- Most Kashmiri blood shed since 2008
The continuing 70-year old Kashmiri nightmare under the shadow of 500,000 Indian guns resulted in martyrdom of reportedly 22 freedom fighters and civilians over the past week and left nearly two dozen protestors injured by police and paramilitary forces using tear gas, pellets and live ammunition. Employing excessive force against Kashmiri civilians has become the hallmark of Indian security forces in Occupied Kashmir, and by one estimate resulted in 528 deaths this year so far, the highest since 2008 when the fatality toll was 505. A UN Human Rights report released in June 2018 finally highlighted universally known Indian atrocities in Kashmir, and denounced the ‘chronic impunity’ and ‘virtual immunity’ with which Indian troops violated human rights. But the Kashmiri people refuse to be cowed down.
Indian leaders have tried every trick to distract global investigative gaze from the heartrending situation in Jammu and Kashmir. They have variously blamed Pakistan, terrorism, threatened to revoke Article 370 and Kashmir’s autonomous status, abolish Article 35A regarding ‘permanent residents’, change the state’s demography, dissolve the J and K Assembly (like last Wednesday), arrested Hurriyet leadership, all in a vain attempt at self-denial.
But there is now a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon. The historic opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, an event widely welcomed on both sides of the border, including by PM Modi, has also brought to the fore a potential Kashmir mediator in the shape of former Norway prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, now head of the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, who is firmly committed to the cause of Kashmiri people and peaceful resolution of the long standing dispute. As Norwegian PM he was architect of the Sri-Lanka –LTTE peace accord in 2005. He has been shuttling between India and Pakistan last week, and despite New Delhi’s past outright rejection of ‘third party mediation’, was surprisingly or intriguingly allowed to meet the top three Hurriyet leaders in Srinagar last Friday. This is a welcome development which can eventually lead to gradual progress and provide much-needed immediate normalcy and relief to the suffering Kashmiri people. But the UN too must play its rightful role for the sake of suffering humanity and regional peace.
