Kashmir- A broken limb of Pakistan or an added burden?
Rigged elections, dismissal of elected government, the arrest of popular leaders, the choking of dissenting voices through harsh laws and unlawful detention of political prisoners, our silence on the most brutal humanitarian crisis is deafening.
How ironic it is that India- the second largest democracy, goes out of the way to ensure that the rights of all are protected and celebrated yet India seems to have turned a blind eye towards massive human rights violations in Kashmir.
Indian security forces have been accused of using excessive force causing unlawful killings and high number of injuries, the report says. Human Rights Watch has acknowledged and held Indian security forces responsible for killing more than 30 people and injuring hundreds. The world is finally awakening to the suffocating justice in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The name “Pellet Guns” can make them sound like toys but real injuries have been caused by their use, victims include women and children as young as two years old. The long delayed referendum to liberate Kashmir from India would have saved us from witnessing the loss of thousands of innocent people.
While it is easy to blame India for carrying out humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, how sincere has Pakistan been to Kashmir? After partition in 1947 while the question of the future of Kashmir was still hanging in the air, Pakistan had taken full advantage of Kashmir’s dependence on Pakistan. The principal routes for supply of food and fuel to Kashmir were from Pakistan, from the very beginning it had started squeezing Kashmir, starving it of essential supplies yet keeping enough going to make people realize how critically dependent they were on Pakistan.
It was the will of Kashmiri’s that drove tribesmen of Afridi and Mehsud along with Pakistani soldiers to Kashmir on 22nd October with the intent to conquer the entire state. They were seemingly oblivious to the fact that the traditional men would first have their fun before plastering the broken limb of Pakistan. Loot, rape and pillage of Kashmiri population occupied the tribesmen who derailed from their main objective. Since then the traits of large scale violence and abduction of women for sale had become a second nature of the occupiers of Kashmir.
The atrocities of India in Kashmir are rigorously highlighted in the international media, is Pakistan ever blamed for pioneering the prevailing violence?
History has it that the accession of Kashmir to India was signed by Maharaja before Indian troops set foot in the territory of Kashmir in 1947. When letter of accession serves as a litmus test for Kashmir to be a part of India, why did the need for conducting a plebiscite arise? Was it Pakistan’s ego and aggression or India’s ill planning that led to UN interfering and announcing a plebiscite? Has Pakistan’s hunger for power over taken its sense of humanity that it carried out the 1947 war and still holds claim over Kashmir that for so many years has been a part of India?
The only way regional peace will be ensured is if the decades long rivalry between India and Pakistan eradicated. And one outstanding issue between the two is the dispute of Kashmir.
The lust for land seems to have blinded Pakistan. The increasing defense budget, unflinching rivalry with India and bearer of allegations of terrorist attacks in Kashmir, Pakistan is suffering more than it would gain from Kashmir if were to become part of Pakistan one day. There’s no denying that the cumulative water crisis in Pakistan could be resolved through plenty of water resources in Kashmir, however the question the authorities need to ask themselves is do the merits outweigh the demerits?
