India's Options in Kashmir
- From: Muhammad Javed Iqbal <kaleemjavediqbal@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:23:27 -0700 (PDT)
India's Options in Kashmir
Image : dismalworld. com
By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
First, the good news for Kashmiris. To the credit of the freedom
leaders it must be stated that for the first time in Independent
India, a few mainstream newspapers, academicians, public figures and
even political parties have expressed their solidarity with freedom
struggling Kashmiris and they support an independent Kashmir. That is
the biggest asset the poplar uprising has earned since 1947 when
conservative India quite tactfully annexed Kashmir and will help in
ushering in a free Kashmir at the earliest.
Any spontaneous struggle by people has a lot of historical
significance and Kashmir uprising for sovereignty sent out that
message to the world loud and clear. Finally, the world has realized
it is no more any “terrorist’ adventure by few Kashmiris or Pakistan
sponsored “cross-border- terrorist act” as India thus far claimed in
international forums and propagated in world media, but it is indeed
the popular freedom struggle being waged by Kashmiris on all-Kashmir
basis. And, conservative India can no longer call the freedom fighting
Kashmiris since there are no guns, grenades or any other weaponry in
the hands of people here. They are protesting peacefully. However,
India is using brute force against the unarmed protestors. They are
firing bullets and teargas shells on them, torturing them and killing
them.
The spectacle of hundreds of thousands marching and protesting in both
regions needs an explanation. Brutal murder of innocent Kashmiris who
protested peacefully requires an explanation. Yet, Indian government,
diverting the global attention by keeping alive a non issue like
nuclearism which mean nothing to India and famous terror acts, still
keeps criminal silence over surrendering sovereignty back to the
struggling Kashmiri masses. US should use nuclearism flirting of India
to make Kashmir free form India.
The Kashmiri population feels that their homeland is essentially
occupied, and harbors a deep sense of oppression over several decades
and generations by Indian governments. This powerful sense of
unmitigated grievance was triggered by yet another 'slight' - the
decision to transfer land without any consultation with the valley's
people. The Jammu agitation caused disruption to traffic on a highway
running from Srinagar to Jammu and beyond that is the valley's
lifeline. In August over 30 Muslims died there when Indian security
forces opened fire on large marches.
Hindu Atrocities in Kashmir
Oppression, suppression, torture, genocide are the hallmark of the
Indian occupation in Jammu Kashmir. It appears the strategists in New
Delhi are trying to split Jammu Kashmir to carve out a separate state
for Hindus in Jammu as Kashmir becomes an independent nation. Kashmir
Muslim leaders have seen through the Indian tricks and are determined
to pursue their legitimate struggle to achieve freedom form occupying
India. True, India is scared of the peaceful but massive
demonstrations for freedom.
The recent trouble started when the state government said it would
illegally grant 99 acres plus (40 hectares plus) of forest land to the
Amarnath Shrine Board. The allocation of land was aimed at altering
the demographic balance in the area. The government said the board
needed the land to erect huts and toilets for visiting pilgrims. But
following days of protests, the government rescinded the order,
prompting Hindu groups to mount violent protests of their own and
creating havoc for the Kashmir Muslims.
India continues to cause deaths to Kashmiris. Recent Mehraj’s death
caused by Indian terrorist strategy highlights how youth are being
treated in Kashmir. Mehraj’s death highlights how youth are being
treated in Kashmir. On arrest of protesters, authorities have got no
justification in arresting the peaceful and unarmed protestors. As it
is known, India has zero tolerance for any opposition Indian
occupation of Jammu Kashmir. Just as the Britishers used to do, the
Indian forces have employed brute force against the peaceful
demonstrators.
At some places Indian forces are intimidating the women folk by
marching naked before them. The Hurriyat (G) chairman Geelani said
this is an extreme measure of war crime against humanity. Geelani said
United Nations should constitute a war tribunal in Kashmir to
‘investigate worst form of human rights violations, use of brute force
and killing of unarmed protesters’ by Indian troopers. According
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, one of Kashmir’s main pro-independence
politicians, "Such repressive measures will not work. We will emerge
stronger and more vibrant". India seems to be keen to make Kashmiris
“terrorists” by dirty provocative strategies like flying nuclear
enabled jets in Kashmir, but the Indian colonizers will have to learn
the lessons properly.
