The struggle continues

Like every year, the people and government of Pakistan are observing yet another Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5, to reiterate their continued unstinted moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris struggling and suffering at the hands of occupying Indian security forces to secure their birth right of self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. February 5 has already been declared a public holiday so that people, from all walks of life, can fully and actively participate in all activities of the Kashmir Solidarity Day.

The hearts of Pakistanis and Kashmiris beat together, slogans of Kashmir Baney Ga Pakistan  (Kashmir will become Pakistan) and Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Pakistan) are frequently raised in the occupied territory and the Pakistan flag hoisted at mosques and other places on different occasions like India’s Republic Day, which Kashmiris observe as a Black Day. The Founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had described Kashmir as the ‘jugular vein’ of Pakistan .

The people and the government of Pakistan have been and will continue supporting the just cause of Kashmiris, living under the longest lockdown in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, till they win freedom from forcible Indian occupation, exercise their right of self-determination and decide their future themselves in a free, fair and transparent plebiscite under UN supervision.

Through the observance of Kashmir Solidarity Day, the people and the Pakistani leadership will also be giving a clarion call through rallies and meetings for waking up the somehow sleeping international community which even after seeing, observing , noticing and condemning ongoing Indian security forces’ brutalities and atrocities on innocent Kashmiri men, women, youth and children engaged in unarmed struggle against Indian occupation for more than seven decades, but not doing anything more than that.

Pakistan, through its leadership, has not only revived and activated  the lingering unresolved Kashmir issue at all international forums topped by the UN General Assembly, but also been repeatedly and emphatically been telling and warning the world at large that there will be no durable peace and stability in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is  resolved on the basis of international legitimacy and that Kashmir has quite rightly  described as a “nuclear flashpoint.”

The Kashmiris’ just indigenous struggle continues, and the people and the civil and military leadership of Pakistan are extending all moral, diplomatic and political support at all international forums. The blood of the Kashmiris will certainly not go waste and they are bound to secure their fundamental basic right of self-determination in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions with the continued blessings of Almighty Allah sooner or later.

UN Secretary-General  Antonio Guterres at his press conference a few days back , his first of the New Year, has called upon nuclear armed  India and Pakistan  to “come together  and seriously  discuss their problems ‘ stemming from the unresolved Kashmir dispute, saying there was  no military solution to the decades-old conflict, and that it was clear when seeing Pakistan and India , military confrontation between the two would be a disaster  of unmitigated proportions for both countries and the whole world. He further said that it is absolutely essential to have a de-escalation of the situation on the Line of Control, and “as regards human rights abuses in Indian-occupied Kashmir, I think it is essential that human rights are fully respected.” He also stood by his statement of 8 August 2019  wherein he had called for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute based on UN resolutions and the UN Charter.

He evaded outrightly condemning India for flagrant violations of the Line of Control, ceasefire violations killing innocent civilians  in an unabated manner and also for its human rights violations in the illegally occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

One cannot help saying that the UN is helpless in getting its Security Council resolutions implemented to resolve, even after more than seven decades of lingering, the unresolved Kashmir dispute.

One is reminded here also that a guerilla war ensued from 1975 to 1999 between Indonesia and pro-independence forces in East Timor, in which thousands of East Timorese were killed. In 1999 East Timor was placed under UN supervision and on 20 May 2002, Dili became the capital of newly-independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

The burning question which arises here is that if the UN could take East Timor under its supervision, subsequently leading to its independence from the Muslim country of Indonesia, why cannot the world  body can take over occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory where the bloodshed, violence and human rights violations have been going on for decades together  in an unabated manner, and implement the Security Council resolutions by holding a free and fair plebiscite to solve the lingering burning Kashmir dispute. Is the world body afraid of a big country like India which is now ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh  (BJP-RSS)  Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoting Hindutva at all costs?

India has all along been clamouring about Jammu and Kashmir being its integral part in a vain attempt to cheat its own people and befool the international community. It is an established and duly internationally acknowledged fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, India has no other claim over it than that of an occupier, and like all occupiers and colonizers of the past, India wants to physically, politically and psychologically crush the indigenous Kashmiri struggle. India has become a nightmare for its minorities.

On 5 August 2019, India had not only unilaterally annulled the special status of Jammu and Kashmir but also placed the entire eight million people of the occupied territory under military siege, which is still continuing after 17 months, and has lasted for more than 500 days in an unending manner and the territory remains shut to the outside world with no means of communications, no media and no UN observers visits there.

Gross human rights violations in the forcibly occupied Indian territory since 5 August 2019 include 291 Kashmiris martyred, 16 women widowed, 36 children orphaned, 1577 people injured, 14,219 people arrested under draconian laws and 976 structures damaged, according to facts and figures compiled by the Kashmir Institute of International Relations through close monitoring of happenings in the occupied territory.

As for youth pellet victims and Public Safety Act (PSA) detentions since 5 August 2019, are concerned, 446 youth have been injured by pellets and 3000 arrested under the PSA.

Indian occupying security forces’ crimes against besieged Kashmiris since 1989 include 75,724  killings, 22,924 widows, 112,131 rapes, 107,811 orphans and 110,375 houses and infrastructures destroyed.

The Kashmiris’ just indigenous struggle continues, and the people and the civil and military leadership of Pakistan are extending all moral, diplomatic and political support at all international forums. The blood of the Kashmiris will certainly not go waste and they are bound to secure their fundamental basic right of self-determination in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions with the continued blessings of Almighty Allah sooner or later.