By: Aasef Chauhdry
At
times I feel disappointed to see the attitude of those ignorant Pakistanis who
are desperate to have cordial and warm relations with a cunning neighbour like
India, amidst the latter’s dual character, atrocities in Kashmir and the brutal
killings of the Muslims and other minorities of India. One fails to understand
that how could one ever think of having friendly relations with a neighbour who
has never admitted your existence ever since the independence?
The history of Kashmir is full of bloody accounts of
killings, tortures and rapes of the innocent Muslims at the hands of the brutal
Indian forces and the corneas of Maharaja Hari Singh. How can one forget the
ruthless and heinous killing of over 2.5 lakh Kashmiri Muslim immigrants on 6
November 1947 in Jammu and surroundings? During the partition of the
Sub-continent, the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which
comprised Muslim majority decided to join Pakistan according to the British-led
formula, however, Dogra Raja Hari Singh, a Hindu who was ruling over the
J&K, in connivance with the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and
Governor General Lord Mountbatten, treacherously joined India.
The
design to wrest Kashmir under duress began to open out on August 16, 1947, with
the announcement of the Radcliffe
Boundary Award which gave away the Gurdaspur District; a majority Muslim area
to India to provide a land route to the Indian armed forces to move into
Kashmir. There was a rebellion in the state forces, which revolted against the
Maharaja and were joined by the tribesmen from the NWFP (now Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa). Lord Mountbatten ordered armed forces to land in Srinagar. When
Pakistan responded militarily against the Indian aggression, on December 31,
1947, India made an appeal to the UN Security Council to intervene and a
ceasefire ultimately came into effect on January 01, 1949, following UN
resolutions calling for a plebiscite in Kashmir to enable the people of Jammu
and Kashmir to determine whether they wish to join Pakistan or India. On
February 5, 1964, India backed out of its promise of holding plebiscite.
Instead, in March 1965, the Indian Parliament passed a bill, declaring Kashmir
a province of India-an integral part of the Indian union.
As
part of pre-planned plot, on November 5, 1947, announcements were made
everywhere in Jammu, asking Muslims to assemble in police lines where from they
would be sent to Pakistan. On November 6, Jammu Muslims including men women and
children were seemingly dispatched towards Pakistan in trucks, nevertheless,
before they could reach the destination, Indian army, forces of Maharaja and
Hindu Mahasabai goons and extremists at Samba Reasi and other places martyred
them in gruesome manner. Thus, over 2.50 lakh Muslim inmates of Jammu city and
adjoining areas were killed through a mass murder plan which could be termed as
the holocaust of the subcontinent. As it was expected, the huge deaths had
stunned the world and the ‘Time” magazine, in its November 47 publication also
pointed out the figure of 2, 50,000 deaths of Jammu people.
was not one occasion. In fact the Indians
have a black track record of killings the innocent Kashmiris, before and after
6 November 1947, in the burning valley. According to a report on human rights
violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, since 1989, there have been deaths
of 1,00000 innocent Kashmiris, 7,023 custodial killings, 1,22,771 arrests,
1,05,996 destruction of houses or buildings, 22,776 women widowed, 1,07,466
children orphaned and 10,086 women gang-raped/molested. Besides Human Rights
Watch, in its various reports, Amnesty International has also pointed out grave
human rights violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir, indicating, “The
Muslim majority population in the Kashmir Valley suffers from the repressive
tactics of the security In its report on
July 2, 2015, the Amnesty International has highlighted extrajudicial killings
of the innocent persons at the hands of Indian security forces in the Indian
Held Kashmir. The report points out, “Tens of thousands of security forces are
deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir…the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
allows troops to shoot to kill suspected militants or arrest them without a
warrant…not a single member of the armed forces has been tried in a civilian
court for violating human rights in Kashmir…this lack of accountability has in
turn facilitated other serious abuses…India has martyred one 100,000 people.
More than 8,000 disappeared (while) in the custody of army and state police.”
In this respect, European Union has passed a resolution about human rights
abuses committed by Indian forces in the Indian held Kashmir. It is of
particular attention that in 2008, a rights group reported unmarked graves in
55 villages across the northern regions of the Indian-held Kashmir. Then
researchers and other groups reported finding thousands of mass graves without
markers. In this respect, in August, 2011, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human
Rights Commission officially acknowledged in its report that innocent civilians
killed in the two-decade conflict have been buried in unmarked Notably, foreign
sources and human rights organisations have revealed that unnamed graves
include those innocent persons, killed by the Indian military and paramilitary
troops in the fake encounters including those who were tortured to death by the
Indian secret agency RAW. Indian authorities are not willing to talk with
Kashmiri people on political grounds. New Delhi reached to a conclusion that
only bullet is the right way of dealing with Kashmiris, demanding their right
of self-determination.
Nonetheless,
6th of November is commemorated by the Kashmiris and Pakistanis as the Jammu
Martyrs Day; another gloomy day to remember the supreme sacrifices of lives,
laid down by 2,50,000 people of Jammu, who were ruthlessly massacred by the
Hindu extremists, Indian forces and the Dogra military troops on November 6,
1947. No doubt that the people of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir display solidarity
with the Kashmiri brethren in Pakistan, AJ7K and elsewhere in the world.
Special ceremonies including seminars and symposiums are held in the small and major
towns of AJK to pay glorious tributes to the Jammu martyrs. Besides that the
Jammu Martyrs Day is also observed at both sides of line of control in Jammu
and Kashmir like the rest of the world every year to commemorate the supreme
sacrifices, however there are two main issues which keep disturbing the
concerned minds; for how long the Kashmiris will remain the children of a
lesser god and secondly when will the conscience of those ignorant people will
wake up who, in the middle of this endless killing are showing a lost sleep to
have friendly relations with “Killer India”?.
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