Talks and ceasefires
Recently several secret grave yards were discovered in Kashmir which
is under Indian occupation. News about Kashmir is every where these
days, making the Since its “discovery” in the mid-19th century by UK,
the cave-deity has attracted masses of “Hindutva pilgrims” every
summer from India. This May, the government of Jammu Kashmir decided
to illegally transfer 100 acres of land on a mountain route leading to
the shrine to a Hindu religious trust controlled by JK governor and
central government. These sparked widespread protests in the valley
through June, and six civilians were killed. The decision was then
rescinded in early July, and this in turn triggered a large-scale and
sustained protest campaign in the Hindu-majority districts around the
city of Jammu. The Kashmir valley, though overwhelmingly Muslim, has
an ice-formation located inside a remote cave that is regarded as a
manifestation of the god Shiva. Indians must feel vulnerable and
concede guilty of decades of genocides in militarized Kashmir.
Kashmir last dominated world headlines in 2002, when India and
Pakistan mobilized a million troops on the Line of Control (LoC), the
de facto border that divides the territory, contested since 1947, and
on the international frontier between the two countries. Cold blooded
massacres in Kashmir have snot made the Hindus panicky. But a stand-
off was precipitated by using a “suicide raid” in December 2001 on
India’s parliament in New Delhi and a massacre in May 2002 of families
of Indian soldiers near the city of Jammu, Hindu-majority south of
Kashmir. Prior to that, the Indian and Pakistani militaries fought a
two-month war in the summer of 1999 on a stretch of the LoC in the
remote Himalayas, in Ladakh's Kargil district, after the LoC there was
infiltrated by Pakistani army units. That conflict too threatened to
escalate into a wider war between countries which had tested nuclear
weapons just a year earlier, in May 1998. In late 2003, on the LoC
took hold, and since 2004 relations between India and Pakistan have
seen a thaw. But four years later, it is clear that the thaw has not
developed into a serious peace process, and that a settlement to the
Kashmir dispute is nowhere on the horizon. In April 2005, a
fortnightly cross-LoC bus service was launched between Srinagar, the
capital of the Kashmir Valley and the largest city in Indian-
administered Kashmir, and Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-
administe red Kashmir. Subsequently, there was no progress in the
India-Pakistan dialogue on substantive aspects of the Kashmir problem,
even on such relatively peripheral issues as the de-militarization of
the Siachen glacier on the northern fringes of the territory. The
paralyzed nature of the talks seemed bearable since the insurgency in
Indian-administered Kashmir since 1990 ebbed during these years.
But in fact the past few years of relative calm represent a major
missed opportunity for India to engage all communities and factions in
Kashmir in a genuine and credible - as distinct from an illusory and
vacuous - peace process. Kashmiris had been looking forward to getting
back their sovereignty from India, however, India always takes a
peaceful atmosphere to push further its hegemonic and colonial and
imperialistic rule in Jammu Kashmir. Any notion that the Kashmir
conflict has been successfully put in cold-storage has been exposed as
a delusion during the summer of 2008.
Indianization & Decline of Muslims in Jammu
Discovery of secret grave yards in Kashmir has sent up cold waves
across Kashmir about possible secret genocides of Muslims in Jammu as
well. It is a known strategy of colonizers to “import” their own
people to settle down in colonies annexed so as to keep the legitimate
inhabitants are pressurized and subjugated and punished. Indian
Doctrine of containment of and unleash subversive agenda in its
neighbors Since 1947 India has harped on this hidden agenda quite
vigorously by inciting violence in Kashmir. Indian strategists even
now believe that the only way they can preserve their identity and
avoid being swallowed by the huge Indian population is by retaining
control of their land. Kashmiris have to some extent resisted the
Indian designs, but the militarization has overpowered the innocent
Kashmiris. India wants Kashmiris encircled by Hindus and their culture
so that Kashmiris, like Indian Muslims, “socialize and Hinduize
partially”. Shri Amarnath illegal land deal is a part of the scheme.
India added more and more Hindus in Kashmir through militarization and
other nefarious designs. In 1982, while Sheikh Abdullah governed the
state, his National Conference party brought out a red book titled
"Conspiracy to reduce the majority community in Jammu and Kashmir into
a minority". Other Kashmiri leaders have also, on many occasions,
voiced their concern over what they say is the steady decline of the
Muslim population in the Jammu region. They have blamed this on people
from neighboring states settling down in the region.
