N.P. Upadhyaya

Now let’s look into the region wherein overly stretched Kashmir issue is being taken up by Pakistan and the Kashmiris in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
February 5 each year Pakistan and the peace-loving people of the world express their solidarity with the people of Kashmir who are being tortured and humiliated by the Indian security forces in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Pakistan has all along been exhibiting its solidarity with the people of Kashmir and has been urging the International community, the UN included, to impress upon the repressive Indian regime to heed to the peaceful demands of the people living in and around Kashmir.
Towards this end, this time Pakistan preferred to speak on the plight of the Kashmiri people by being in the UK so that the World Community listens to the plight of the Kashmiri citizens.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday that humanity is bleeding in the India-held Kashmir as not a single action was taken against the people involved in the state-sponsored murders, torture and rape.
Speaking at the International Kashmir Conference held in the UK, the foreign minister said that it’s encouraging to note the huge support for Kashmir cause in the United Kingdom (UK) by all parties’ parliamentary group.
“Worst human rights abuses being perpetrated by India just because Kashmiris want right of self-determination, we are here to express support to Kashmiris and all those who love freedom against Indian oppression,” he said.
FM Qureshi said that humanity is bleeding in Kashmir, people are distressed, and life is extremely difficult with each passing day. “Rape, murder, killings, and grievous injuries are daily occurrences,” he stated.
In yet strong step taken by Pakistan on Kashmir has come to the fore which says, among others, “senior officials at the foreign ministry have told The Nation, a Pakistani daily newspaper, that Pakistan had sought help from the influential Permanent-Five security council members such as China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – to resolve the decades long old Kashmir issue with India. “China is already with us. Russia is ready to listen and play a role. Others are being convinced,” said one Pakistani official report several news agencies of Pakistan.
The anonymous Pakistani foreign ministry official said that the US has accepted Kashmir as an issue but was reluctant to play any significant role to resolve the dispute between Pakistan and India.
Another official said Pakistan would also contact countries other than the P-5 to pressurize India. “Even moral help will be beneficial for Pakistan,” he added.
According to local human rights activists and doctors of various hospitals in Indian Held Kashmir, as compiled by some interested news agencies, more than 2000 Kashmiris of various age groups have been blinded by Indian security forces in last few years. This is a known figure of blinded persons in Indian Held Kashmir, otherwise, there are many more living in remote areas, who have been blinded and paralyzed by Indian forces. The worst part of this campaign is that, there is no let-up in this brutal Indian campaign of blinding and paralyzing the Kashmiris in occupied areas of the state. Though, the blinding of Kashmiris through pellet-guns was exposed after the brutal killing of Burhan Wani, the 22 years old, Kashmiri social media activist, the fact is that, Indian security forces have been undertaking this inhuman exercise for the past many years.
In November 2016, to recall, ‘The Guardian’ a prestigious British Newspaper, exposed Indian campaign of blinding the Kashmiris in an article, entitled, “India’s crackdown in Kashmir: is this the world’s first mass blinding?” The article recorded some of the incidents from July 2016 to November 2016. These four months have been described by the newspaper as the bloodiest in the recent history of Kashmir. In those few months, the peaceful Kashmir protestors ‘met with a ruthless response from Indian security forces, who fired millions of metal pellets into crowds of civilians, leaving hundreds as blinded or paralyzed.’
According to this unbiased newspaper, from July to November 2016, Indian security forces have wounded more than 17,000 adults and children have been injured. Besides, 5000 Kashmiris were arrested and tortured some of them are still languishing in jails. The worst part of this entire campaign was that, the people of occupied Kashmir “spent the summer under the longest curfew in the history of curfews in Kashmir.” This practice of curfew, blinding the youth, arrest, torture and killing by brutal Indian forces is continuing unabated in IHK. This world’s mass blinding military campaign in occupied Kashmir was seriously resented at the international level. The American and European media highly criticized this blinding and paralyzing campaign of Indian security forces. But yet the Indian cruelty against the Kashmiris continues unabated. The killings continues yet.
To recall, the 1948 United Nation’s Resolution clearly states that accession of Jammu and Kashmir will be decided through plebiscite, a resolution made then by the UN that had been well accepted by the Indian PM JN Nehru, however, India has remained consistent with use of force to dictate its unlawful occupation. As the Kashmir solidarity day approaches, February 5, 2019, the Kashmiris are again hopeful that international community will consider the sacrifices they have made, the carnage they survived, the bloodshed they suffered and pressurize India to discontinue its human rights violation in Kashmir along with its decades’ long illegal occupation. With every passing day, the bloodshed of the Kashmiris by the hands of Indian forces makes the Kashmiri people more determined and resolute to attain their long-standing right of freedom from Indian forces. India deceptively projects itself as the world largest democracy, on the contrary, such proclamation seems absurd when the same country disregards the international laws, continues its illegal occupation over Jammu and Kashmir and subjugates its minorities.
The South Asian region has remained politically unstable due to the Kashmir issue. Nepal being a bonafide country of this region believes that South Asian security very much depends on how the Kashmir issue gets resolved once and for all. For the time being, Nepal believes that a strong and nuclear Pakistan is a much needed political deterrent for this part of the world. Nepal urges all powerful countries to sort out the Kashmir issue that satisfies the aspirations of the Kashmiris who have been forced to live under the continued terror being unleashed by the Indian security forces. Nepal wants a stable and terror free and a dignified South Asia.
Not only are the Kashmiris, the Sikhs also working hard to have their own Home land. SIKHS’ demand for separate homeland dated back to the partition of India, when Sikhs had tried to convince the British Raj that Sikhs were a separate entity from Hindus and Muslims, and should have a separate state. In the first and second world wars, Sikhs had participated in large numbers and played a prominent role while fighting on the side of allied forces. Colonel FT Bird Wood OBE in his book titled ‘The Sikh Regiment in the Second World War’ published in Great Britain by Jarrold and Sons Ltd., Norwich, (Foreword by General Sir Frank Messervy) wrote: “In the last two world wars 83,005 turban wearing Sikh soldiers were killed and 109,045 were wounded. They all died or were wounded for the freedom of Britain and the world, and during shell fire, with no other protection but the turban, the symbol of their faith.” That’s all.

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