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Pakistan appears to have taken a back seat when it comes to actively pursuing policies that support insurgency in the region. However, India on the other hand, has introduced the narrative of “Pakistan’s supports militancy” as a major pretext that not only justifies its brutal policies but also maligns and discredits Pakistan on the international level
Indian occupied Kashmir continues to make headlines but for the all wrong reasons. The aggravating violence, killings and bloodshed due to New Dehli’s relentless use of military force in the region has underlined two important aspects which are essential to the decade’s long insurgency in the valley. First, New Dehli’s approach of relying on naked military force to subdue the voices of the Kashmiri people is an obsolete and failed approach when it comes to securing peace in the region. Second, the continued use of force and carnage is only going to strengthen the indigenous voices that are intent on taking arms against India.
Another aspect that is directly linked with the Kashmir insurgency and upon which India bases its treacherous policies to justify its militaristic actions, is the use of the “terrorism narrative” that New Dehli believes emanates from across the Line of Control (LoC). While on Pakistan’s part, the state in the past has followed approaches that encouraged the use of non state actors in the Indian occupied Kashmir, from last few years, Pakistan appears to have taken a back seat when it comes to actively pursuing policies that support insurgency in the region. However, India on the other hand, has introduced the narrative of “Pakistan’s supports militancy” as a major pretext that not only justifies its brutal policies but also maligns and discredits Pakistan on the international level.
While the world has started to see through India’s approach of crushing legitimate Kashmiri voices and demands, it is unlikely that the former can sustain its heavy handed approach on the basis of some blurred and nonexistent external intervention. The level of violence that the valley has witnessed and resistance that India has gone through highlights the deepening local struggle which is only going to widen in the coming months and years. The death of Burhan Wani more than a year ago and the killing of his successor about few weeks ago, was seen by the region’s people as the death of two leaders which fought for Kashmiri’s rights rather than some insurgents that were implementing someone else’s agenda.
However, it’s unfortunate that while the international community has noticed India’s human rights violations in Kashmir, not a single major country, either from the Muslim world or from the West, has criticised or questioned New Dehli’s inhuman polices that have only resulted in deaths and carnage of innocent civilians. About two weeks ago, the United States President, Donald J. Trump, during a speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia not only overlooked Kashmir issue but declared India a “victim of terrorism” itself. What is more regrettable is that not a single major Muslim state highlighted Kashmiri’s struggle and suffering during the Muslim leaders summit which shows that all states, regardless of their ideological or political milieu, only focus on securing bilateral partnerships, to fulfill their self-centered interests.
Diplomatic efforts and conciliatory approach that fall beyond the use of military force and take into account the legitimate concerns of the region’s people and neighbouring states are central to any resolution of the Kashmir crisis
For New Dehli, as far as the crisis in Kashmir is concerned, the international arena is not going to be a concern, for the rapidly polarising global politics – Trump in America; Brexit in Britain; and the Middle Eastern security situation – have provoked far grave concerns that have implications on the global scale.
Nevertheless, however unfortunate it may appear, if the crisis in Kashmir continued to exacerbate, the insurgency can breed beyond the region’s borders. The new wave of demonstrations and protests which began a few weeks ago has clearly brought into its fold new sections of the Kashmiri society. Previously, protests were only limited to either smaller towns or intermittent campaigns in cities. Now, however, the demonstrations have expanded into an organised agitation, led by students and young population of the valley. Its first time that even young women population of the region have also come out to resist the chaotic and heavy handed policies of the Indian government. This situation clearly demonstrates that if the region’s young generation is willing to come out to protest and resist an armed enemy, the insurgency, which New Dehli claims to have contained, is not going away any time soon. Rather, the new phase of the insurgency, unlike previous agitations, is a challenge that Indian government appears to be losing.
Pakistan, which is a direct stakeholder in the conflict, is not going to withdraw its support for the Kashmiri people. While India may project any such support as part of Pakistan’s assistance to insurgent groups in the region, it’s unforeseeable that Islamabad will scale down its intervention or support for the Kashmiri people unless India is ready to accept Kashmir as a problem that is not its internal issue; rather, a bilateral dispute that requires sincere attention both countries.
Diplomatic efforts and conciliatory approach that fall beyond the use of military force and take into account the legitimate concerns of the region’s people and neighbouring states are central to any resolution of the Kashmir crisis.