India has strenuously tried to make Hindus infiltrate into Kashmir and
settle down with military protection. Several “Indian entrepreneurs
are encouraged by India to buy land and promote Indian hidden agenda
last year, Kashmiris effectively forced the state government to
withdraw a proposal to allow non-Kashmiri investors to bid for plots
of land on which to build hotels at the tourist resort of Gulmarg and
other places.
Every thing for Hindus in Indian Secular state
Hated and contained by the Hindus at all levels, Muslims in India feel
neglected since 1947 and now they are treated as undesired
“terrorists: and suspected ones in the country. There is a perception
among Hindus in Jammu that they wielded little power in the state of
Jammu and Kashmir as the minority population - and what leadership
they did have was remote and inaccessible.
India follow not just “first Hindus” policy, but more atrociously,
“Benefits only for Hindus”. Hindus in Jammu are very particular that
similar things don’t happen to Hindus in Jammu Kashmir and a second
capital was made out of Jammu where government functions one half of
year. The predominately pro-India media managed by Hindus do the
talking and guiding part of the Hindu agenda for JK. Congress party
chose a leader form Jammu region, Gulam Nabi Azad, who is known to be
feeling comfortable more with Hindus than Kashmiris and never even
visited his partly office dung his tenure as JK chief-minister, to
head the collation ministry so that Hindu interests are held supreme
and effectively taken care of as governments in India effectively do
by cheating the Muslim voters.
With an imperialistic view to retaining Jammu Kashmir under its
custody, since 1947 New Delhi engineered techniques to split the
Kashmiris and Kashmir along regional and religious lines. The current
turmoil in Kashmir has exposed that Indian strategy beyond doubts.
Religious and regional conflicts have surfaced quite openly and
Kashmiri Hindus encouraged by India seek the intervention of India in
some measures. Also, pro-and anti-Kashmir groups have been engineered
among Muslims and Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh are, albeit in different
ways, hostages to the frozen-yet-simmerin g disputes.
Ever growing Indian frustrations over Kashmiri resolve for
independence could well be gauged form the military operations in
Kashmir recently. Jammu region created economic terrorism for Kashmir
Muslims, along with human terrorism unleashed from Indian terror
forces, but authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have imposed an
indefinite curfew throughout the Kashmir Valley. It comes amid
continuing protests by the Muslim majority population - with a major
rally planned for the region's main city, Srinagar.
The valley is already paralyzed by strikes called by freedom groups
who want an end to Indian rule. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims took
part in a protest rally called by freedom leaders in Srinagar. Reports
suggested police had carried out raids on freedom leaders’ homes
overnight. The strike comes amid continuing freedom movement in the
region. Fifteen people died in a gun battle between militants and the
authorities near the Line of Control - the de facto border dividing
Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Imperialist Repressions: Kashmiri resentments
Obviously, Indian Government wants to create a rift between the
regions and stop Jammu Hindus from joining a new free Kashmir state.
Observers are almost unanimous that the land row is an effect rather
than a cause of antagonism between the two regions, Kashmir and Jammu.
They say the simmering discontent dates back to the ending of the
monarchy in Kashmir in 1947. The monarch, Maharaja Hari Singh, was a
Hindu who belonged to the main ethnic Dogra community of Jammu. When
the monarchy ended, handed over Kashmir to India under secret
agreements and a popular government were installed under the
leadership of Sheikh Abdullah. Since then India systematically created
a pro-India contingent of Kashmiris, killing many regularly.
Today the same feelings of resentment are still evident. Hindus and
their media and governments talk ill of Kashmiris and, indirectly,
also Indian Muslims for not opposing Kashmiris. They are not
considered as citizens, let alone second or third class ones. But the
Hindu specialists are there to defend the Jammu Hindus against
Muslims. "It's ironical that Kashmiris who don't even consider
themselves to be Indians are getting all the blessings of the
government, while the people of Jammu are always treated as second
class citizens," said one Hindu in Jammu.
The current ferment in the Kashmir Valley is a throwback to the
turbulent winter of 1963-64, when the theft of what Muslims believe to
be a hair of the Prophet Mohammad from Srinagar’s Hazratbal shrine
ignited massive protests in the valley. Although the trigger was
ostensibly a religious issue, the unrest resulted from pent-up
resentment at a decade of Delhi's Kashmir policies - which included
the removal from office and incarceration of Kashmiri leader Sheikh
Abdullah, the de facto scrapping of Indian-administered Kashmir's self-
rule powers, and the use of police methods to repress protest and
silence dissent. Kashmiris hate India. But there is no precedent to
both the major regions in Indian-occupied Kashmir simultaneously
plunging into turmoil. Kashmiris want sovereignty.
