Kashmiris’ pro-Pakistan sentiment

By Muhamma Jamil

According to Kashmir Media Service, Pakistan’s national flag was hoisted in various places of Indian-held Kashmir at Hariparbat Fort, Buchpora, Babademb, Gojwara, Rawalpora, Narbal, Sopore and several other places of the Kashmir Valley. The displaying of Pakistani flags has become common in recent weeks in Indian Held Kashmir. Last month, on April 15, Pakistani flags were displayed at a rally in Srinagar that was organised to welcome the veteran Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Gilani, on his return from New Delhi. Meanwhile, Asiya Andrabi has said that India is perpetrating brutalities on the people of Kashmir through seven hundred thousand army deployed in Indian Held Kashmir. Kashmiris express their pro-Pakistan sentiment by hoisting Pakisani flags on Pakistan Day and on other occasions. She reiterated that she had been hoisting Pakistani flags on Pakistan Day, adding check how many flags are unfurled in the Valley when Pakistan wins a cricket match.

She said: “Kashmir is a disputed territory; and hoisting Pakistani flag would have been a crime if I hoisted the flag in New Delhi or Mumbai.” Two weeks before Pakistan day, scores of Pakistani flags were also waved at a Hurriyat rally in Indian Kashmir by the supporters of Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Geelani, which he addressed in Tral area of Pulwama district of Indian-held Kashmir. Last month, Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam was arrested after his supporters waved Pakistani flags and raised pro-Pakistan slogans at a rally in Srinagar. Subsequently, the Hurriyat leader Musarat Alam was put under house arrest to stop him from leading a march to Tral, which had been tense since a young man was killed by Indian forces. Indian government had ordered the ruling regime of Jammu and Kashmir to take immediate and stringent action.
Masarat Alam was booked under the Public Safety Act, which allowed the state to keep him behind bars for two years without any sort of trial. He was released about a month later, and was arrested again. He had already served a jail sentence of five years, for organising stone-throwing protests in the valley in 2010 and subsequent police firing that resulted in the deaths of 100 people. However, no amount of oppression and repression can stop Kashmiris from their struggle for implementation of UNSC resolution that gave them the right to decide about their future through plebiscite under the aegis of the UN. Showing utter disregard to UN resolutions, and Indian army’s atrocities on the people of Kashmir - their murder, rape and fake encounters – are a sad reflection on, what is claimed, the largest democracy in the world.
Kashmiris throughout the world express solidarity with the people of Kashmir. And million March was organized on 26 October 2014 in London. The objective was to highlight the Kashmir issue and expose Indian for having shown utter disregard to the United Nations Security Council resolutions. The coaches reached London from over a dozen cities of England, and many participants had come from Norway and other countries of Europe. They demanded implementation of UNSC resolutions and end to the atrocities perpetrated on the people of Kashmir. Several international agencies and UN have reported human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir. The unending nightmare had started when the British Raj sold Kashmir to Gulab singh. According to Article 1 of the Treaty of Amritsar, Gulab Singh acquired all the hilly or mountainous country with its dependencies situated to the eastward of the River Indus and the westward of the River Ravi. 

The British also undertook the responsibility of protecting the princely state from external aggression. Gulab Singh Dogra was a one-time cavalryman of the Dogra army, and had become Raja of Jammu principality through a grant from Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Indeed, the British were responsible for the unending cycle of slavery, violence and death and destruction by the Dogra Raj that followed the Treaty of Amritsar. Once again in August 1947 at the time of partition of the sub-continent in 1947, the British played ignominious role by facilitating India to occupy Jammu and Kashmir. United Nations Security Council had passed a resolution on 5th January 1949 that gave Kashmiris right of self-determination. As a result of the apathy shown by international community, the above resolution could not be implemented. No other nation perhaps has gone through such a long ordeal and sufferings in the history, and Kashmiris’ unending nightmare continues. 

In 1989, Kashmiri youth started armed struggle against atrocities and killings and ruthless exploitation by India’s military, and since then about 90000 Kashmiris have been martyred. After BJP won the 2014 elections and Narendra Modi became prime minister, he crafted a plan to get sizeable number of seats in state elections of Indian Occupied Kashmir. He managed to secure about two dozen seats from Hindu majority areas of Jammu, and also due to boycott by the Hurriyat Conference. Coalition government of BJP and PDP in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) was aimed at robbing the mandate of the Kashmiri people who had reposed confidence in PDP. However, the PDP betrayed its voters by forming coalition government with BJP, compromising on main issues such as article 370, AFSPA, trifurcation of the region, rehabilitation of Pandits and refugees’ issue.

Unfortunately, due to international community’s apathy to the sufferings of the people of Kashmir, UNSC resolution has not been implemented for the last 65 years. In case of East Timor and Southern Sudan, UN resolutions were passed and implemented within months and new countries were carved out of Indonesia and Sudan. It has to be mentioned that in none of the above cases there was a UN mandate, whereas Kashmiris have been given their inalienable right of self-determination through the UNSC resolution. Yet, Indian soldiers continue to arrest innocent Kashmiris, keep them in extra-judicial custody and kill them in fake encounters so as to earn rewards or out-of-turn promotions. International community and the UN should pressurize India into implementing the UNSC resolution allowing the people of Kashmir to join Pakistan or India through plebiscite to be held under the aegis of the UN.