Kashmir: What Next?

By Sohail Parwaz

It was back in October 2003 when a young Palestinian girl, Hinadi, did not go to college, in the morning. However, in the evening, she left her home with a bag in her hand. After three hours, people heard about an explosion in an Israeli hotel in the town where more than a dozen Israelis, including some soldiers, were killed, nevertheless, next day Hinadi’s video revealed that she paid her life as a price for that action. Whenever I recollect Hinadi of Palestine, the names of Master Muhammad Afzal of Al-Mustafa Liberation Tigers, Nazir Ahmed Lone and many other Kashmiri mujahidin also who went towards the Indian torture cells on their feet but only few of them could reappear, crippled and without their limbs, come to my mind.

Pakistan that the freedom-lovers had kept alive in their dreams, sadly, we have not been able to take care of that Pakistan. A naive adolescent, Waqas, also dreamt of an independent Kashmir. Unfortunately no one knows who was this Waqas? What to talk of our youngsters, many of our elders do not know about him. In his early teens he was one of those who sacrificed their today for Pakistan’s tomorrow but not known to us anymore. You may like to know about Waqas? He was that spirited and motivated boy who raised the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad!’ when a lofty six was hit by some Pakistani player against an Indian pacer. He was apprehended right away. When he was being dragged away to some unknown destination, hundreds of people heard him cry, “Mother! Please save me. They will kill me”, but no one could do anything. Unfortunately, his corpse left by his helpless mother.

There is a book, Raiders in Kashmir, written by Major General (Retd) Akbar Khan, whose name I am sure, would be as ‘familiar’ to our young generation as Waqas’. In chapter seventeenth of this book, General Akbar has made some startling predictions. For example, about the UN’s role vis-à-vis the Kashmir issue, he writes, “Some months after the ceasefire I wrote a paper under the title, “What next in Kashmir”. The paper is in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case documents since General Akbar’s name was also involved in that case. The purpose of this paper was to show that since in the ceasefire agreement nothing existed to compel India to hold a plebiscite, it would, in fact, not do so and meanwhile delay and times would favour India, not us. The reason that was being advanced in the higher circles was that we needed time to increase our military strength before we could settle the problem of Kashmir. But it was clear to the simplest of minds that during that time India could strengthen herself many times more.

Following to the submission of this paper General Akbar had a detailed meeting with Liaquat Ali Khan, the then prime minister. Months passed and nothing happened. Not that the prime minister was not sincere to the cause, a number of intermediaries like the Inspector General police Qurban Ali Khan played a negative role, who stopped the scheme of local production of small weapons. About a year later, General Akbar wrote yet another paper under the title “Keep the pot boiling in Abdullah’s Kashmir” (This too is kept in the record), where he suggested that, “as we could no longer violate ceasefire in the presence of UN observers, the right course of action for us was to help the people of the occupied Kashmir to strengthen and accelerate their own internal freedom movement against the Indian occupation”. On this too, no action was taken and those in authority seemed satisfied merely repeating their requests to the UN in the matter.”

I do not know when Palestine and Kashmir would be unshackled since the most important thing for the success of such freedom movements lies in the unity of the nations. Here, the ruthless disruption of Muslim unity is the ill-fortune. The misfortune of the Kashmiris is that they are the flag bearers of a Muslim freedom movement so we should be rest assured that they will always be interrupted and ignored. Well, if they had even a faintest resemblance with the issue of the East Timor, an area with the Christian in majority, then the sole super power of the world would have ensured their freedom a long time back.

Few years back, in one of the talk shows of a channel, the Kashmir policy vis-à-vis the future government was also talked about. All the participants, except one, and the host were of the opinion that the freedom of Kashmir is very crucial for Pakistan’s existence. To support the point, the Quaid’s saying, “Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular’s vein”, was quoted. The only odd man out in the talk show was one Pervez Hoodbhoy who is well-known for his bitterness and ‘different’ views. The idiot was of the view that Pakistan should take care of its internal affairs instead of carrying around the Kashmir freedom flag. He summed up his argument by saying, “… and that’s it”. The irony is that such a person is allowed to pollute the innocent minds of the future of Pakistan in the academia and yet we yell at the top of our voice that we support the Kashmiris.

It’s a hard fact that people are very well aware of the felonies for which they are being punished, whether they plead guilty or not, while the ill-fated majority does not comprehend the crimes for which they were served with rigorous life imprisonment. Unfortunately my brethren from the bleeding Chinars and the flaming valley belong to the latter category while a prosecuted inhuman criminal, an Indian spy Kashmir Singh who was released on ‘humanitarian grounds’ belonged to the former group.

I have just one simple question to ask that why the civilised nations of the world do not care for the bleeding wounds of the Valley. Why the champions of human rights, friends to the oppressed nations and intellectuals do not raise their voices that, “if just one person named Kashmir Singh could be set free, why couldn’t Kashmir the name of millions also be allowed to breathe freedom”?

Will someone clear the confusion?