India refuses to address the core Kashmir issue. After almost two
decades of separatist violence, the situation in the Kashmir valley
had improved in the past few years. Violence was on the decline and
hundreds of thousands of tourists had returned to the valley,
rekindling hope that Kashmir may be on the path to peace once again.
But the latest violence by Hindus and Muslims seems to have dashed
that hope.
India supports separatism of Hindus in Jammu. Encouraged by Hindutva
forces in New Delhi, the Hindu groups in India and Jammu have always
demanded abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution which
gives special status to the valley. The Hindu groups twice vetoed
offers of autonomy for Jammu - first by Sheikh Abdullah in the 1950s
and again in 1996 by Farooq Abdullah - because they have opposed the
special status of the valley. The Jammu agitation is reminiscent of
1952-53, when the same areas in the Jammu region's Hindu-majority
south were convulsed by a Hindu movement calling for full integration
of Indian-administered Kashmir with the Indian Union, meaning the
cancellation of Indian-administered Kashmir's autonomous status,
recognized in India's constitution and re-affirmed in 1952 in talks
between India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Kashmiri
Muslim leader Sheikh Abdullah.
Peaceful Movement for Sovereignty
Indian strategists have every right to imagine. They think, once
Kashmiris continue to be peaceful, India can go on militarizing
Kashmir and occupying the alien land so long as USA does not offer an
ultimatum to India on Kashmir sovereignty. Colonial minded Indians are
terribly mistaken. In order to create obstacles to Indian support for
the Kashmir freedom move they now cry loud that Kashmiris want to join
Pakistan. How doe sit matter to them; Business of terror master India
is to surrender sovereignty back to the struggling Kashmiris.
Kashmiris feel they are systematically tortured, terrorized and killed
by Indian forces. Like Muslims in India, Jammu’s Hindus have long felt
bypassed and neglected as a minority in Indian-administered Kashmir.
They viewed the subsequent revocation of the transfer as yet another
cave-in to the valley's more numerous Muslims, and reacted with raw
anger. The competing mass mobilizations have precedents. Jammu Hindus
are no different form those in India. Many in the valley argue that
these groups have a barely concealed anti-Muslim agenda.
Perhaps, for the first time world media blasted the Indian atrocities
in Kashmir in 2008, after so many years of Indian occupation of that
part of the world. It is for the first time that Kashmiris are
awakened to demand sovereignty back from India. The row over whether
to allocate land to Amarnath Trust by New Delhi “Hindu specialists” in
Muslim Kashmir, now under Indian occupation and hectic militarization,
is unprecedented and has potentially caused the state to fragment
along communal lines. Now it is no exaggeration to say that India is
managing the state to be heading towards a communal meltdown, before
the final settlement of Kashmir issue.
The conflagration was a setback for the Indian government which had
made much of several years of relative calm in the Kashmir region and
was under the impression that Kashmiris have compromised and recoiled
to he Indian projects in Kashmir. India has tried to conclude that
Kashmiris are finally over-powered by military threat and secret grave
yards as there has been a decline of military exchanges with Pakistan
across the Line of Control (LoC).
The message from Kashmir for India and other oppressor nations is
candid and clear: Frozen conflicts don't stay frozen for too long and
they cannot be put down with iron hands howsoever the power tries to
suppress the freedom movement. Kashmiris now demand sovereignty
peacefully and India has to concede. USA will certainly agree with
this.
Sense of oppression: Kashmir shall be Free!
Discovery of secret grave-yards in Kashmir reminds the world of Indian
gray policy for freedom seeking Kashmir and remains the ugliest
display of inhuman misadventure on innocent Kashmiris. If India
showcases the graveyards as the peaceful place for freedom fighters,
it is terribly mistaken. Historic Significance of Kashmir Uprising
cannot be belittled by Indian strategists and leaders.
Like the USA, India is keen to punish Muslims, kill them mercilessly.
The turmoil comes at an uncertain time for India-Pakistan relations.
