Control (LoC) that
separates the two sides in the region.
Pakistan said recently India's accusations stemmed from its attempts to divert
attention from its "state terrorism" and "brutalization of peaceful, unarmed
Kashmiris".
More specifically, the right of Kashmiris to self-determination has been
recognised at the UN through numerous UNSC resolutions. The right to
self-determination — and the legitimacy to agitate for its realisation — is not
in question under international law, a right to which the Kashmiri people are
also entitled.
Indian rhetoric has included threats to militarily retaliate against Pakistan in
reprisal for the Pulwama incident, in contravention of established international
law — including Article 2(4) of the UN Charter — in an act of unilateral and
unjustified belligerence.State sponsorship, to the degree where the right to
self-defence is enabled, requires actively controlling and commanding such
outfits.
While Pakistan continues to provide moral support to Kashmiris suffering under
occupation, under international law it is not per se unlawful to provide
military support to such territories as well.
However, Indian journalist SantoshBhartiya in an open letter to Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi published on 'Rising Kashmir' claims that although "the
land of Kashmir is with us, the people of Kashmir are not with us."
The journalist presents findings from a four-day trip to India-held Kashmir in
the letter, addressing the use of excessive force against protesters, the anger
of the Kashmiri people, and the mishandling of the Kashmir issue by India ─
particularly, the Modi regime.Further, he commented the situation of No
democracy, just massacres. Different voice started to raise in India ranging
from Yashwant Singh-former Indian finance minister,Former Indian Supreme Court
Justice Merqunde to Bollywood stars like Kamal Hassan etc.
An entire generation that was born in 1952 has not seen a single day of
democracy and has never experienced what democracy is all about.
People in Kashmir wonder why they don’t deserve a normal life as the people of
other states in India live and enjoy democracy. Will they carry on their lives
in fear of guns, bullets, pellets, and day-to-day massacres?Living like
slaves…Win their hearts
Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was
free to accede to India or Pakistan.
The population of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir is more
than 60% Muslim, making it the only state within India where Muslims are in the
majority.
High unemployment and complaints of heavy-handed tactics by security forces
battling street protesters and fighting insurgents have aggravated the problem.
The teenager blinded by pellets in Kashmir
Violent insurgency in the state has ebbed and flowed since 1989, but the region
witnessed a fresh wave of violence after the death of 22-year-old militant
leader Burhan Wani in July 2016.
More than 500 people were killed in 2018 - including civilians, security forces
and militants - the highest such toll in a decade.
In 2018, the death toll for militants and security forces in Kashmir touched the
highest point in a decade, according to official figures, with 356 killed. Human
rights groups put the civilian fatalities at over 100. Almost no experts believe
the situation will improve in the short term.
The incident in Sirnoo, in the district of Pulwama, illustrates the turn for the
worse. As security forces carry out operations, they are frequently confronted
by crowds of people who, rather than scattering, try to block their way.
Undeniably, India used “excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very
high number of injuries,” according to a report released in June by the Office
of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report also cited India’s
use of “inherently inaccurate and indiscriminate” pellet-firing shotguns as a
means of crowd dispersal, which left hundreds blinded. India rejected the
report’s findings.
The upturn in violence coincided with the absence of any meaningful political
process to address Kashmiri grievances on the part of the federal government,
whose embrace of Hindu chauvinism has distressed Muslims across India.
In this context it is, therefore, imperative that Pakistan and India work
towards a genuine resolution to the Kashmir issue pacifically, and in line with
the aspirations of the Kashmiri peoplealong a peace process, rather than
involving themselves in rhetoric and vitriol to isolate the other within the
international community and delay the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.