Last month, there were localized ceasefire violations on the LoC,
militant bombs killed 50 people in India’s Gujarat state, and India’s
embassy in Kabul was attacked in a deadly suicide-bombing. Armed
freedom groups in Kashmir have been lying low since the post-2004
thaw, but they remain present and dangerous. The lesson is frozen
conflicts don't stay frozen, and windows of opportunity to make real
progress towards solutions don't come often. Stalling on such
opportunities can be perilous.
Under the prevailing freedom circumstances, India is keen to implement
its pet and illegal Amarnath land deal by hook or crock and JK
governor is dying to persuade the Kashmir leaders to convince the
masses to “oblige’ the New Delhi masters. While many Kashmiris are
kept under brutal custody in Indian jails, JK Governor N N Vohra had
said that the administration was ready to hold talks with Jammu and
Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC), which is spearheading the
agitation in Kashmir.
Of course, JK Governor should to talk to the freedom fighters, their
leaders like Syed Geelani, but the agenda of any such future talks
should be on Kashmir sovereignty and announced before hand so that
there are no embarrassments for him and the freedom leaders. However,
freedom leaders clearly smell a rat in the invitation extended
recently by Vohra for talks; they see the New Delhi’s dirty hand
stained with Kashmiri blood in new maneuverings and coercing the
freedom leaders to agree to Indian Hindu demand for illegal land deal
for Amarnath shrine. In stead, India should rebuild Grand Babri Mosque
that was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu Al-Queda militants.
Rather, Vohra should invite the freedom leaders to discuss the
sovereignty issue and formation of an independent nation with their
own constitution, currency and flag for Kashmiris. It is for them to
decide if they would eventually join Pakistan or Afghanistan. History
tells that Kashmiris would prefer an independent nation with good
relations with Islamic nations. That is quite natural.
Unfortunately, Terror India is dying hard to hold “democratic” polls
in JK to see its agents come back to power and put a full stop to
freedom struggle. No, that would be unwise and first of all, a
peaceful atmosphere has to be created by promising the Kashmiris of
independence following the polls. Find out how many Kashmiri Muslims
have been murdered by India recently. Leave the polls to an
independent Kashmir.
Indian media had harped on releasing the detainees in Pakistan before
any poll was to be held in that Islamic state, but in Kashmir India
has a different face to show; many innocent protests are behind bars
and many are being killed on a day to day basis, but Indian media want
elections immediately so that Kashmiris are forced to forget about
their agitations, and freedom from Indian yoke.
But Kashmir is now under curfew, people are on the streets and Indian
jails for peacefully demanding freedom from occupying India. But JK
Governor and Indian government are focused on the dirty illegal land
deal, unmindful of the ghastly deaths of Kashmiri Muslims, both in the
streets and jails. Yes, Governor, first of all, a peaceful environment
has to be created for any meaningful dialogue and jailed Kashmiris
should be released unconditionally.
It is high time India woke up to face the reality and boldly announce
independence of Kashmir. The issue at dispute is Kashmir is not part
of India and Kashmiris never like the idea of becoming Indians.
Decades of Indian atrocities including regular genocide have not made
the freedom seeking Kashmiris bend even a bit. India cannot refuse to
address the key Kashmir issue any more? Surrendering the Kashmiris
their sovereignty!
Since Kashmiris have decided to get back sovereignty from India by all
means and have shed violence against deadly Indian provocative
methods, time is quite ripe for conservative New Delhi to consider,
equally seriously, surrendering sovereignty back to them without delay
and without once again tricking them into "terrorist" path. One hopes
India will shed its "innocence” symptoms and come out to face the
emerging reality when Kashmiris are together now and international
community is on their side. In stead of behaving like a tight lipped
or close mouthed rogue, India must talk, as before when they slammed
Kashmiris, now about Kashmir sovereignty; after all fanatic New Delhi
is not a shy guy.
Trade and contacts across the Line of Control (LoC) should lead to
joining of the both parts of Jammu Kashmir. The same could be better
achieved by returning sovereignty back to Kashmiris. Both India and
Pakistan should come forward to uniting the Kashmir as a sovereign
nation at the earliest
Colonizers and imperialist strategists in Terrorist India should keep
in mind Jammu Kashmir will be free form Indian yoke, all Indian
leaders including military terrorists will be tried in special
tribunals set by the UN and punished in due course. India has to
answer for each and every Kashmiri Muslim lost life for their sacred
cause of freedom form occupying India. Yes, India should stop fooling
Kashmiris!
------------ --------- --
DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
Researcher in International Affairs,
South Asia
M .Javed Iqbal
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